A year after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV), National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) does not seem ready to bear any risks.
Hence, NHAI has decided to go ahead with its flagship Delhi-Mumbai expressway without assistance from NIIF, people aware of the development told The Economic Times.
One of the persons said that NIIF barely offered an equity of up to Rs 3,000 crore ($400 million) for the project as they did not want to take risk.
Also, payments startup Razorpay is in talks to raise up to $80 million (Rs 600 crore) in a round of funding co-led by existing investor Sequoia Capital India at a valuation of over $600 million, people aware of the development told The Economic Times.
The other investor to co-lead the round could be new as the Bengaluru-based startup is in talks to induct new investors from the US and Southeast Asia.
The round will see the company’s valuation surge over 50% from its Series C round raised last year.
Meanwhile, Warburg Pincus-backed Kalyan Jewellers has revived plans for a Rs 1,800 crore ($240 million) initial public offering (IPO) and is likely to file its prospectus by August-end or early September, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol.
The firm had mulled an IPO in 2017 but deferred those plans.
“Axis Capital, Citi, ICICI Securities and SBI Capital are the investment banks working on the IPO for Kalyan Jewellers. The listing will provide a partial exit to Warburg Pincus and will also facilitate debt reduction,” one of the persons said.
Gold prices have hit record highs in recent weeks due to a spike in demand for safe assets on the back of a weaker dollar and rising COVID-19 cases.
Also, the Shapoorji Pallonji group is seeking buyers for up to 350 megawatts (MW) of planned solar projects to deleverage the balance sheet and solve liquidity issues, two people aware of the development told Business Standard.
The group in April sold 317 MW of operational solar projects in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to private equity investor KKR for Rs 1,554 crore.
“They are in the market to sell these PPAs (power purchase agreements) which they won. These are contracts where project construction is yet to start or some minimal development has been undertaken. Given the group’s liquidity situation, they now do not want to invest equity in developing these projects," said one of persons.
“Canada’s Brookfield is one of the investors that has evinced interest in these PPAs as they are also exploring greenfield development of renewable projects. While Shapoorji wants to sell the ownership rights, they would like to retain the EPC contract to build these projects," said another.
