NHAI raises over ₹16,000 crore in InvIT monetisation round 3

The infrastructure investment trust of National Highways Authority of India, NHIT, has garnered more than ₹16,000 crore in the third round of monetisation of InvIT. This is the highest monetisation of road assets by NHAI.

The National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT) completed the fundraising through InvIt round 3 for 889 km of national highway stretches.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that letters of acceptance (LoA) were issued in February.

The fundraising of more than ₹16,000 crore was also one of the largest transactions in the history of Indian roads, NHAI said.

NHIT raised unit capital of ₹7,272 crore from domestic and international investors and debt of ₹ 9,000 crore from Indian lenders in the third round of monetisation.

Investors subscribed units at a cut-off price of ₹124.14 per unit, which was at a premium of the current NAV of ₹122.86 per unit. The issue was through a book-build process.

The base concession fee of ₹15,625 crore and additional concessional fees of ₹ 75 crore would be utilised to finance the acquisition of National Highway stretches.

Foreign investors who booked the units include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The two investors, also existing unit holders, subscribed to the upper limit of 25%.

Among domestic investors, pension and provident funds, mutual funds and insurance companies subscribed to the units in the round 3. Pension funds included IOCL Employees PF, L&T Staff PF, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Karamchari Pension Fund and SBI Pension.

Also insurance companies like Tata AIG, SBI Life, HDFC Life and mutual funds like SBI, Nippon India and banks and few others were among investors.

NHAI also subscribed to its share of 15% of the units at the same price.

After the third round of InvIT, NHIT has garnered a total of ₹ 26,125 crore in the three rounds of monetisation. NHIT holds a portfolio of 15 operating toll roads with a total length of 1,525 km in nine states of Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The concession periods range between 20 to 30 years.

NHIT sponsored by National Highways Authority of India was set up in 2021 to support India’s National Monetisation Pipeline.

NHIT unit hit a 52-week high of ₹125 per unit, up by 5.49% on Tuesday on BSE.