NIIF set to close first deal, likely to raise $5 to 10 bn

The ambitious National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which was set up in December 2015 to catalyse funding into the country's core sector has begun talks with sovereign wealth funds to become the first investors to come on board.

The proposed fund, which will have a combination of international as well as domestic investors, is going to be of 15 years and will be denominated in the rupees.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is learnt to have committed to invest in specific sectors, especially in transport. While a deal with Singpore's sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings could also be announced soon. According to the official, an agreement to the tune of $5-10 billion in this regard is likely to be signed. It is leanr that Temasek is likely to invest around 41 billion initially.

Apart from these, Canada based pension funds is also in talks with the government to invest Rs 4000 crore which will be mainly on road projects.

The NIIF was first set up with a corpus of Rs 40,000 crore over the years- 49 per cent of this amount to be funded by the government and the remaining to be raised from domestic and global investors, including international pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, among others.

In the last financial year, the NIIF received a total of Rs 15 crore from budgetary resources for meeting administrative expenses.

NIIF is registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI" as a Category II Alternate Investment Fund ("AIF") under the SEBI (Alternative Investments Funds) Regulations, 2012 ("AIF Regulations"). The fund has been set up as a fund of funds structure with an aim to generate risk adjusted returns for its investors alongside promoting infrastructure development and technology in the country by means of investments.

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