A consortium led by US-based private equity firm TPG has signed a pact to acquire Aseem Infrastructure Finance Ltd from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), the Indian government and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
The consortium also includes Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Mumbai-listed ICICI Bank, which will take a 5% stake in the non-bank lender to the infrastructure sectors, according to a press release. It didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal.
The American PE firm said it is making the investment through TPG Rise Climate, the firm’s climate investing platform, as part of its Global South Initiative that was launched in partnership with the UAE-backed climate fund ALTÉRRA.
Aseem Infrastructure is currently 59.05% owned by NIIF, 30.95% by the Indian government and 10% by SMBC.
Separately, Mumbai-headquartered Aseem Infrastructure said in a stock-exchange filing it will sell its 30.83% stake in NIIF Infrastructure Finance Ltd (NIIF IFL), which manages infrastructure debt funds, to NIIF as part of the broader transaction. NIIF already owns 39.7% of NIIF IFL while the government owns 25.1% and HDFC Bank holds 4.4%.
Aseem Infrastructure was founded in 2020 by the NIIF, India’s sovereign-anchored alternative asset manager. NIIF has invested Rs 1,418 crore (about $169 million) in Aseem and Rs 881 crore ($105 million) in NIIF IFL, according to the asset manager’s website.
Aseem was built by NIIF as a dedicated infrastructure debt platform focused on renewable energy and power transmission lending. The company has disbursed more than Rs 40,000 crore in loans, funding over 27 GW of renewable capacity and roughly 2,000 circuit kilometres of transmission projects, with financing it says has helped abate about 33 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Aseem has been a first-mover in India’s sustainable debt financing space, having built a platform that is uniquely positioned to address the country’s growing climate debt financing needs,” said Sanjeev Mehra, business unit partner at TPG Capital Asia.
Nilesh Shrivastava, partner, growth equity at NIIF, said the deal reflected “growing global investor confidence in India’s sustainable infrastructure and climate financing market”.
ICICI Securities acted as financial advisor to Aseem and NIIF. EY acted as the financial advisor to TPG and GIC.
