Premji Invest, the family office of Wipro founder chairman and billionaire Azim Premji, has invested Rs 950 crore (about $100 million) in Cube Highways Trust ahead of the infrastructure investment trust’s public offering.
The investment is part of a larger transaction totalling Rs 1,250 crore where a group of institutional investors bought 8.22 crore units of the InvIT at Rs 152 apiece from existing unitholders, according to the trust’s offer document.
Apart from Premji Invest, HDFC Life Insurance Company and HDFC Pension Fund Management each committed Rs 100 crore while Axis Max Life Insurance and WhiteOak Capital REIT & InvIT Alternatives Fund I pledged Rs 50 crore each.
The commitments from these so-called strategic investors come ahead of Cube Highways Trust’s public issue, which is scheduled to open for subscription on July 22 and close on July 24.
The total size of the public offering, including the strategic investor portion, is Rs 5,000 crore. The InvIT is not issuing any new units and the entire issue consists of an offer-for-sale by three existing unitholders–US-based private equity firm I Squared Capital, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company and Canadian pension fund British Columbia Investment Management Corp.
Singapore-based Cube Highway group entities, which are controlled by I Squared and sponsor the InvIT, will collect Rs 3,406 crore via the offering. BCI will raise Rs 1,100 crore and Mubadala will mop up Rs 493.72 crore.
The proposed offering will mark the transition of the InvIT from a privately listed entity to a publicly listed one. The InvIT privately listed its units on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange in April 2023. The transition will help the InvIT to access a more diversified investor base and open additional pools of capital from both institution and non-institutional investors.
As of March 31, 2026, Cube Highways Trust manages a portfolio of 27 operational road assets across 12 states and one Union Territory, totaling 8,754 lane kilometers. The assets have an average residual concession life of 18 years.
The trust's assets under management grew to Rs 36,842 crore, aided by nine acquisitions during the financial year ended March 31, 2026. Its net debt stood at Rs 17,768 crore, representing a net debt-to-enterprise value ratio of 46.82%.
Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, HDFC Bank, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), and JM Financial are acting as the book-running lead managers to the issue.
