Goldman Sachs-led consortium to invest $220 mn in Essel Highways
MUMBAI: A consortium of investors led by Goldman Sachs Inc has agreed to invest $220 million in Essel Highways, the road infrastructure holding company of Subhash Chandra-controlled Essel Group, through a structured debt transaction in one of the biggest fundraising exercises in the sector. Goldman, the lead investor, has already paid an initial $85 million, athird of the total, in exchange for debentures. Other financial institutions and investors will be investing the remaining portion after corporate milestones are achieved. The funds will be used to finance new projects and strategic acquisitions, the company said in a statement on Friday. ET reported on June 21 that Goldman was in advanced talks for a $200-250 million deal with Essel Group in its road subsidiary. With assets valued at nearly $2 billion, the company has a road development portfolio of 14 projects, 10 of which are operational, equalling over 4,400 lane km across six states. The firm has an order book of close to Rs 11,000 crore, its website showed. The group's infrastructure holding company, Essel Infrastructure, raised $132 million in March from Piramal Group and Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management for its solar power project platform. Investment momentum has increased in the road infrastructure space in past 12-18 months with many infrastructure-focussed investors looking at putting money into Indian assets, analysts said. Global institutional investors such as Goldman Sachs and sovereign and pension funds have been actively looking at cashgenerating infrastructure projects. "With infrastructure asset supply becoming scarce in western markets, there is a significant opportunity to...13-08-2016
