Rahul Nilosey is a finance professional with over 20 years of diverse experience across industries such as dairy, fashion retail, investment banking and infrastructure. Prior to taking over his responsibility as chief financial officer at Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Metro Rail Hyderabad, he served in the Corporate Finance Department of L&T, where he was responsible for capital allocations within the group as well as for long-term capital raising at both the corporate and subsidiary levels in the form of equity, debentures and external commercial borrowings. He also helped execute merger and acquisition transactions such as the acquisition of Mindtree and the sale of certain assets for the group during his tenure at L&T. A recent transaction that he was deeply involved in was the refinancing of L&T Metro’s bank loans through debentures and commercial papers worth more than Rs 130 billion. This was the largest transaction by any corporate in India’s capital markets on a single day.
Regarding the current state of the infrastructure sector, Nilosey believes that the current trend of allocating the majority of central and state budget allocations to infrastructure development is likely to continue over the medium term at least. This is because governments today realise that infrastructure growth not only drives GDP growth, but also helps create jobs for our growing population, and fulfils the aspirations of “Bharat”, which is constantly demanding a better quality of life. While the public sector has caught up with the trend, private sector participation is yet to move beyond a supporting role. The private sector’s past experiences dealing with counterparts in various sectors (such as coal, power, telecom, roads, real estate) may be holding it back. However, given that balance sheets have largely been repaired now and the economic opportunity is tremendous, with support from the government, private sector participation in infrastructure should not be left behind.
Hyderabad Metro, a 69 km metro rail network in the heart of the city, is the world’s largest metro rail project implemented successfully under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Nilosey is hopeful that L&T Metro Rail, in partnership with the government, will be able to demonstrate financial success during operations as well, making the project a model PPP for infrastructure projects.
Nilosey holds a diploma in business administration and a master’s degree in finance. He is fascinated by the world of data analytics and spends his free time learning more about this field.