NIIF to soon reach threshold funding, Jailtey told

Following steady progress on fund-raising efforts with several international institutional investors, a certain threshold investment in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund is expected to be reached soon, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was told on Friday during his review meet of NIIF.

The third meeting of the Governing Council of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) was held under the chairmanship of Jaitley where he reviewed the performance and action taken by NIIF in order to attract investment from foreign Sovereign Wealth Funds among others for the infrastructure sector in the country.

"Steady progress on fund-raising efforts with several international institutional investors, following-up on Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by India has been made. A first close of NIIF is expected very soon," the Finance Ministry said here in a statement after the meeting.

First close is closure of a round of financing after all the parties involved are in agreement.

The central government has also committed funds of Rs 20,000 crore to the NIIF.

NIIF is considering investments in third party managed funds focused on clean energy (Green Growth Fund), affordable housing and medium sized infrastructure companies, the statement said.

Strong investment pipeline with investment opportunities is under consideration in the roads, ports, aviation and power sectors, it said.

The NIIF governance structure has been developed with technical assistance from Department for International Development, UK which has been further reviewed and confirmed by Stanford University's Global Project Centre under the MoU with the US Treasury.

A team of twelve staff, including the CEO, is in place for National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited. "Further recruitments of high quality staff through a global search process is underway. Strong international response to hiring efforts and advertisements for recruitment of expert staff has been received," it said.

"The establishment of NIIF's permanent Delhi office is complete and the establishment of its head office in Mumbai is currently under refurbishment. NIIF staff are already operating in a hired space," it added.

--IANS

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