India’s first power transmission infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), India Grid Trust (IndiGrid), said that it has bought a 100% stake in a Haryana-based asset owned by Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd and Techno Electric and Engineering Co. Ltd for Rs 310 crore (about $40 million at current exchange rate).
The KKR and GIC-backed trust said that it has completed the acquisition of Jhajjar KT Transco Pvt. Ltd, an operational intra-state asset that consists of three 400 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines across 103 km in Haryana.
The latest acquisition marks the second deal between IndiGrid and Techno and the tenth since the InvIT listed on the stock exchanges in 2017. IndiGrid said that with this acquisition the InvIT now manages assets worth Rs 123 billion or $1.6 billion.
Earlier in August 2018, IndiGrid had acquired Patran Transmisison Co Ltd (PTCL) from Techno for Rs 232 crore.
In January this year, IndiGrid had announced the acquisition of a project for Rs 1,200 crore from its sponsor Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd. This was part of a planned acquisition of Rs 11,500 crore of assets from Sterlite Power.
Late last year, the trust had told VCCircle that of these, Rs 5,000 crore worth of assets had already been acquired.
IndiGrid said that its latest purchase has been operational for 8 years “with a robust collection track record and receivable cycle of less than a month”.
IndiGrid further said that the project “is a strategic asset for Haryana state distribution companies and the key evacuation transmission system from the 1,320 megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in Jhajjar”.
The trust chief executive Harsh Shah had told VCCircle late last year that he hoped the vehicle to have assets under management of up to Rs 18,000 crore in the next couple of years.
Sterlite Power Grid Ventures had created IndiGrid in 2016 to run its asset operations.
Last year, global alternatives giant KKR & Co. had announced that it was taking a 42% controlling stake in IndiGrid (along with an investment from Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC) and had acquired a 60% stake in the managing entity, Sterlite Investment Managers, which was to be upped to 74% in two years.
KKR has also applied to become the trust’s sponsor and wishes to buy the entire stake of IndiGrid’s current sponsor, Sterlite Power Grid Ventures.
