Actis is nearing a deal to acquire a portfolio of road assets from India’s Welspun Group for about $400 million. The buyout firm is in advanced talks for the assets and is set to beat out a number of rival bidders.
A deal could give the conglomerate’s road portfolio an enterprise value of about $1.2 billion, one of the people said. An agreement could be reached in the coming weeks, the person said.
Talks could still fall apart and other bidders could emerge, the people said. Representatives for Actis and Welspun Group declined to comment.
Welspun Group has businesses spanning textiles, pipes, infrastructure and steelmaking and employs more than 26,000 people, according to its website. Its listed Welspun Enterprises Ltd. unit built the 14-lane Delhi-Meerut Expressway and has six so-called hybrid annuity model road projects with the Indian government covering over 200 kilometers, the website shows.
In 2004 Actis was spun out of British International Investment, the U.K. government’s development-finance institution known at the time as CDC Group. Actis has raised about $24 billion since inception, according to its website.