Khazanah Nasional join forces with Indian giants

Khazanah Nasional Bhd and IDFC Ltd’s joint venture unit in India, Uniquest Infra Ventures with SBI Macquarie, have emerged as potential investors in the Bangalore-based diversified conglomerate, GMR Group's road assets, said a report.

Uniquest Infra Ventures and SBI Macquarie are likely to pick up minority stakes either in road asset holding company, GMR Highways or special purpose vehicles for the road projects, The Economic Times reported quoting three people close to the transaction as saying.

IDFC is India’s leading integrated infrastructure finance player, providing end-to-end infrastructure financing and project implementation, while SBI Macquarie is a private equity style infrastructure fund.

The Bangalore-based group is talking to investors to invest up to Rs1,500 crores (RM841 million) in its road projects.

"Uniquest and SBI Macquarie are clearly frontrunners. GMR is talking to other investors as well," said the report quoting unnamed sources.

The deal is likely to be concluded in early December. GMR, SBI Macquarie and Uniquest Infra Ventures declined to comment, the report said.

A major proportion of the funds raised will be used to build the US$1.6 billion Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad Highway, which will link Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Uniquest has acquired a stake in Jetpur Somnath Tollways, which is implementing the four-lane highway, that will connect Jetpur and Somnath in Gujarat.

GMR Highways has six operating assets totalling 421KM, three assets totalling 309KM under development and was recently awarded the 555KM Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Kishangarh project.

GMR Holdings owns 71.49 per cent stake in GMR Infrastructure, which owns 100 per cent stake in GMR Highways Holding. GMR Infrastructure is in talks with investors to offload up to 74 per cent stake in its toll-based projects.

The road division contributes a 10th of the company's annual revenue. The airports-to-power conglomerate plans to sell stakes across businesses, including holding company GMR Infrastructure, to pare debt and bounce back to profitability.

"We certainly see a turnaround time in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, subject to business conditions," Chief Financial Officer Amarthaluru Subbarao had told the paper.