Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the Gulf emirate, has agreed to invest $1 billion (Rs 6,470 crore) in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund’s (NIIF) Master Fund.
ADIA will become the first institutional investor in NIIF’s Master Fund and a shareholder in National Investment and Infrastructure Ltd, the NIIF’s investment management company, according to a press release.
The Indian government had created NIIF to catalyse capital from international and domestic investors into energy, transportation, housing, water, waste management, and other infrastructure and allied sectors in India.
The government has committed around Rs 20,000 crore ($3 billion) for the fund, or about 49% of the total target corpus of Rs 40,000 crore. The corpus will be managed by NIIF Ltd through one or more funds to be set up in partnership with other partners.
Last year, the government appointed Sujay Bose as NIIF’s chief executive.
NIIF’s investment strategy includes a provision to anchor equity, quasi-equity and debt funds in partnership with investors targeting investments in the relevant sectors in India.
“We are confident that India’s strong and ongoing economic growth will fuel demand for key infrastructure,†said Khadem AlRemethi, executive director for real estate and infrastructure at ADIA.
The wealth fund will also pursue investments into Indian infrastructure opportunities that fall outside the scope of the NIIF, including taking minority stakes in Indian companies, he added.
ADIA has investments in equities, fixed income, real estate, and private equity. In infrastructure, ADIA subsidiaries own minority stakes in two renewable energy platforms companies in India, ReNew Power and Greenko.
In real estate, ADIA has made a $200 million investment in Kotak’s realty fund.
The fund has also come in as an anchor investor in some recent IPOs including those of Security and Intelligence Services (SIS) India Ltd and Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) and Tejas Networks.