IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd (IRB Infrastructure), one of the country’s largest road developers, said it is in talks with long-term foreign investors, including pension funds, for bidding for toll-operate-transfer (TOT) projects that the government is expecting to tender.
“For TOT, we are open to partner with large players internationally. We are in talks with a few foreign companies and foreign funds and depending on the meeting of minds, alignment of interest and successful culmination of talks, we will bid with partners,” said Virendra D Mhaiskar, Chairman and Managing Director, IRB Infrastructure.
“From a stand point of investing equity in the TOT projects, we certainly have a decent foundation in place. If we also decide to bid with a partner, it will raise our ability to look at more than one package,” he added.
Under the TOT route, toll highways operated by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for over two years will be leased out to entities, which will collect the toll and operate the project for a specified duration, in return for a fee. The money raised can be used by the NHAI to invest in new highway projects.
Earlier this year, IRB Infrastructure emerged as the first road developer to list its infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) on exchanges. Post the InvIT’s IPO, the company’s debt equity ratio has reduced from 2.1:1 to 1.7:1, taking the company to net cash position with ₹3,000 crore on its books and allowing it to bid for new projects, including those under TOT and hybrid annuity model (HAM).
Commenting on the company’s performance during the in the second quarter of the current fiscal, Mhaiskar said IRB had tied up ₹1,461 crore project finance for Udaipur-Gujarat Border Project, started tolling on two new projects and had successfully transferred Pathankot Amritsar project to IRB InvIT launched earlier this year.
“We are out of GST-led slowdown in traffic and, since September, have been witnessing promising growth across projects. We have entered second half with lot more gusto and look forward to large opportunities unfolding with latest government initiatives,” he added.
In the second quarter ended September 30, IRB Infrastructure has registered 65 per cent jump in the net profit at ₹234.7 crore against ₹142.2 crore in the same period last year. However, the revenue fell to ₹1,122 crore during the second quarter against ₹1,290 crore last year.