Ganga Expressway Project: Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC Affiliates To Invest Rs 1045 Crores Via IRB Infra SPV

IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, one of India's leading infrastructure player, announced on Wednesday (Oct 19) that said Singapore-based GIC Affiliates will be investing Rs 1,045 crore in the Ganga Expressway project.

IRB Infra also announced that it has raised equity capital of Rs 533.20 crores for the Ganga Expressway Project.

While Singapore based GIC Affiliates contributed Rs. 261.29 crores, IRB Infra contributed Rs. 271.90 crores. IRB Infra will hold 51% stake in the project while GIC Affiliate will hold 49%.

Ganga Expressway is an under-construction 594 km long, 6-lane wide (expandable to 8) greenfield expressway in the state of Uttar Pradesh. While Adani Group is executing packages 4 to 12, IRB infra will build, operate and transfer six-lane greenfield expressway corridor of 129.700 km expandable to eight-lanes between Meerut and Budaun in Uttar Pradesh. 

Meerut Budaun Expressway, an SPV and wholly-owned subsidiary of IRB Infrastructure Developers, is executing the package 1,2 and 3 of the Gangaway Expressway project. In June this year, the company achieved financial closure at Rs 6,538 crore. While the consortium of lenders has extended financial support of Rs 2,659 crores, IRB Infra and associates will infuse an equity of Rs 2,133 crores. The company will also received a Viable Gap Funding (VGF) from UPEIDA is Rs.1746 crores

IRB Infra will also act as the project manager for implementing the project for which it will be receiving entire flow of consideration towards EPC and O&M works, which will be in aggregate approximately Rs. 10,459 Crores (plus applicable taxes).

The project has concession period of 30 years with provision of traffic linked extension of six years including three years construction period. The company is set to start construction in full swing in next couple of months. 

According to a recent report by brokerage firm Ventura, IRB Infrastructure (IRB) is well poised to leverage the government's push on creating highway infrastructure due to its strong balance sheet and its association with the Spain-based Cintra in the build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode of highway building,

"IRB now has the financial firepower with GIC and access to global best practices in the road BOT business with Cintra and is thus uniquely positioned to capitalise on government's NIP, NMP, Gati Shakti initiatives," Ventura said in a report.