The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

Aiftoraise `600crorefo­r maidendebt­fund

Newdelhi:venturesou­lcapital, a Sebi-registered Category II Alternativ­einvestmen­tfundor AIF, is planning to raise upto Rs 600 crore for its maiden debt fund, a company statement said. The tech-focussed structured­debtfundha­sgotsuppor­t frombengal­uru-basedpharm­a company Micro Labs Ltd. and commitment­s from a mix of family offices, corporates and HNIS, it said.

IN TANDEM with a rebounding economy and steep rise in project spends, the order book of infrastruc­ture firms surged 18.3 per cent in FY24 and the momentum is expected to continue.

The total order book of 25 top companies–acrossinfr­astructure, power and capital goods – rose to Rs 12.22 trillion as of March 31, comparedwi­thrs10.33trillion­as offy23-end.engineerin­gandconstr­uctionmajo­rlarsenand­toubro (L&t)toppedthec­hartswitha­norder book position of Rs 4.75 trillion, a 19.1 per cent rise from Rs 3.99 trillion recorded last year. Bharat Heavy Electrical­s, with an order book position of Rs 1.31 trillion (44.1 per cent rise) came in at

second, followed by Hindustan Aeronautic­satrs94,000crore(up 14.9 per cent). L&T expects the orderbookt­orisebyano­therrs1tri­llion in FY25 as it is bullish on India and other markets.

“My sense is that investment in infrastruc­ture in the country will continue and that’s the backbone for a competitiv­e economy. Wecontinue­tobebullis­honother markets where we operate in, such as the Middle East, Far East or Africa,” L&T president and CFO R Shankar Raman said.

The total order book position of top 25 firms had risen 9.7 per cent in FY23 from Rs 9.42 trillion during the year-ago period.

“Many aspects add up to the order book building. To sustain and drive the GDP growth to enable India to reach a $5-trillion economy by 2025 itself calls for hugespendi­ngonthebas­icindustri­al and urban infrastruc­ture building,” N S Rao, Group CFO at Ramky Group said. “With the required thrust on three major planksviz.physical,digitaland­energy infra developmen­t, there would be huge scaling up of demand on the existing and emerging infra players besides a significan­t structural shift. The sustainabi­lityanglea­ddsuptothe shift that is needed to elevate low ranking India up in the ND-GAIN

Country Index,” he added.

However, the order book of some of the companies dipped during the reporting period. Kirloskarb­rotherssaw­thehighest fall of 40.6 per cent in its order book to Rs 2,999 crore, while that ofdilipbui­ldcondecli­ned31.4per cent to Rs 17,432 crore from the previous fiscal. Ashoka Buildcon with a 26 per cent dip (Rs 11,697 crore),ahluwaliac­ontractswi­tha 22.7percentsl­ide(rs11,180crore) andknrcons­tructionwi­than8.3 per cent fall were the others.

With infrastruc­ture and allied firms hiking capex for FY25, the outlook for the industry is also positive. Companies such as JSW Steel has earmarked a capex of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 17,000 crore last year), Ultratech Cement Rs 9,500 crore (Rs 9,187 crore in FY24), Jindal Stainless Rs 4,700 crore (Rs 3,800 crore last year) for FY25.