IRB Infrastructure Trust was listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on April 3, 2023.
This makes it the first private infrastructure trust to be listed on the NSE after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) listed guidelines on listing framework for non-listed infrastructure investment trusts (InVIT).
Infrastructure investment trusts, popularly known as InVITs, are a kind of hybrid securities. They are technically defined as a collective investment scheme similar to a mutual fund, which allows individuals and institutional investors to directly invest in infrastructure projects. They are designed as a tiered structure with the sponsor setting up the InvIT which in turn invests into the eligible infrastructure projects either directly or via special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
InvITs invest in a portfolio of infrastructure assets, such as roads, highways, power, transmission and similar other kind of assets. Hybrid securities are relatively new in the Indian market.
Last year, Sebi had set up an advisory committee on hybrid securities to promote growth and innovation in InVITs and real estate infrastructure trusts (Reits).
Last month, on March 22, 2023, the IRB Infrastructure Trust was approved for listing on the NSE.
Virendra D. Mhaiskar, chairman, IRB Infrastructure Trust and chairman and managing director of IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited said: “It gives me immense pleasure to present this future ready trust to public markets today, which is the third listing from IRB group. The idea behind this was to have better disclosure norms and bring in more transparency. As a responsible corporate who believes in highest standard of corporate governance, we at IRB decided to immediately take up this transformation.”
He added: “In the last four years, the project portfolio of the IRB Infrastructure Trust has made stupendous progress and has achieved a size of almost Rs. 27,000 crore in enterprise value with balance concession life of 18-plus years. This development platform of IRB with marque investor like GIC - Sovereign Wealth Fund of Singapore will create immense value for the whole IRB group and provide strong growth potential going forward.”
IRB Infrastructure Trust announced in a press statement that the valuation of the trust units were determined on a third party evaluation and further endorsed by the trusts’ investors. The value ascertained comes to around 16 times FY 24 revenue, which will further keep appreciating with more projects coming in.
