Edelweiss unit raises Rs2,000 crore fund

Mumbai: Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors Ltd, a unit of the Edelweiss group, on Wednesday said it had achieved the targeted base offering size of Rs2,000 crore for its infrastructure sector focused fund—Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Fund.

The fund aims to raise another Rs4,500 crore via a green shoe option in the next 12 months, the company said in a statement.

“Our strategy is built around an internationally proven model where infrastructure developers/contractors monetize the operating asset by selling them to funds/investors in order to release capital, helping them reduce stress on over-leveraged parent balance sheet and/or provide capital for growth,” Nitin Jain, chief executive, global asset and wealth management, Edelweiss Group.

Jain added that over the last couple of years, there is a huge uptick in the demand for products offering higher risk-adjusted yield from the group’s investors, and the fund aims to cater to this specific need.

The fund invests in operating assets in sectors such as roads, renewables and transmission and is led by Subahoo Chordia, who was previously associated with the group’s investment banking business.

“Our core objective is to eliminate execution risk and buy good quality revenue generating operating assets. We cater to the opportunity to provide the much-needed capital for infrastructure developers in India by monetizing their assets and reduce their debt-stress or recycle the capital for growth. We have actively started evaluating opportunities to acquire operating Infrastructure assets,” said Chordia, fund manager, Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Fund.

According to the statement, the infrastructure fund has raised the majority of the corpus from institutions, family offices, business owners and ultra high-net worth individuals, besides engaging with several domestic institutions as well as other private wealth outfits.

Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors currently manages seven funds catering to global and domestic investors across illiquid strategies in India such as infrastructure, distressed assets, collateralized credit and real estate.