NIIF to Explore Diversified Finance Sources

New Delhi, Jun 9 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday asked the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to leverage its sovereign-backed design to showcase its performance at the global stage.

Chairing the 6th meeting of the Governing Council (GC), Sitharaman exhorted the NIIF to have a proactive approach to fundraising and the need to explore diversified sources of financing, the finance ministry said in a statement.

The Rs 40,000-crore NIIF was set up in December 2015 as an institution to enhance infrastructure financing by investing in greenfield, brownfield and stalled projects.

The quasi-sovereign wealth fund's assets under management have increased to more than Rs 30,000 crore.

Recognising NIIF's growing role in mobilising capital into infrastructure and other key sectors of the Indian economy is in line with the national priorities, the GC appreciated NIIFs performance and took note of the expansion in AUM, it said.

The Governing Council appreciated NIIF's evolution as a sovereign-linked asset manager and acknowledged the efforts made over the years to build strong partnerships with marquee investors like Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, pension funds, multilateral development banks and strategic government counterparts like the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The council also reviewed the performance and way forward across its four active funds -- Fund for Infrastructure (Master Fund), the Fund of Funds (Private Markets Fund), the Fund for Climate and Sustainability as well as India Japan Corridor (the India Japan Fund), and the fund with focus in growth equity (Strategic Opportunities Fund), the statement said.

It also appreciated that both Master Fund and Private Markets Fund are already 100 per cent committed and that a part of Master Fund investments have gone into the creation of greenfield assets in areas like ports and logistics, airports, and data centres.

The Governing Council meeting was also attended by Finance Secretary Ajay Seth, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services M Nagaraju, SBI Chairman CS Setty and Kotak Mahindra Bank founder and Director Uday Kotak.

Reviewing the progress of NIIF's upcoming Private Markets Fund II, which has a target corpus of USD 1 billion, the GC appreciated the fact that PMF II has successfully onboarded private investors in line with the earlier guidance and is set for its first closing shortly.

NIIF informed about the progress of the proposed bilateral fund currently under discussion with the US, the statement said.