IRB Infra’s board approves ₹2,500-cr fund-raise plan

Highways developer IRB Infrastructure on Sunday said that its board has approved fund raising of up to ₹2,500 crore.

The fund-raising is aimed at providing interim support for restarted operations and working capital requirement, in view of likely delays in compensations from authorities as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. The board has approved fund-raising through appropriate instruments, permitted under the applicable statute, in one or more tranches to the eligible investors, it said.

Virendra D Mhaiskar, Chairman & Managing Director, IRB Infrastructure Developers, said: “We plan to use these funds to meet payments to creditors, firmed up project expenses as well as the general corporate purposes, during the ongoing lockdown situation due to Covid-19.” He further said that in view of IRB’s track record, in-house capabilities, domain expertise and experience, it does not see any difficulty in raising money.

IRB recently closed a ₹4,400-crore deal with Singapore government-backed sovereign wealth fund GIC Affiliates, in which GIC will invest in IRB’s nine BOT (build-own-operate) assets under Private InvIT structure.

Also, SEBI has granted the Certificate of Registration to the trust, for which IRB is a sponsor, to carry out the activities as an InvIT, subject to the conditions specified in the SEBI Act, 1992.

Further, IRB said that it has resumed toll operations and construction activities across India in line with the guidelines issued by NHAI regarding Covid-19. IRB Infra’s SPVs (special purpose vehicles) collectively operate 50 toll plazas across India.