With this deal, our company has allocated a sum of INR 1084 Cr to IndiGrid – the country's leading infrastructure investment trust established by Sterlite Power. As part of our Asia-Pacific infrastructure strategy, we aim at achieving returns through the acquisition and operational improvement of infrastructure assets, which are important to the functioning of regional and local economies. This transaction symbolises our first investment through our Asia Pacific Infrastructure strategy.

KKR's Big Infra Bet:

The main reasons that led us into consummating this deal were:

• With the prime aim of achieving the goal of $10 trillion economy size by 2032, India requires a resilient and robust infrastructure system. Given the degree of investment opportunities, India is a prime market when it comes to our infrastructure strategy in Asia Pacific. The policy decisions and actions by the current government underlines its focus on Infrastructure. This gave us sheer confidence that if there was any right time for investing in this space, it was now.
• InvIT has been a new instrument for the Indian Market. But in the last two years the product has matured and there is a greater acceptance of this across the board now. Sterlite Power sponsored IndiGrid, one of the first InvITs in the market became our natural choice.
• From capital point of view, this deal allows us to underwrite and buy into an extremely long-term, well-regulated, core infra asset. The public sector contracts and policies that IndiGrid has makes it an attractive, guaranteed cash flow system, with less worry.
• Investment in operational Transmission assets is considered as one of the least risky investments and allows long term stable return over a period of 30 to 35 years.

Partnering with a Great Developer & Operator:

Partnering with Sterlite Power was a robust move. A leading global developer and operator in the transmission infrastructure sector, the company specialises in developing high quality greenfield assets. They have established a track record of delivering projects ahead of designated schedule by using best of technology, processes and people. This, along with our expertise in the infra space in the OECD countries, is sure to bring improvements in many areas and steadiness and predictability in cash flows.

The Way Ahead:

As of now, we will stay in the power sector with the idea of making this a long-term platform. In the near future, we will be focusing majorly on the assets that have been committed to Sterlite Power. In addition, we believe "renewables" is a promising space, and have already taken a good look at that.