Government sets up Rs 40,000 crore National Investment and Infrastructure fund, CEO likely by January-end
NEW DELHI: International pension funds and sovereign wealth funds from countries such as Russia, Singapore and the UAE have evinced interest in participating in India’s Rs 40,000-crore National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), the government has said, in what could bode well for the country’s infrastructure story.
“Several sovereign funds and pension funds from abroad are willing to participate in the fund and cooperate with NIIF at various levels,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters after the first meeting of NIIF’s Governing Council in Delhi on Tuesday.
The NIIF is meant to fund development of infrastructure projects, including reviving stalled ones. The government will invest Rs 20,000 crore into the NIIF from the Budget, with another Rs 20,000 crore expected to come from private investors. The government’s share of the NIIF’s corpus is envisaged to be under 50%.
Jaitley’s deputy and Junior Finance Minister Jayant Sinha said the NIIF, whose creation is among the major initiatives of the Narendra Modi administration to fix India’s infrastructure woes, would serve as an umbrella fund with several funds underneath it.
“NIIF would be a fund of funds. So there will be multiple alternate investment funds underneath… There could be a stressed-assets fund, renewable energy fund, brownfield projects fund…. (all) sponsored by the NIIF,” Sinha told ET.
Market regulator Sebi has already approved the setting up of the NIIF, which was approved by the Cabinet last July, as a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) on December 28, 2015.
The NIIF could provide equity support to stuck infrastructure projects, giving other foreign funds comfort to take them over. Large greenfield projects could also be taken up by the fund in various sectors.
Besides sponsoring funds, the NIIF could also invest directly in projects and Sinha noted that there was a full pipeline of greenfield, brownfield as well as stressed projects. A government official said some key transportation projects could be taken up initially by the NIIF for funding.
Read full article: Economic Times