Abu Dhabi fund 'keen' on India investments

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the Abu Dhabi government, has expressed "keen interest" in investing in India, India's Trade Ministry said on Monday.

The two sides have agreed to speed up the creation of a joint working group to facilitate the fund's investment into Asia's third-largest economy, the ministry said in a statement.

ADIA may invest in India's infrastructure sector, which will see a total of $1trn of investment in the next five years, Trade Minister Anand Sharma said, according to the statement.

This could include money for the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), a project that aims to build 24 industrial hubs along a railway line connecting the two cities.

"This is an opportunity to enter this huge market," said Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the managing director of the ADIA, according to the statement.

Last month, ADIA bought a 9.9 percent stake in Thames Water from a consortium led by Australian bank Macquarie.

The acquisition was made by Infinity Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ADIA Macquarie said in a statement on its website. The company declined to reveal the value of the sale of the stake in Kemble Water, the parent company of Thames Water.

The UK utility is the country’s largest water and wastewater services company.