Govt infuses Rs 5,000 crore in SWAMIH Fund; final close at Rs 15,530 crore for stressed realty projects platform

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The government has put in an additional Rs 5,000 crore into the SWAMIH Invest Fund-I to help the stressed realty investment platform achieve its final close at Rs 15,530 crore, its manager SBI Capital Ventures said on Thursday.

The fund set up under the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing is India's largest social impact fund, according to a statement, which said the government recently infused Rs 5,000 crore.

It intends to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stressed, brownfield and residential projects registered with regulatory bodies that fall in the affordable, mid-income housing category.

SBI is also one of the anchor investors of the Fund along with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) while other investors include HDFC and major nationalised banks.

The country's largest lender SBI is one of the anchor investors of the Ministry of Finance-sponsored fund along with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Other investors include HDFC Ltd and major nationalised banks, the statement said.

The final close comes three years after the fund had marked its first close on receiving Rs 10,037.5 crore in commitments, including Rs 5,000 crore from the government, in December 2019.

So far, the fund has given final approvals to 127 projects which will in turn complete over 79,000 homes, it said, adding that 286 projects across over 30 cities, which entail construction of over 1 lakh homes are being evaluated at present, the statement said.

Its investment team, which has been scaled up to 33 people now, has evaluated over 1,000 deals and will keep evaluating deals till December 2024 with the final close in place, it said.

"We at SWAMIH Investment Fund I continue to closely monitor all construction spend to ensure that the capital is utilised only for the completion of the project. The Fund has already achieved construction completion of 19,500 homes and is on track to deliver about 20,000 homes every year for the next 3 years," the chief investment officer Irfan A Kazi said.

"The State Bank Group will continue to provide all execution capabilities required to fully implement this strategic Government of India initiative," SBICAP Ventures' managing director and chief executive Suresh Kozhikote said.