India, Mar 02: Primus Partners today released a new thought-leadership report, “Capital Recycling at Scale: Unlocking ₹35,000 Crore via the Next Wave of InvITs,” highlighting how India can unlock the next wave of InvITs by expanding into un-explored infrastructure sectors. It evaluates their potential through a readiness lens, assesses structural and market constraints, potential investment that can be unlocked and outlines the actions required to scale InvIT adoption and accelerate capital recycling across the broader infrastructure landscape.
The report states that, India’s aspiration to emerge as a developed nation under Viksit Bharat@2047 requires a sustained high growth trajectory over the coming years. The Economic Survey 2024 – 25 highlights that achieving this vision will require India to maintain an average GDP growth rate of around 8% at constant prices for next two decades. Infrastructure development is central to this ambition, acting as a foundational enabler of economic expansion, productivity enhancement, and inclusive growth. However, infrastructure is inherently capital-intensive, and public capital alone will not be sufficient to meet the scale and pace of investment required.
While Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) have played a critical role in attracting private participation into infrastructure creation, a key constraint from the private investor’s perspective has been the long lock-in period and delayed capital recovery. To address this structural limitation, Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) were introduced as a capital market instrument to enable early monetisation of operational infrastructure assets.
InvITs facilitate capital recycling by providing developers an opportunity to exit operational and stabilised infrastructure assets at an earlier stage, rather than remaining locked in for the long project gestation period, thereby enabling reinvestment into new infrastructure development. They offer low risk, yield oriented investment opportunities that attract long term institutional investors such as insurance companies and pension funds, while also enabling retail participation through ownership of diversified infrastructure portfolios. Additionally, InvITs provide a long-term financing solution for existing infrastructure assets, reducing reliance on traditional bank financing.
InvITs raise capital from investors through primary issuance of units and acquire commercially operational infrastructure assets, with at least 80% of AUM invested in revenue-generating projects. They distribute a minimum of 90% of Net Distributable Cash Flow to unitholders, raise debt within prescribed Net Debt to AUM limits, and oversee the ownership, operation, and maintenance of assets while collecting associated revenues.
As of December 2025, India has approximately 27 registered InvITs, of which only six are publicly listed, collectively managing assets worth around Rs. 7 lakh crore as per Bharat InvITs Association BIA report. Despite this growth, the InvIT ecosystem remains highly concentrated. Road assets, fibre networks, power generation and transmission together account for over 75% of total InvIT assets. In contrast, a significant portion of India’s infrastructure universe recognised under the Reserve Bank of India’s Harmonised Master List of Infrastructure Sectors remains largely untapped.
The report identifies under-explored infrastructure sectors where InvIT adoption could significantly scale capital recycling:
Data Centres
Data Centres demonstrate a strong structural alignment with InvITs due to their capital-intensive nature, long-life physical assets such as buildings and power infrastructure, and predictable cash flows generated through long-term colocation contracts. However, InvIT adoption in this sector remains limited as the industry is currently in a rapid expansion phase. A substantial portion of capacity is either under construction or has only recently become operational, resulting in cash flows that are yet to fully stabilize. Since InvIT investors typically seek mature, yield-generating assets, many data centre portfolios are not yet fully suited to this profile.
A platform-based InvIT structure would be most practical, where the trust holds multiple data centre assets through separate SPVs, while specialized operators manage day-to-day operations under long-term O&M agreements. International experience with digital infrastructure REITs indicates that once assets achieve operational maturity and stable utilization levels, they can be effectively aggregated and monetized through trust structures. According to a Jefferies report, India’s data centre capacity is projected to grow nearly fivefold to around 8 GW by 2030, driven by rising data consumption, cloud adoption, and digitalization. With existing colocation capacity of approximately 1.7 GW operating at nearly 97% occupancy, demand already exceeds supply. Meeting the targeted incremental capacity of 6.4 GW will require substantial capital investment. Given this context and as per Primus Research, InvITs could potentially unlock around ₹4,000 crore by monetizing stabilized assets and enabling capital recycling into new capacity creation.
Airports
Airports are also structurally well suited for InvITs, supported by long concession tenures of 30–50 years, diversified aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenue streams, and high entry barriers. Once passenger traffic stabilizes, airport cash flows tend to exhibit annuity-like characteristics. Limited exploration of InvITs in this sector reflects lifecycle timing constraints, as only a few privately operated airports have reached sustained traffic maturity, alongside evolving tariff and regulatory frameworks.
A suitable model would involve InvITs acquiring equity stakes in operational airport SPVs that hold long-term concession rights, while licensed operators continue to manage operations and maintenance. This separation of ownership and operations enables InvITs to function as yield-focused investment platforms. The model also aligns well with the government’s airport bundling strategy, where profitable airports are grouped with smaller or regional airports under a single concession framework, thereby improving portfolio-level viability and diversification. Under the National Infrastructure Pipeline and National Monetization Pipeline, approximately ₹90,000 crore was envisaged during FY2020–25 to expand passenger handling capacity through new terminals, runways, and related infrastructure. As traffic stabilizes across a broader set of airports and regulatory clarity improves. Given this context and as per Primus Research, InvITs can aggregate stabilized and bundled airport and potentially unlocking around ₹1,000 crore and facilitating capital recycling for greenfield development and regional connectivity initiatives.
Shipping (Large Commercial Vessels)
Large commercial vessels are high-value assets with operational lives of 20–30 years and, when deployed under long-term charter contracts, generate steady and predictable income streams, making them suitable candidates for InvIT structures. The recent decision of the Government of India to grant infrastructure status to Indian-owned and flagged commercial ships above specified gross tonnage thresholds has significantly strengthened the sector’s eligibility for structured financing. Previously, shipping was not recognized as infrastructure, and shipowners largely depended on bank financing or government support, limiting the scope for InvIT participation. With this policy shift, structural barriers have reduced, although adoption remains at an early stage.
Under a Shipping InvIT model, vessels would be held through separate SPVs, while experienced operators manage operations under long-term agreements, ensuring a clear separation between ownership and operations. Shipowners could transfer operational vessels into these SPVs in exchange for InvIT units, while the trust raises capital from institutional and retail investors. With Maritime India Vision 2030 and Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 aiming to position India among the top global shipbuilding nations, the sector presents significant long-term opportunity. Given this context and as per Primus Research, InvITs could help monetize existing vessels and recycle capital into fleet expansion and green technologies, with potential to unlock approximately ₹30,000 crore in long-term investment and support India’s maritime growth ambitions.
Pragya Priyadarshini, Managing Director, Primus Partners, said: “As India progresses toward achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047, public funding alone will not suffice. We must think beyond traditional PPP structures to deepen private sector participation in infrastructure. InvITs offer a scalable capital market solution, delivering stable, yield-oriented returns while enabling efficient capital recycling. With over 75% of existing InvIT assets concentrated in roads, fibre, and power. Given this content, diversification is essential and expanding InvITs into data centres, airports, and large commercial vessels could unlock nearly ₹35,000 crore, creating long-term value for investors and strengthening infrastructure financing”