Maple Highways, a devoted India street funding platform created by international funding group CDPQ, at the moment introduced it has accomplished the acquisition of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) that encircles the National Capital Region (NCR).
Valued at Rs. 6,267 crore, the acquisition of the Toll Operate Transfer (TOT) challenge from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is the biggest street transaction to happen as half of the Union Government’s Asset Monetization Programme this yr.
The 135-kilometer, six-lane categorical freeway has been in operation since 2018 and was designed to decongest Delhi of industrial site visitors, and runs via the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh down the japanese aspect of the NCR. All lighting and different utilities alongside the expressway are totally solar-powered.
Popularly often called National Expressway 2, EPE is India’s first Intelligent Transport System (ITS) enabled street. It is supplied with a drip irrigation system and rainwater harvesting buildings each 500 metres. It has a closed loop tolling system and 99% of its income is collected via digital tolling, utilizing the interoperable RFID tag, recognized to thousands and thousands of drivers as FASTag.
For CDPQ, the acquisition is a serious step ahead in constructing a scaled portfolio of strategically positioned, long-term revenue-generating street belongings in India. Earlier this yr, Maple Highways additionally accomplished the acquisition of the Shree Jagannath Expressway, a 67-kilometer toll street challenge from Bhubaneswar to Chandikhole, in Odisha, japanese India.
Indian highways symbolize a big and rising market alternative, with a sturdy pipeline that features the federal government’s ongoing street monetization programme, TOT, a hybrid annuity mannequin of toll roads geared toward accelerating public-private partnerships, in addition to Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) fashions.
In creating one of India’s first unbiased, devoted street Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvIT), CDPQ has additionally chosen to convey home capital alongside itself, drawing curiosity from main traders reminiscent of IIFL AMC and the household workplace of the Taparia household of Famy Care Group in an rising infrastructure asset class in India.
Emmanuel Jaclot, Executive Vice-President and Head of Infrastructure, CDPQ, mentioned: ”Quality highways make sure the Indian economy continues to maneuver and develop. Founded by CDPQ in 2021, Maple Highways combines street infrastructure experience and a dedication to ESG, and brings collectively belongings that provide long-term worth to our traders. As the reconfiguration of international provide chains accelerates and the quantity of items will increase in India, we sit up for additional growing our roads portfolio.” Anup Vikal, CEO, Maple Highways added: ”Maple Highways is a very differentiated platform, a comparatively new mannequin for investor-backed InvITs to personal, function and enhance India’s highways. As the brand new custodian of EPE, Maple Highways will search to construct on the expressway’s robust environmental credentials, whereas benefiting from CDPQ’s main expertise within the roads sector, together with industry-leading freeway administration expertise practises, and its sharp deal with ESG.” Maple Highways and CDPQ proceed to discover alternatives that provide long-term shareholder worth by sourcing mature toll street belongings with established site visitors, lengthy residual lives and steady money flows. CDPQ is the second-largest institutional investor in infrastructure globally, with web belongings of CAD 45 billion in its infrastructure portfolio, together with in India, which stays a strategically vital marketplace for CDPQ given the nation’s long-term progress potential and infrastructure wants.
About Maple Highways Maple Highways is an institutionally owned, professionally managed platform focussed on the roads sector in India, arrange and sponsored as an infrastructure funding belief (named Indian Highway Concession Trust (IHCT)). IHCT’s sponsor, funding supervisor and challenge supervisor are wholly owned subsidiaries of CDPQ, a worldwide funding group. The platform homes two belongings totalling 1200 lane kilometres. The platform is accredited because the first InvIT to bid for NHAI TOT belongings auctioned and win it. Maple Highways is pushed by a mission to create a long-term yield producing roads platform specializing in sustainability, operational excellence, and consumer expertise.
About CDPQ Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds of its depositors, primarily Québec’s public and para-public pension and insurance plans. CDPQ invests globally in main monetary markets, together with private and non-private fairness, fastened revenue, infrastructure and actual property. As of June 30, 2022, CDPQ held roughly CAD 391.6 billion in web belongings. CDPQ is rated investment-grade with a steady outlook by the credit standing companies, specifically AAA (DBRS), AAA (S&P), Aaa (Moody’s) and AAA (Fitch).
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