Nepal PM blames rival leaders

KATHMANDU: Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli defended his move to dissolve the parliament, blaming leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party for attempting to form a parallel government.

NEW DELHI: Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc., India’s quasi-sovereign wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and private-equity firm Actis Llp have placed bids to buy Ashoka Concessions Ltd in a deal with an implied equity value of around $350 million, said two people aware of the development.

EY is running the sales process for the highways infrastructure firm. “It is now to be decided who gets the exclusivity on the deal that has an enterprise value (EV) of around $1.2 billion,” one of the two people cited above said, requesting anonymity.

The roads portfolio of Ashoka Concessions comprises 15 assets, including six operational build, operate, transfer (BOT) toll projects, one operational BOT annuity project and eight under-construction hybrid annuity projects. Ashoka Buildcon Ltd has a 61% stake in Ashoka Concessions, and the remaining 39% is held by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, one of the biggest foreign infrastructure investors in India.

In 2012, Macquarie, through its first India-focused fund, bought a stake in Ashoka Concessions for ₹800 crore. It finalized the deal jointly with State Bank of India.

Spokespersons for Brookfield, Actis, Macquarie Group and EY declined to comment.

“As per NIIF policy, we do not comment on market speculation and information gathered from third-party sources,” said an external spokesperson for NIIF in an emailed response.