Edelweiss Infra's Sekura Roads and Prakash Asphalting and Toll Highways (PATH) emerged as the highest bidders for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) auction of the two bundles of Toll Operate Transfer (TOT).
Sekura Roads submitted the highest bid of Rs 1107 crore for the ToT six bundle, while PATH offered Rs 1314 crore for the ToT eight bundle. CDPQ (Indian Highways Concessions Trust), a Canadian institutional investor, offered Rs1071 crore for the ToT 6 bundle, while Adani Group offered Rs 702 crore. The lowest bidder for ToT six was IRB Infrastructure, which offered Rs 387 crore. The 11 bids submitted for ToT six and eight bundles had revenue multiples of 7-7.5 times, which was lower than previous ToT bids. According to people familiar with the situation, the bids for ToT 5A-1 and 5A-2 were in the range of 10-11 times the revenue multiples. Adani and DP Jain were the winners of the ToT Bundle five assets, which were split into two parts – 5A-1 and 5A-2 – and both companies quoted the highest prices. ToT Project Bundle six consists of a 32.8 km Agra Bypass and a 75.3-km Shivpuri Jhansi Bypass. Bundle seven of the ToT Project is NCR's 135-km Eastern Peripheral Expressway, while Bundle eight is NH-7's 139 km Borkhedi-Wadner-Deodhari-Kelapur-Maharashtra and Telangana Border. Adani is the second-highest bidder for the ToT eight bundle, with Rs 1032 crore. In the next three years, the NHAI hopes to raise about Rs two lakh crore. It will also use infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) to monetise existing assets. The funds will be used to construct new highways and reduce the NHAI's mounting debt, which stood at Rs 3.17 lakh crore at the end of 2020-21. Macquarie won NHAI's first highway asset monetisation programme through the TOT model in 2018, paying Rs 9,681 crore, 1.5 times the NHAI's base price. The ToT bundle two monetisation programme was cancelled by NHAI because no bidders met the floor price of Rs 5,632 for the 586-km length. Cube Highways was awarded TOT- Bundle three Projects, which included nine road segments totalling 2,265 lane km spread across four states, while the fourth bundle was cancelled. Image Source
