Macquarie kickstarts sale of highway assets in India

Mumbai: Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) has officially started the sale process for its largest road portfolio in India, seeking an enterprise value of about ₹10,000 crore ($1.2 billion), said people aware of the development.

The global infrastructure investor has mandated JP Morgan as advisor for the transaction and has begun reaching out to prospective buyers. ET had reported in December that Macquarie was exploring a sale and was in the process of hiring a banker.

The portfolio includes nine toll road projects spanning 648 km across Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. While the initial plan was to divest the entire portfolio in a single deal, Macquarie has since carved the assets into three bundles-each a mix of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat projects-to widen the pool of bidders.

Bundle 1 consists of Siddhantham Tollway, Ankapalli Tollway & Bamanbore Tollway; Bundle 2 has Diwantham Tollway, Garamore Tollway & Icchapuram Tollway; while Bundle 3 consists of Diwancheruvu Tollway, Puintola Tollway & Porbandar Jetpur Tollway.

Together, these projects generated toll revenues of around ₹1,000 crore in FY25, people said.

The portfolio’s revenues, excluding Porbandar Jetpur Tollway, rose 10% to ₹962.2 crore in FY24, with an average daily collection of ₹2.64 crore, up from ₹874.5 crore (₹2.40 crore daily) in FY23, and ₹784.8 crore in FY22, per a January India Ratings & Research report.

Collections in first eight months of FY25 grew a further 6.5% to ₹669 crore from ₹628 crore a year ago.

Macquarie did not respond to email queries.

The firm had acquired these assets in 2018 for ₹9,681 crore-about 1.5 times the base price set by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)-through the country’s first Toll-Operate-Transfer (ToT) auction. The roads are housed under Safeway Concessions, a platform created by Macquarie, with nine special purpose vehicles backed by its Asia Infrastructure Fund 2 (MAIF 2) and 3 (MAIF 3).

A key draw for investors is the long concession period of 30 years. The Andhra Pradesh stretches-forming part of NH-16 (erstwhile NH-5) of the Golden Quadrilateral-contribute nearly 71% of revenues, serving multiple ports and industrial clusters. The Gujarat roads link to the ceramic hub of Morbi and provide access to Kandla and Mundra ports.

Commercial traffic contributes over 80% of tollable traffic, ensuring steady cash flows, said the India Ratings report.

Beyond roads, Macquarie has built a significant presence in India’s renewable energy and electric mobility sectors.