India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) Announces Rating of the First Infrastructure Debt Fund

India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) has announced its rating on the Mutual Fund (MF) schemes of the Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) – Series 1, launched by IL&FS Financial Services Ltd (IFIN, ‘IND AAA’/Stable), a 100% subsidiary of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS, ‘IND AAA’/Stable) under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) guidelines.

At a function organised here today, Dr. Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance released the ‘IND AAAidf-mf’ rating assigned by Ind-Ra to the initial three MF schemes of IL&FS IDF aggregating INR15 billion. On the occasion, Dr. Mayaram also released a special report: ‘Rating Mutual Fund Schemes of Infrastructure Debt Funds’ published by Ind-Ra, explaining its approach to rating MF schemes of IDFs. The event was attended, among others, by senior government officials, Chairmen of banks and senior management of IL&FS, IFIN and Ind-Ra.

The Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram in his Budget Speech for FY12 had announced setting-up of IDFs to accelerate and enhance the flow of long-term debt into infrastructure projects for funding the government’s massive programme of infrastructure development, estimated at around USD 1 trillion during the 12th Five-Year Plan. IDFs are expected to be medium for channelising much-needed long-term debt for financing infrastructure projects and also to help in the migration of project loans for operating assets from banks to the fixed income markets. Government of India has actively facilitated the creation of the regulatory framework and establishment of an enabling environment.

The detailed rationale for the rating assigned to IL&FS IDF’s MF schemes are in the full rating report, titled: ‘IL&FS Infrastructure Development Fund – Series 1: Schemes 1-A, 1-B and 1-C’.

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(Release ID :95945)