Kanorias plan new investment in road and power sectors.

After exiting from the mobile tower business, the Kanorias aim to invest more in road and power projects. Recently, their Srei Infrastructure Finance sold its entire stake in Viom Networks to American Tower Corporation, for Rs. 2,952 crore.

Hemant Kanoria, chairman of Srei, said the Viom deal money would go for, among other things, more investment in road and power, plus increasing the family's 68.31% stake in India Power Corporation Ltd (IPCL). Some of the Viom cash would also help in reducing the company's debt, presently Rs. 28,000 crore.

Srei manages its road projects through Bharat Road Network Ltd (BRNL). Kanoria said they'd like to dilute some stake here, as also in some other companies. 'Unlike towers, we do not want to exit the business. We are also looking at acquisitions in the road sector,' he said.

So far, BRNL has implemented 14 projects for Rs. 12,753 crore, for 5,400 lane km. BRNL currently manages a build, operate and transfer (BOT) asset portfolio of 2,450 lane km of highways, the capital cost being Rs. 7,901 crore.

These projects have been completed or are under implementation in consortium with domestic and global partners, in a public-private partnership framework.

'The road sector has not started picking up. Once it starts, we will look into all options -- Initial Public Offer, private equity or sovereign fund,' said Kanoria.

BS