IL&FS to sell domestic road assets held by ITNL

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) said on Monday it had begun the sale of its domestic road assets within its IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd (ITNL) subsidiary.

IL&FS, which is looking to sell assets to pay off debts, plans to sell its stake in the road businesses as individual assets or as a portfolio of assets, it said in a statement.

The sale comprises seven operating road projects based on an annuity or an annual income-based revenue model and eight toll road projects together totalling over four-fifths of its operational road portfolio, according to ITNL's March 2018 annual report.

The sale process will also include four projects under construction and three other businesses, IL&FS added.

ITNL is the debt-laden parent's biggest subsidiary and houses some of the most valuable assets that could generate interest from investors such as global private equity and pension funds.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Mark Machin, chief executive of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Canada's biggest public pension fund, said his fund was interested in India's stressed asset market.

He said he was also keen to explore some of IL&FS's assets.

ITNL, which is 73 percent owned by IL&FS, has more than 40 percent of the total assets of IL&FS.

IL&FS is currently in a court-led debt resolution process and had a new board formed by the government in October. The company presented a roadmap to raise money from assets later that month, saying it would include the part or complete sale of subsidiaries and assets.

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Alexander Smith and Mark Potter)