ICICI Venture plans $500 mn infra fund

“In the private equity context I would put education (and) hospital as part of infrastructure, but there is also a big opportunity on serious infrastructure like roads, ports, power,” Vishakha Mulye told Reuters in an interview.

India has made building of roads, bridges, airports and power plants a priority and expects private firms to fund half of a projected $1 trillion in infrastructure between 2012 and 2017.

India's diversified conglomerate Tata Group and private equity firm Actis aim to bid for $2 billion of road projects in India over the next five years as the country makes a major push to build highways.

“We have started putting together the team in place and we will probably approach the market very soon,” she said, adding ICICI Venture would look at launching the fund at end-June or early July. ICICI Venture plans to tap domestic as well as international investors for the infrastructure fund, which will have an overallotment option of another $500 million, said Mulye, who joined the ICICI group in 1993.

ICICI Venture, one of India's largest private equity firms with about $2 billion in assets, also plans to launch a $100- million fund in India with an option to raise another $100 million for investing in real estate companies, she said. The fund will be launched in the next couple of months, and will invest in residential projects, Mulye said.

“Residential (sector) is something we are extremely bullish about and in the top-tier cities, we think that markets will only improve from here.” Private equity investment in India fell more than 60 percent to $4.4 billion in 2009 from $11.9 billion in 2008, according to VCC Edge, which provides data on mergers and acquisitions, and private equity and venture capital deals.