New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- Australian asset manager Macquarie has sealed a $450-million (about Rs 4,300 crore) transaction to buy a significant stake in Maple Infrastructure Trust from Canadian pension fund La Caisse (formerly CDPQ).
Macquarie Asset Management, through its Macquarie Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Fund 4 (MAIF4), has acquired 37.5% of the units in the infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) that owns the Maple Highways platform from La Caisse. The sale cuts La Caisse's holding in the trust to 37.5% from 75%.
The Australian firm has also bought a 42.5% stake in the InvIT's investment manager and a 40% stake in the project manager, with La Caisse retaining a 42.5% holding in the investment manager but ceding control to Macquarie.
According to a joint statement from the two investors, Macquarie has committed $450 million in total to Maple, including $150 million of fresh equity earmarked for future acquisitions. La Caisse, for its part, has also pledged an additional $150 million to back the platform's next phase of growth.
Separately, a stock-exchange filing showed that the value of the 37.5% units that Macquarie bought was Rs 2,702.54 crore (around $282.5 million).
The announcement comes almost six months after VCCircle reported in March that Macquarie was set to acquire 37.5% of the InvIT's units.
Verena Lim, co-head of Asia-Pacific infrastructure for Macquarie Asset Management and Asia CEO for Macquarie Group, said that India remains "a key market" for the firm and that Maple reflects its conviction in the country's long-term infrastructure potential.
The Maple transaction comes even as Macquarie moves to exit its separate India toll-roads platform, Safeway Concessions Pvt Ltd, which it had acquired from the National Highways Authority of India roughly eight years ago. The parallel moves underline Macquarie's repositioning in India's roads sector-entering a modern InvIT platform even as it exits older toll-operate-transfer assets.
Macquarie inked a deal in March to sell Safeway to French infrastructure group Vinci, through its Vinci Highways unit, at an enterprise value of around Rs 15,000 crore (roughly $1.6-1.7 billion). The sale marked Vinci's first entry into India's roads sector and ranked among the country's largest toll-road divestments to date.
Founded in 2021, Maple InvIT owns and operates seven toll road assets across six states in eastern, northern and southern India, spanning an aggregate 3,328 lane kilometres, held through special-purpose vehicles under long-term government concessions. Several of these were acquired from the NHAI and form sections of key corridors, including the Golden Quadrilateral, the East-West Corridor and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway around New Delhi. The portfolio includes five toll road projects the InvIT bought from Ashoka Concessions last year for Rs 1,814 crore.
In FY25, the InvIT reported operating income of Rs 795 crore, up from Rs 730 crore a year earlier, while its net loss narrowed to Rs 120 crore from Rs 210 crore.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.