State Bank of India (SBI) today said it signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with Macquarie and International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, to set up an infrastructure private equity fund.
“The JV agreement is based on the earlier memorandum of understanding signed on April 16, 2008. The fund will be operationalised on receipt of requisite regulatory approvals,” SBI informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
RBI had earlier expressed certain reservations about the private equity business proposed by SBI, which had delayed the launch of the fund. With the agreement in place, the country’s largest bank is hopeful of starting operations soon.
