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Gautam Bhandari To Head Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Fund In India

By Shrija Agrawal

  • 26 Aug 2008

Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners has a man on the ground. Morgan Stanley has appointed an insider, Gautam Bhandari, to lead its investment activities in India, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Bhandari and his team will be based out of Mumbai. In May 2008, MSIP had announced the float of a $4 billion global infrastructure fund.

Most recently, Bhandari was based in New York with the firm's Investment Banking Division where he advised clients globally on M&A and financings in the engineering & construction, industrial Services and alternative Energy sectors. Prior to this, Bhandari was a senior member of the firm's Global Capital Markets group, focusing on structured financings, hedges and securitisations.

Sadek Wahba, global head of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, said: "Gautam's sector and emerging market experience, combined with his structuring and project finance skills, will be valuable as we make infrastructure investments in India, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. We are pleased to welcome him to the team."

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With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure is part of the merchant banking division within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Morgan Stanley Investment Management has US$605 billion in assets under management as of May 31,2008.

Infrastructure Boom in India

It was mid May that Morgan Stanley closed the Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners fund with $4 billion of equity commitments, exceeding the firm's initial target of $2.5 billion. Sadek Wahba, the New York-based chief investment officer and global head of the fund, and John Myers, the Hong Kong-based Asia head, also told that about 20% of the corpus will come to non-OECD countries like India and China. 

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Infrastructure is increasingly attracting a lot of attraction. Global buyout fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR), which recently decided to list on the NYSE, has said it is considering investing in infrastructure sector in India and China. The leveraged-buyout firm run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts said in an SEC filing that as a part of its growth initiative, it plans to expand into areas such as mezzanine financing, real estate and infrastructure. 

Goldman Sachs is raising a targeted $7.5 billion fund. As for India specific funds, Citigroup Inc., and Blackstone Inc are planning a $5 billion fund for India (of which Citi has already raised $500 million). Macquarie Capital Group Ltd. and State Bank of India are co-raising a $2 billion infrastructure fund, while 3i Group of UK has already raised a $1.2 billion fund. ICICI Venture is following suit with a $1 billion fund. 

 

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