Sage Modern Capital is a private investment firm, headquartered in New Delhi, with offices in London, specialising in infrastructure assets in India.

An enormous opportunity exists for infrastructure investments in India resulting from favourable factors including robust macro economic trends, a regulatory environment conducive to business, multiple exit opportunities and an increased awareness of this asset class as a source of capital. A focused investment strategy that if successfully executed is likely to result in significant value creation for investors.

Established in February 2007, its Directors and Managers bring a combined 145 years of infrastructure experience in India- originating over US$5bn of infrastructure projects as principals with a multiple exceeding 4 times, and over US$3bn as consultants. The experience and high level contacts of its investment team and principal shareholders give Sage a central position in the Indian Infrastructure sector.

The Sage investment team comprises over 10 professionals with backgrounds in the private sector and government, giving an in depth understanding of the Indian business environment. Previous roles range from senior positions in fund management, banking, government and private business to pure infrastructure experience, as principals and as strategic advisers, conceiving, structuring and procuring the delivery of infrastructure projects.

Crucial to the business and a real barrier to entry is deal origination, which at Sage is based on deep relationships and detailed industry knowledge. This enables the investment team to access good quality, strategic projects from its own extensive range of industry and public sector contacts and from that of its key strategic partners - industry leaders: IL&FS, Voyants Solutions and BUILDco. IL&FS is considered as India’s leading infrastructure development and finance company, with shareholders that include State Bank of India, HSBC Group, ADIA, IFC Washington and Government of Singapore.

Sage commits its own capital to its funds and works with Operators who demonstrate commitment by taking a majority investment position in each project that Sage’s funds invest in. The team is experienced selecting best in class Operators, in agreeing detailed business plans, monitoring performance and realising value for investors when exiting the company. Sage professionals are proactive board members who understand the development process.

Sage’s investment strategy is to leverage its on the ground expertise to identify good infrastructure projects, normally with title and planning consents in place, to identify and partner appropriate Operators, to work with the Operator through the construction and revenue growth phase and then exit once the project has been fully or partially stabilised. It seeks to acquire a portfolio of projects in different sectors to diversify risk, and by careful project selection methodology to provide attractive risk adjusted returns for investors, with relatively low volatility and correlation to traditional assets. Infrastructure investments typically display the following characteristics:

• significant underlying asset base, whether through ownership of, or contractual or concession-based rights to the economic benefits of, the asset base;
• relatively low volatility return, given that, in general, the main risks to cash flows can be quantified and mitigated through contractual arrangements and other means;
• primary value creation through optimisation of capital structure with less of a focus on planned transformational and operational change than would typically be seen with a private equity asset;
• low correlation of returns to macro-economic cycles, given the essential nature of assets and services;
• provided by the businesses, which leads to high barriers to entry and relative price inelasticity;
• partial correlation of returns to inflation; and
• potential for material capital growth including gains from refinancings.

Examples of infrastructure asset classes are shown below:

Transport infrastructure

• Toll roads, bridges, tunnels and road maintenance
• Ports
• Airports and air traffic control
• Rail
• Ferries
• Bus and light rail franchises

Utilities

• Water treatment and distribution
• Electricity distribution
• Power generation
• Oil and gas distribution and storage
• Waste processing
• Communications infrastructure

Social/Urban infrastructure

• Healthcare facilities
• Education facilities
• Special Economic Zones
• Business Parks
• Integrated Townships

Sage is committed to a corporate governance process that ensures adherence to global "Best Practice" standards and transparency in its operations. The Firm remains committed to being at the forefront of product innovation and development and to providing investors with ongoing support, and liaison.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our website. We encourage you to contact us directly if you would like to learn more about Sage and its services.