Ashok Buildcon surges 11% after SBI, Macquarie agree to invest in co

Private equity funds jointly managed by India’s top lender, State Bank of India, and Australia’s Macquarie Group , have agreed to invest $150 million in a unit of infrastructure firm Ashoka Buildcon , sending the road builder’s shares up by as much as 11.3 percent in early trade.

Poor infrastructure acts as a brake on India’s economic growth, which slowed to 5.3 percent in the March quarter, the weakest annual pace in nine years. India’s government has set an ambitious target to attract $1 trillion in infrastructure investments in the next five years.

[caption id=“attachment_415885” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Private equity investments in Indian infrastructure slumped 60 percent to $183 million in 10 transactions during the quarter ended March . Reuters[/caption]

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Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Fund and SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust will jointly invest in Ashoka Concessions Ltd, which is currently working on seven highway projects with a cost of $1.6 billion, Ashoka said in a statement. Ernst & Young acted as an advisor to Ashoka Buildcon on the deal.

Private equity investments in Indian infrastructure slumped 60 percent to $183 million in 10 transactions during the quarter ended March from $459 million in 16 transactions a year earlier, according to industry tracker VCCircle.com.

Shares in Ashoka Buildcon, valued by the market at $243 million, have gained 40 percent in 2012 so far. On Monday morning, the stock was up 6.7 percent to Rs 271.25 in a little-changed Mumbai market.

Reuters