Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Temasek and AustralianSuper are among the investors backing the initial close of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund’s (NIIF) latest vehicle, which has secured over 60% of its INR30,000 crore (€2.7bn) target.
NIIF Infrastructure Fund II’s INR19,000 crore first close was anchored by the Indian government alongside domestic institutions, including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Life Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance, with additional support from existing investors in NIIF’s predecessor fund.
NIIF said it also expects to mobilise approximately INR9,000 crore in co-investment capital, alongside the fund.
Back in July, AustralianSuper disclosed it had more than doubled its exposure to India’s NIIF, injecting an additional A$500m (€303m) into an investment platform that the superannuation fund described as one of its top-performing infrastructure assets.
AustralianSuper first committed A$240m in 2019 to NIIF, which was established in 2015 to channel global institutional capital into Indian infrastructure developments.
NIIF’s first infrastructure fund raised INR16,000 crore and has invested across renewables, transmission, distribution, battery storage, roads, ports and logistics, airports, data centres and smart metering.
Sanjiv Aggarwal, managing director & CEO, NIIF, said: “Infrastructure Fund II reflects the continued confidence of our partners in India’s infrastructure opportunity and in NIIF’s ability to deploy long-term capital with discipline, sector expertise and strong governance.
“India’s infrastructure build-out is creating opportunities at scale, and NIIF is well positioned to connect global and domestic institutional capital with high-quality businesses. We are grateful to the Government of India, our anchor investor, and to our global and Indian partners for their continued trust.”
Vinod Giri, managing partner, infrastructure, NIIF, said: “Our second infrastructure fund builds on the strong performance and operating capabilities established through our first fund. We will continue to create infrastructure platforms at scale, take a hands-on approach to value creation and invest selectively across both established and emerging infrastructure sectors.
“With a strong pipeline already in place, we see significant opportunities to deploy capital where NIIF can bring sector expertise, operating capability and execution at scale.”
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