Macquarie Group will launch a sale process next year for a portfolio of nine toll roads it operates in India, two sources familiar told Infralogic.

They did not provide details, only saying the asset manager will start to look for investors in the second quarter of the next fiscal year beginning April.

The portfolio comprises 681km in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and were awarded in February 2018 as part of the government’s toll, operate, transfer programme. Macquarie offered USD 1.2bn to win the contract.

It has since created Safeway Concessions – a branded roads platform – to hold the nine assets.

Macquarie entered India’s infrastructure sector more than a decade earlier. It established the Macquarie-SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF) with a little more than USD 1bn in 2009, with commitments from international investors including the International Financial Corporation.

The fund subsequently invested in toll roads platform Ashoka Concessions.

Last month, Macquarie agreed to sell its 34% in Ashoka Concessions to its parent company Ashoka Buildcon – as well as its 26% stake in Jaora Nayagaon Toll Road – to the same developer.

Macquarie’s early deals in the roads sector include acquiring majority stakes in Jadcherla Expressways from GMR Group and in Trichy Tollway from Malaysia’s IJM and Mumbai-based Shapoorji Pallonji in 2013.

Macquarie sold the two assets to Abertis in 2016. The concessions will end in 2026.

Macquarie also sold assets the Swarna Tollway and Gujarat Road and Infrastructure Company (GRICL) to KKR-backed Highways Infrastructure Trust in January this year.

While Swarna Tollway was acquired in phases from IJM – a 70% stake in 2015 and the remainder in December 2018 – Macquarie was one of the sponsors of GRICL along with the Gujarat state government and Mumbai-based Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) Group.

In April this year, Macquarie bought the 150km BSCPL Aurang Tollway from Hyderabad-based developer BSCPL Infrastructure, its first acquisition in about a decade from the secondary market.

Macquarie declined to comment.