IRB, SBI Macquarie may buy full stake in road projects

GMR Infrastructure’s Farukhnagar-Jadcherla highway project, Shapoorji-Pallonji’s Ulundurpet-Padalur stretch, and MVR Infra’s Omallur-Salem-Namakkal road project will see a change in ownership soon. New investors have acquired a 74 per cent stake in these projects. Following the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs decision to relax exit norms for existing promoters, the new investors will now look to buy the entire stake.

Most of the acquisition contracts have a clause where the buyers have stated that a full buyout will happen as and when government policy permits it, say officials from road development firms and the investment community. For instance, IRB Infrastructure will now acquire the entire stake in MVR Infra’s Omallur-Salem-Namakkal project. IRB had acquired a 74 per cent stake in the project last year.

Virendra Mhaiskar, IRB Infrastructure’s Chairman and Managing Director, said that the pricing for the remaining stake forms part of the contract that the company entered while acquiring the 74 per cent stake last year. Similarly, there are two projects — one each by GMR Infrastructure and Shapoorji-Pallonji — where SBI Macquarie had acquired a 74 per cent stake earlier this year.

It is now likely to buy the entire stake in these projects, say sources. There was, however, no official confirmation on this.