India Infra and InvITs Committee

Anish is a partner in Price Waterhouse & Co LLP and has over 25 years’ experience advising clients on income-tax and regulatory matters.

Anish advises MNCs and domestic clients on Indian and international tax, inbound investment advisory and corporate tax (with a focus on real state, infrastructure and private equity funds), assists them in setting up investment structures, conducting tax due diligence and providing advice on tax and regulatory compliances. Anish also advises on exchange control regulations, corporate and other regulatory laws.

He has wide experience in advising real estate and infrastructure clients on evaluation of JDA / EPC arrangements, migration to REIT / InvIT structures, business reorganisation and M&A transactions.

He has also actively participated in advocacy related discussions with the Finance Ministry requesting clarifications / amendments to the recently introduced sovereign wealth fund and pension fund tax exemption.

Anish is a commerce graduate and a member of ICAI.

Deb Hajara joined the Asia Pacific Infrastructure and Natural Resources team of Ontario Teachers' in 2021. Prior to joining Ontario Teachers’ Deb had 12 years of experience in infrastructure investing in India. Most recently he spent 5 years with Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets in Mumbai, where he was responsible for both acquisitions and asset management with a focus on the transport sector.

Deepak Malhotra is Managing Director, Infrastructure, India at CDPQ. In his role, he is responsible for all infrastructure investment activities in India, which include overseeing a team of investment professionals, managing a diversified investment portfolio including renewable energy generation, transmission lines, toll roads etc. and leading new investment activities.

Mr. Malhotra has over 20 years of experience across all facets of infrastructure. Before joining CDPQ in 2018, he worked with International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group, where he led investments in the infrastructure sector in India and other Asian countries. Prior to IFC, he worked with one of the leading credit rating agencies in India and in the Merchant Navy.

Mr. Malhotra is MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt University in USA and is on the boards (non-executive positions) of various companies including CDPQ India, Maple Highways, Azure Power Global Limited etc.

Hans-Martin Aerts is a Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure & Natural Resources, Asia Pacific at APG Asset Management, one of the largest pension fund asset managers in the world with assets under management of approximately €536 billion (as at September 2020).

In February 2007, Hans-Martin moved to Hong Kong to establish APG’s first office in Asia Pacific and has since been responsible for managing the infrastructure investments in Asia Pacific.

Prior to working for APG, Hans-Martin was a Senior Portfolio Manager at ABP. He joined ABP in 2001 and has since worked in various areas, including listed equities, structured finance, infrastructure and natural resources. Hans-Martin is a CFA charter holder, and holds an MSc in Economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Harsh Agrawal is a Partner at I Squared Capital, focusing on the Firm’s infrastructure strategy in Asia.

Harsh brings more than 18 years of financial services and investing experience. At I Squared Capital, Harsh led the formation of Cube Highways, a toll road operating platform set up in Singapore along with the International Finance Corporation, to acquire and operate toll roads in India. He recently led the divestment of a minority stake by I Squared Capital in Cube Highways to ADIA and Japan Highways International.

Harsh led the team on the 2015 investment in Amplus Energy Solutions, a leading Enterprise Energy Solutions company. In the ensuing four years, Amplus grew from less than two megawatts to a company with more than 100 international customers and over 350 megawatts when it was sold to Petronas in 2019. Harsh has also been instrumental in the creation of THINK Gas, a pan-Asia focused natural gas investment platform, currently with concessions for distributing liquid and compressed natural gas in six geographical areas in India, covering a population of more than 20 million people.

Prior to joining I Squared Capital in 2013, Harsh served for 12 years in various roles at Morgan Stanley in the United States and India. During his career at Morgan Stanley, he was involved in strategic transactions and financings for transportation and infrastructure companies in North America, investing in health care and industrial companies in the United States, evaluating growth capital opportunities for companies in India, and most recently financing infrastructure projects in India as part of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure (MSI).

Before joining MSI, Harsh worked with Morgan Stanley Principal Investments (MSPI) in Mumbai, evaluating investments for Morgan Stanley’s proprietary investments group. Earlier in his career, Harsh worked at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP) in New York, where he focused on health care and industrial investments, and Morgan Stanley’s Financial Institutions Group covering insurance companies.

Harsh holds dual degrees in computer science and economics from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He is married with two children and lives in Singapore. Harsh is fluent in Hindi and English.

Mr. Harsh Shah is the Chief Executive Officer and Whole-time Director on Board for IndiGrid, the largest listed yield platform for operational energy assets in India with majority interest held by KKR. He has an extensive track record of building large infrastructure platforms and raising private and public capital across infrastructure sector in India and global markets. He has been instrumental in building India's first power sector investment trust - India Grid Trust (IndiGrid), from concept to US $ 2 Bn listed platform working with regulators, investors and developers. He is also a member of the SEBI Advisory Committee for InvITs and REITs and chairs working group on InvITs and REITs at financial markets committee at CII.

Previously, Mr. Shah served as the Chief Financial Officer at Sterlite Power Transmission Limited. Prior to joining Sterlite, he has worked with Larsen & Toubro Limited, L&T Infrastructure Finance Company Limited and Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Limited.

Mr. Shah holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Nirma Institute of Technology, Gujarat University.

Kavita Saha is Senior Principal, Infrastructure, CPPIB and is responsible for evaluating and executing infrastructure investments in India. She has over 24 years’ experience in infrastructure advisory, financing and investments with Indian and international institutions, including JP Morgan, Barclays, IL&FS and IDBI. Prior to joining CPPIB, she was Managing Director in the Asian Infrastructure Fund, part of JP Morgan’s Global Alternatives Platform where she was responsible for investing in infrastructure projects in India in sectors such as roads and power. Kavita is a CFA and MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.

Kranti Mohan has over 15 years of experience in advising on Indian securities laws. He has advised
on almost the entire spectrum of capital markets transactions, including IPOs, QIPs, rights offerings,
overseas listings (including through business trust route), buybacks, and block/ bulk trades on the
stock exchanges. Over the last few years, he has also extensively advised on establishing and listing
business trusts, infrastructure investment trusts, real estate investment trusts and yieldcos.

Kranti is also a member of the Hybrid Securities Advisory Committee constituted by SEBI and a
member of APREA’s India Infra and InvITs Committee.

He was an active participant in the Firm’s initiatives related to the consultation process on various
aspects of Invits and REITs and collaborated with few stakeholders in making representations to
various governmental/ regulatory authorities, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of
Finance, Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Reserve Bank of India and SEBI.

In the past, Kranti was also a member of the committee constituted by SEBI for streamlining
disclosure standards for equity offerings and the working group on evaluating REITs of CII.

Mr. Pawan Kant is an Infrastructure Investment and Asset Management professional with three decades of experience in roads and highways, industrial parks, townships, special economic zones, power transmission and projects under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model of development. His domain experience includes M&A, organisational development, creating sustainable strategic business units, project execution, operations management, commercial and contracts, tendering.

Pawan has been part of reputed institutions such as Tata Group, Singapore Technologies, Great Eastern Shipping Company, Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited.

Currently, as CEO of the Investment Manager to IndInfravit Trust, he is responsible for the strategic direction and overall growth of the assets under the Trust’s portfolio. The portfolio comprises 13 operating toll road companies, spread across 6 states of India. These covers 5000 lane kms at an EV of Rs. 12000 crores.

Some of the past notable assets include 8 million sqft of IT SEZ executed on relationship contract (Alliance model), multi modal logistics project in Southeast Asia; 1200 ckms across country transmission project in central India.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Management and Bachelors Degree in construction technology, townships and real estate.

Prerna has over 24 years’of experience in the field of corporate restructuring, due diligence, mergers and acquisitions and international taxation, for strategics, private equity funds, pension funds and multinationals investing in Infrastructure sector in India.

Select Experience

• Structuring advisory services (including advisory for migration to Infrastructure Investment Trust, i.e. InvIT) and model review for infrastructure platforms in India
• Advising Pension Funds investing in infrastructure deals in India comprising diligence, tax structuring advisory and documentation review
• Tax structuring advice for partners seeking to set up joint ventures/ platforms for infrastructure projects in India
• Pre ipo advisory for various platforms seeking to list on the Indian stock exchange

Pushkar Kulkarni is an Electronics Engineer with an MBA with over 25 years of experience in the infrastructure sector. His leadership experience has been across the value chain of Infrastructure; Technology, Operations, M&A and finally as an Investor. Prior to joining CPP Investments where he currently leads Infrastructure Investments for India, he has held leadership positions at SERCO and within the Strabag group in India. He has represented India at the International Standards Org (ISO) on several technical committees responsible for communication standards in road & transport infrastructure.

He has played a key role in some of the marquee projects / investments in India. To name a few:

1. Fast TAG, India’s nationwide ETC system which today covers more than 95% of Federal tolls
2. Formation of India’s first Private Listed Infrastructure Trust; IndInfravit
3. India’s first Government InvIT sponsored by National Highways Authority
4. PowerGrid Corp InvIT IPO

Zaman Velj is the Managing Director of Infrastructure & Renewable Resources at BCI. Additionally, he leads some of the group’s thinking on topics of long term, strategic importance including the impact of ‘disruptive’ technologies and expansion of the portfolio in Asia. Previously, he was with McKinsey & Company advising institutional investors and he started his career in international development and diplomacy with the Aga Khan Development Network. He holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and undergraduate degrees from Cornell University in engineering and in government.