India Infrastructure Finance Company gets Sebi approval for $1 bn IDF

State-owned India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) today said it has got Sebi nod for floating USD 1 billion (about Rs 5,000 crore) infrastructure debt fund (IDF), which will be operational in a month.

"Yesterday, we got the approval of Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) that we have been registered as an IDF... Within a month's time we should be able to operationalise this IDF," IIFCL Chairman and Managing Director S K Goel said.

"IDF initial corpus we have kept in mind is USD 1 billion of which 50 per cent will be contributed by Indian investors and 50 per cent by foreign investors," he said at the launch of first credit enhanced infrastructure bonds.

IDF will be floated via mutual fund route which is more flexible, Goel said.

"Among the Indian investors we have already discussed the things with LIC, IDBI Bank and on the capital front the State Bank of India is with us," he said.

"About foreign partners, we have already sent our request to ADB, which is processing about USD 200 million request, but only after final sanction we will be able to say who are the final partners into this," Goel added.

The fund generated by the IDF would be utilised for funding infrastructure projects in the country.

India's poor infrastructure, seen as a major block for economic growth, requires a whopping USD 1 trillion in the 12th Plan period (2012-17). Of this, it about 50 per cent is expected to come from the private sector.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure financing company launched its credit enhancement initiative with the support of Asian Development Bank by signing of IIFCL Guarantee with GMR Jadcherla Expressways Ltd.

Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal said the initiative will help develop a bond market for infrastructure sector, which is predominantly dependent on banks for funding.

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