Edelweiss Alternatives completes acquisition of L&T IDPL for Rs 6,000 cr

Edelweiss Alternatives on Thursday announced that it has completed the Rs 6,000 crore deal to acquire L&T Infrastructure Development Projects (LTIDPL), which owns various road assets and power transmission lines.

The deal to buy LTIPDL, a joint venture where infra major L&T had a 51 per cent stake and its partner Canada Pension Plan Investment Board had the rest, was first announced in December 2022.

The Edelweiss arm is buying 100 per cent ownership in the JV and will get a portfolio comprising seven road assets spanning 4,400 lane-km and a 960 circuit km power transmission line, according to a statement.

After this acquisition, the infra platform's overall portfolio will go up to 26 assets, comprising 5,000 lane-km of roads, 1,800 ckms of power transmission assets and 813 MWp of renewables, with a cumulative annual revenue of Rs 3,000 crore, it added.

A statement from L&T said the stakes have been acquired by Epic Concesiones, an investee company of Edelweiss Infrastructure Yield Plus Strategy, managed by Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors.
 

The sale is in line with L&T's strategy to exit non-core businesses to reduce its exposure to the asset-heavy developmental projects portfolio to enhance return on equity, the statement said.

"The transaction is the culmination of a long journey for L&T that started in the early 2000s in the Developmental Projects business," its head of development projects DK Sen said.

Commenting on the latest acquisition, the managing director of Infrastructure Yield Strategy at Edelweiss Alternatives Sreekumar Chatra said the assets have a proven track record of revenues and operations, which are geographically dispersed and have long residual life.

Its head of real assets strategy Subahoo Chordia said limited partners have a preference to invest with managers having a strong management with decades of industry experience, on-ground presence of operating team, sound governance framework and a performance track record in the strategy.