India’s Alphard Maritime Group has set out to establish a $500m shipping fund in the country’s new financial services centre, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
The plan is for Alphard to contribute Rs500 crore, while partners would provide another Rs4,500 crore to Indian shipowners looking to acquire assets worth between $10m and $20m.
Mumbai-based Alphard has been operating since 2009 with offices also in Singapore, UAE, Australia, and Greece.
“Once the fund gets going, we are trying to be an enabler for Indian shipping tonnage,” Captain Alok Kumar, chairman and promotor of Alphard said.
The fund is being developed in partnership with PwC and is backed by European lenders that currently work with Alphard.
Alok further suggested the government should create a separate shipping fund in GIFT City to attract additional investors and recommended that state-owned companies should offer longer contracts to local players, which would in turn also support owners to build ships in India.