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The $4.7-billion asset manager of the Uday Kotak group, Kotak Investment Advisors (KIA), is planning to launch a $800-million infrastructure fund to invest in projects across India. Managing Director Srini Sriniwasan told the media that the $1-billion Kotak Special Situations Fund (KSSF), an investor in distressed assets, is likely to complete 75% of its investments by December 2021. The new fund will be ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) compliant and not invest in thermal power. Money will be raised from domestic as well as institutional investors worldwide. This is Kotak's second infrastructure fund. The company had raised a $90 million fund in partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Brookfield Asset Management in 2013. Also in the pipeline is a pre-IPO alternative investment fund for technology companies of about $150 to $200 million, for which it is talking to investors. KIA's main $1 billion KSSF has already invested 55% of its proceeds in varied sectors from steel, cement, nutraceuticals and roads. In April 2020, in the midst of the lockdown, KSSF helped Nirma promoters bridge a funding gap and complete its buyout of eastern India based cement company Nuvoco. The Rs 550 crore investment has given KSSF a single-digit stake in the company, which is planning to list in the stock market this fiscal. KSSF has also backed Mumbai based Sanjaya Mariwala's nutraceuticals business Omniactive Health Technologies with a Rs 250 crore promoter funding for a stake in the business that will also result in an upside when the company lists on the exchanges. KSSF is close to finalising the buyout of a Rs 1,500 crore distressed road project at a 50% haircut to lenders through a one-time settlement through which it expects steady annuity payments. It has also submitted expressions of interest resolutions through the IBC. The special situations fund has financed Rs 550 crore to the Prestige Group in taking over a project from the DB Group in Mumbai's Mahalakshmi in February this year. The company also bought 5 lakh square feet of office space belonging to the erstwhile Religare Group in Saket in Delhi through a bank-run IBC process last month. It had also invested $68 million in Jindal Stainless, helping promoters pay off creditors and exit restructuring in December 2019. Image Source Also read: Kotak Mahindra AMC launches India's first REIT fund of funds