AIMCo in talks for minority stake in CDPQ's India InvIT

Mumbai: Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), Canada's leading institutional investment manager, is in early discussions to acquire a significant minority stake in Maple Infrastructure Trust, the Indian infrastructure trust (InvIT) owned by Canadian fund CDPQ, said multiple people aware of the development.

CDPQ plans to raise $300-400 million (about '3,450 crore) through the latest round of fundraising and has hired Rothschild to run the mandate, they said.

The Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of the largest pension investors in Canada, is another contender for the minority stake in Maple Infrastructure Trust, and is engaged in discussions, ET had reported earlier.


AIMCo, which has assets under management of $130 billion, has already made a '570 crore investment in Indigrid, a KKR-backed India power infrastructure trust.

It invests globally on behalf of pension, endowment, insurance and government funds in the Province of Alberta. AIMCo's Infrastructure & Renewable Resources team manages a global portfolio of more than $20 billion. Its notable investments include Howard Energy, sPower, London City Airport, Puget Energy and Forestry Investment Trust.

Last year, AIMCo had decided to shut its new offices in Singapore and New York as part of its cost cutting globally.

Maple Infrastructure Trust has an enterprise value of about '16,000 crore (about $2 billion). The company plans to use the fresh funds to finance its recent acquisition of the toll road assets of Ashoka Concessions.

In October last year, Maple Infrastructure Trust had acquired five build-operate-transfer (BOT) toll road assets of Ashoka Concessions, a subsidiary of highways builder Ashoka Buildcon. The assets were acquired at an aggregate enterprise value of '5,718 crore.

Maple InvIT reported income of '773 crore for 2023-24.

In Maple InvIT, CDPQ Infrastructure Asia III Inc holds 60% stake, Maple Highways Pte holds 15%, 360 One Group (formerly IIFL) holds 18.3%, Fami Strei, a family office vehicle of Taparia family, the founding family of contraceptive maker Famy Care, holds 3.1% and others, including the family office of Uday Kotak, hold 3.6% stake as of September 2024.

Queries emailed to CDPQ and AIMCo did not elicit any response till press time on Monday.

Maple Highways, CDPQ's platform for the roads sector in India, is the sponsor of Maple Infrastructure Trust, which houses seven assets including NCR Eastern Peripheral Expressway (NEPEPL) in the National Capital Region (NCR) under ToT7, and Shree Jagannath Expressways (SJEPL) in Odisha.

The asset portfolio is spread across various states, Odisha, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, said a recent ICRA report. NEPEPL, a six-lane wide expressway passing through Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, is the largest asset in the InvIT, accounting for 76% of cash flow available for debt servicing and 75% of the enterprise value at InvIT level, it said.

SJEPL, a six-lane expressway in Odisha, is part of the Golden Quadrilateral connecting the Chennai-Kolkata corridor.