The Anil Ambani-led infrastructure company is scouting for investors for its road assets as part of the strategy to divest assets, raise money and pare debt.
“Cube Highways has offered an enterprise value of around Rs 1,430 crore and the proceeds would result in Reliance Infrastructure’s debt reduction to that extent,” a company source told ET.
The company said in response to ET’s mailed query, “The company does not comment on speculations. As stated earlier, the company has been engaged in various initiatives to make it debt free by March 2022.”
The indebted Reliance Infrastructure defaulted on its loans and has been selling assets with the aim to pare debt and be debt-free on a standalone basis by March 2020, but the target has now been deferred to 2022. The company has a standalone debt of Rs 3,808 crore and a consolidated debt of Rs 14,260 crore as on March.
The proposed deal would include four operational assets of Reliance Infrastructure, namely, DS Toll Road Private, NK Toll Road Private, SU Toll Road located in Tamil Nadu and JR Toll Road Private in Rajasthan. These assets aggregate to around 283 kms of four-lane highways which have a balance concession period of up to 12 years.
If the deal goes through, this would be the second transaction between the two companies. In January, Reliance Infrastructure completed the sale of its Delhi-Agra road project to Cube Highways and Infrastructure for an enterprise value over Rs 3,600 crore, after announcing the deal in March 2019. Cube Highways, promoted by I Squared Capital and a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, did not respond to ET’s query. ADIA declined to comment.
In April, Reliance Infrastructure struck a deal with lender Yes Bank to sell its commercial property in the Santacruz suburb of Mumbai for Rs 1,200 crore and use the entire proceeds to repay the bank. Prior to that, in January, it completed the sale of the entire 74% holding in a power transmission joint venture with
, Parbati Koldam Transmission Co, at an enterprise value of Rs 900 crore. The company has also sold its Mumbai power business to Adani Transmission.
Earlier this month, Reliance Infrastructure said it will raise Rs 550 crore by issue of shares and convertible warrants to Minneapolis-based fund manager Värde Investment Partners LP and n Reliance Group entity.
