Macquarie's Infrastructure Spend Reaches India

Australian investment bank Macquarie Group and State Bank of India (SBI) have raised a US$1bn infrastructure fund to invest in both ports and power plants in India, in a move that underlines both BMI's industry team's core view of India's positive fundamentals, and CFW's prediction that private investment would increasingly be attracted to the steady returns of infrastructure assets. Investments in the fund include US$887mn from international investors, US$150mn combined from SBI and Macquarie, and US$150mn from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), and fundraising will continue through 2009 with SBI hoping to take the total to US$3bn. Both SBI and Macquarie will take a 45% stake in the fund, while the IFC will have the remaining 10% stake. Macquarie has a long-established record of investment in the sector, announcing as recently as March 9 that it would, alongside South Korea's Woori Bank, establish a US$1bn fund for investing in infrastructure and alternative energy assets in South Korea.

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