The Cabinet has approved an additional investment commitment of Rs 30,000 crore towards new and upcoming funds of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), taking the total government commitment to NIIF to Rs 60,000 crore.
The Cabinet nod last week for the additional investment commitment in NIIF will be used for setting up NIIF’s second infrastructure-focused fund, which shall be the successor to its first flagship fund with this mandate, the government said in a statement.
NIIF Infrastructure Fund II is proposed to have a target corpus of close to Rs 30,000 crore and is expected to undertake investments across transportation, energy, digital infrastructure, and emerging areas such as urban infrastructure and e-mobility. The allocation shall also support NIIF’s new fund strategies and successor bilateral and other strategic funds.
NIIF is India’s Sovereign Anchored Fund, professionally run and managed with Centre’s 49% shareholding. It currently manages capital commitments of approximately Rs 40,000 crore across its funds and investment strategies. NIIF has demonstrated a strong track record of capital deployment and realisations, having returned close to Rs 12,000 crore to investors through large portfolio exits.
NIIF has raised capital from marquee institutional investors, including Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds, Multilateral Development, and leading Domestic Financial Institutions.
These include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, AustralianSuper, CPP Investments, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, PSP Investments, Temasek, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, New Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Axis Bank, HDFC Group, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance and State Bank of India.
These investors span diverse geographies, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, reflecting strong international confidence in India’s growth trajectory and NIIF’s governance and commercial track record
NIIF’s four operational investment strategies — infrastructure, private markets, growth equity, and climate investments in the India-Japan business corridor — have achieved notable investment momentum.
Sanjiv Aggarwal, Managing Director & CEO of NIIF, said: “We are grateful for this allocation of `30,000 crore, which is a strong reaffirmation of government support to NIIF and reinforces the catalytic capital model that has defined NIIF since inception. Over the past decade, GoI’s anchor commitment has enabled us to build a very strong institutional investor base, spanning leading sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, multilateral and bilateral institutions, and domestic financial institutions. We have deployed capital across sectors of national importance and achieved significant exits across our strategies, delivering superior commercial returns. We look forward to raising our next vintage of funds and scaling our investment activity to support India’s growth story.”