IDFC, L&T, Axis, IDBI submit draft papers to Sebi

MUTUAL funds are rushing to file offer documents for infrastructure debt funds (IDFs) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), after the finance minister, in his budget speech for 20112012, announced setting up of IDFs in order to accelerate and enhance the flow of long-term debt in infrastructure projects for funding the government's programme of infrastructure development.

IDFC Mutual Fund, L&T Mutual Fund, Axis Mutual Fund and IDBI Mutual Fund have so far filed the draft offer documents with market regulator for launching IDFs.

IDF will invest at least 90 per cent of the net assets of the scheme in debt securities, or securitised debt instruments of infrastructure companies, or projects, or special purpose vehicles created for the purpose of facilitating or promoting investment in infrastructure.

IDFs can also invest in bank loans of completed and revenue-generating projects of infrastructure companies or special purpose vehicle.

IDFC Mutual Fund, which filed the offer document for IDF in March, has already received Sebi approval for the launch.

IDFs will be like a private equity investment. It will be kind of quasi-private equity. The fund mobilised will be deployed as and when there is an opportunity in the market.

The infra debt funds will be close-ended in nature with a five to 15-year tenure, which will decided at the time of launch by the respective fund houses. The minimum investment amount is Rs 1 crore, and in multiples of Rs 10 lakh, thereafter. So, the investor base will comprise institutions, high net worth individuals (HNIs), and ultra-HNIs.

L&T Mutual Fund, which also filed the offer document for IDF just a few days back, will wait for Sebi comments before finalising the tenure of the fund, an official said.

The country's first infrastructure debt fund through the NBFC route, with a corpus of $2 billion, was launched by a consortium of four banking and financial services institutions comprising ICICI group, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Citicorp Finance India and Bank of Baroda.

IDF will have a strategic investor who will invest a minimum of Rs 25 crore before the scheme is marketed to other potential investors.

Strategic investors can either be an infrastructure finance company registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as NBFC, a scheduled commercial bank or an international multilateral financial institution.