NHAI InvIT: After 7x demand in just 7 hours, Nitin Gadkari sees more retail participation

NHAI's Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) has been listed on the stock exchange BSE on Friday. Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari rang the bell at the opening ceremony to mark the beginning for public participation in infra funding. The InvIT witnessed a healthy investor response to the maiden public NCD issuance. The issue had opened on October 17.

“Today is a historic day and I feel very happy that we could finally give the Retail Investors (retired citizens, salaried individuals, small and medium business owners) an opportunity to participate in the Nation-Building activity. The minimum investment slab is just ₹10,000/-,” said Nitin Gadkari at the InvIT Bell Ringing Ceremony at BSE in Mumbai on Friday.

The minister highlighted that round 2 of InvIT has been oversubscribed almost 7 times in just 7 hours of its opening as it offers an effective yield of 8.05% per annum with highest credibility. Gadkari had said the InvIT so far has raised over ₹8,000 crore from foreign and domestic institutional investors, but the second tranche was special given that 25 per cent of the NCD issue was reserved for retail investors.

“InvIT Bonds are a great opportunity to realize PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji's vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Huge investments in infrastructure especially roads, are crucial to the socio-economic development of our country & I'm confident that more retail investors will take part in next rounds and gradually overtake institutional investors,” Gadkari added.

Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) are instruments on the pattern of mutual funds, designed to pool money from investors and invest in assets that will provide cash flows over a period of time. InvITs invest in either road toll projects or power projects. The National Highways Infra Trust was down 0.2% at ₹299 on the BSE in Friday's opening deals.

"We want more and more general public to invest in these InvITs, I mean in our roads, and I can assure you that NHAI's roads offer 100 per cent security to investors and also the best internal rate of return. So, going forward, we will have more portion being reserved for retail," Gadkari said.