Multi-asset manager Alpha Alternatives, led by former Edelweiss executive Naresh Kothari, has marked the first close for its maiden infrastructure fund.
The asset manager expects to raise $500 million as the target corpus and an additional $250 million as green shoe option for the infrastructure investment vehicle, Alpha Alternatives Build India Infrastructure Fund.
According to Alpha Alternatives, the fund manager has mopped up about $450 million in capital from limited partners, or nearly 100% of its target corpus, to mark the first closing of the vehicle after it hit the market for fundraising in August this year.
The first close milestone allows the fund manager to start drawdowns and deploy capital in various projects.
The fund, a category-II alternative investment fund (AIF) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has a mandate to invest in road assets across India, including standard, distressed, under-construction, and operating projects.
For this fund, Alpha alternatives has onboarded listed infrastructure player Dilip Buildcon Ltd as a strategic partner which will undertake the operations and management of the road assets acquired by the AIF.
“This first fund of ours will focus on high quality road assets which are the backbone of our economic growth. By creating a unique framework through a strategic partnership, we aim to deliver better risk-adjusted returns offering a compelling new investment opportunity,” said Kothari, the founder and managing partner of Alpha Alternatives.
Along with infrastructure, the firm also has a real estate and private credit investment fund under its illiquid investment strategy, for which, it has raked in a cumulative $1.25 billion in the last 18 months, according to Kaushal Biyani, the partner and head of illiquid alternatives at Alpha.
For its credit strategy, the fund manager raked in about Rs 2,100 crore as of last year to invest in special situations, collateralised growth funding and operating equity. The fund secured capital commitment from large family offices and ultra-high net worth individuals, with an average commitment of about Rs 50 crore, the firm said at the time of the fund’s first close.
The asset management firm was founded in 2013 by Kothari, an IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus who has more than two decades of experience across investment banking, capital markets, asset management and proprietary investing. Its total assets under management across strategies are valued at about $2.5 billion.
The firm raised Rs 110 crore in its first round of equity capital from HNIs and family offices in August 2020. In late 2022, it mopped up Rs 130 crore (about $16 million) in a second round at a valuation of almost $200 million.
