Union Cabinet Approves ₹15,000 crore FDI In Prem Watsa's Indian Entity Dedicated To Fund Infrastructure Investments In NMP Aligned Areas

A day after unveiling an ambitious ₹6 trillion infrastructure asset monetization programme (NMP) , the Union government on Tuesday (Aug 25) approved a foreign direct investment (FDI) proposal of upto ₹15,000 crore in Anchorage Infrastructure Investment Holding Ltd, local arm of Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, in India infrastructure projects.

The investment also includes transfer of shares of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) to Anchorage, and investment of Rs 950 crore in the investment arm of Prem Watsa-owned Fairfax India by Ontario Inc. Ontario Inc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of OAC, which is the administrator of one of the Canada's largest defined pension plans OMER. Omers Infrastructure, an investment holding company, invests globally in infrastructure assets on behalf of OMER.

Anchorage Infrastructure Investment Holding is an India-specific entity floated for the purpose of investment in infrastructure, transport, logistics, airport and aviation related businesses. Fairfax has already began consolidating all its India infrastructure investments under Anchorage

Fairfax India currently holds 54% stake in BIAL, which runs the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. Other investors including Siemens Projects Ventures, Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corp. Ltd and Airports Authority of India hold the remaining 46%.

The union ministry of finance said that the investment will also be a significant boost to the recently announced National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), as it will help fund leasing out of state-owned infrastructure assets which involves handling assets like roads, railways, airports, sports stadiums, power transmission lines and gas pipelines to private operators.

Anchorage Infrastructure Investment Holding Ltd. is proposing to make downstream investment in some of the sector covered under the NMP. the government added.

Earlier this year, Fairfax Financial Holdings Chairman Prem Watsa had said preparatory work is on list Anchorage on the Indian stock exchanges

Anchorage Infrastructure Investments Holdings Limited (Anchorage), has also reportedly applied on nine railway station re-development tenders for New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Gwalior, Nagpur, Tirupathi, among others.