The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has appointed private equity firm Actis’ former Asia head for energy investments, Sanjiv Aggarwal, as its managing director and chief executive officer effective 1 February.
Aggarwal will take over the helm of the Indian government's quasi-sovereign fund from interim head Rajiv Dhar. Dhar was appointed in May 2023 following the exit of former MD and CEO Sujoy Bose.
According to media reports, Bose had stepped down in September 2022 a few years before his term. Bose’s departure came at a time when at least two of NIIF's three key shareholders were unhappy and had expressed their displeasure in the way the fund was bing run, ET had reported citing people aware of the matter.
As for Aggarwal, he has also worked with Citigroup and ANZ Investment Bank in the Indian energy and infrastructure sectors in the past.
He joined Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, in 2008 and became partner in 2010.
“I am committed to building NIIF’s track record and look forward to working with the team to invest in India’s growth story and create value for our stakeholders,” Aggarwal said in a statement.
Speaking of NIIF’s recent activities in the private investment market, it announced its plan to set up a bilateral vehicle in partnership with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a policy-based financial institution backed by Japan’s government, to invest in India’s environmental preservation sector.
The fund will have a corpus of $600 million and will invest in areas including renewable energy, e-mobility and circular economic sectors such as waste and water management.
The fund will receive a commitment of about 49% from the Indian government while the rest will be contributed by the Japan government-backed institution, according to a press statement.
VCCircle had also reported last year, that NIIF was planning to launch its second fund-of-funds. The new FoF will aim to raise around $1 billion (over Rs 8,100 crore then) and will be finalised for shareholders’ approval.
NIIF’s FoF is one of the largest India-dedicated fund-of-funds programme. Floated in 2018, FoF Fund I was anchored by the government and received commitments from multilateral institutions like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank and New Development Bank.
