31 Dec, 2020
SINGAPORE, DECEMBER 31, 2020 Cube Highways III, a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, has acquired 100 percent of DA Toll Road Private Limited (DATRPL) in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh from Reliance Infrastructure Limited. DATRPL operates the 180-kilometer, six-lane toll road connecting the national capital, Delhi, with Agra on National Highway (NH) 2. The road is part of the arterial “Golden Quadrilateral” of the National Highway network of India and an important corridor connecting North to East and Central India.
“This opportunistic transaction further solidifies Cube Highways’ position as one of the most active investors in the Indian roads sector through the economic dislocation in 2020. This transaction highlights the stringent underwriting standards at Cube Highways and the platform’s focus on acquiring fundamentally strong assets that offer superior risk-adjusted returns in the long-term,” said Gautam Bhandari, Director of Cube Highways and Managing Partner of I Squared Capital. “Cube Highways is now a partner of choice for all leading Indian infrastructure road construction companies that seek to monetize their assets.”
The road is a 26-year concession granted in 2010 for strengthening and widening the four-lane highway to a six-lane configuration. It began collecting tolls in October 2012 and has well-established traffic patterns serving key population and industrial centers including Delhi, Faridabad, Agra, Mathura and Vrindavan. This is also one of the largest single-asset road acquisitions in India and the twelfth transaction completed by the Cube Highways platform this calendar year, including nine roads under the third bundle of the Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) Model in October 2020.
DATRPL further expands Cube Highways’ geographic presence in North India and diversifies the traffic flows for the portfolio. The road has shown a healthy recovery of traffic following the lockdown, underscoring its strategic location in North India. Including this transaction, and assets under various stages of closing, the Cube Highways group has a portfolio of 27 highways with nearly 8,400 lane-kilometers across India.
About Cube Highways: Cube Highways and Infrastructure III Pte. Ltd. (Cube Highways) is a Singapore-based company investing in road and highway projects, along with other select infrastructure sectors in India. Cube Highways is an independent, professionally managed platform leveraging the extensive transportation experience of its management and execution advisory teams. Shareholders of Cube Highways are leading international investors including I Squared Capital and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Contact: George Currie, Director, Cube Highways, +65 6206-6973, george.currie@isquaredcapital.com and investor.relations@cubehighways.com