Indian highway construction company, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd. has reportedly announced plans to participate in NHAI’s (National Highways Authority of India) second toll-operate-transfer rights (TOT) auction on its own instead of participating along with Italian motorway management company, Atlantia.
Reportedly, in early 2018, the company was the only Indian developer bidding in the first TOT auction for nine projects in a joint venture with Atlantia. In the auction, Australia’s asset management firm, Macquarie Group emerged as winner after bidding Rs. 9,681 crores, against NHAI’s estimate of around Rs 6,200 crore.
Anil Yadav, Group CFO of IRB Infrastructure, claims that the company is well qualified to initiate the project on its own. However, if the proposed deal is larger, then the firm would bid in it with Atlantia.
The company’s board has recently approved fund raising of up to Rs 1,500 crore for participating in second TOT auction, likely to happen by end of 2018, Yadav added.
For the record, IRB Infrastructure’s reported net profit for the second quarter has stood at Rs 173 crore, up by 32%, against Rs 131 crore in the corresponding period of 2017, while the company’s total income stood at Rs 1,485 crore, up by 20% from Rs 1,242 crore in Q2 FY18. Moreover, the company’s EPC Order Book raised around Rs 13,200 crore at the end of Q2 FY19.
Commenting on the firm’s strategy, Yadav said that NHAI has already identified 50 or 60 projects for auctioning, but the company wants to examine NHAI’s upcoming financial closure. Through this move, the company expects to see around Rs 70,000-80,000 crore worth of projects coming from NHAI before the general elections, Yadav added.
As per reliable sources, IRB Infrastructure is currently in the process of attaining a financial closure for the Hapur Bypass-Moradabad build-operate-transfer (BOT) project worth Rs 3,400 crore that the company bagged in March 2018.