IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd is a private equity fund manager that once raised and deployed capital for some of India’s largest institutional investors - but since the 2018 collapse of its parent, the IL&FS Group, it has been frozen in place, operating in what it calls “maintenance mode”. The company was incorporated in 1986 and built its business as the sponsor and manager of multiple generations of private equity, real estate, and infrastructure funds, earning fees for investing money on behalf of Indian and international institutions. Today, with its brand damaged, its fund terms expiring, and a stalled stake-sale process leaving its future in limbo, the recurring approach is not growth but a single-minded wind-down: divest what remains in the portfolio, return cash to investors, and keep the lights on while the parent tries to find a buyer. # Business segments A single engine in run-off - a private equity fund manager that no longer raises new money, now focused entirely on selling down legacy investments and managing the tail of a shrinking infrastructure-debt and urban-finance portfolio through its subsidiaries. ## 1. Fund management: a fiduciary business in wind-down **The company earns management fees by looking after other people’s money, but almost all of its funds have reached or passed their end dates - so the fee pool shrinks with every asset sold.** - **Paid to manage, not to own** - IIML acts as sponsor and investment manager to private equity funds, collecting management and advisory fees calculated on net invested capital, outstanding commitments, or disposition proceeds, with revenue recognised over the life of each fund. - **The funds are expiring** - the term of most existing funds has already ended, and others are approaching the end of their term, which has caused a significant reduction in fee revenue because the company earns fees only while the funds are active. - **Divestment is the only mandate** - with new fund-raising on hold pending a stake sale by IL&FS, the team has focused primarily on selling down the remaining portfolio investments, and fee-earning assets under management have been consistently declining as a result. - **Investors walked away** - after the IL&FS crisis, investors in some funds terminated their management contracts, and investors in one private equity fund initiated a process to end the management agreement, which the company challenged. ## 2. Infrastructure debt: a closed-ended loan book running off **Through a subsidiary, IIML manages an Infrastructure Debt Fund that operates like a mutual fund of infrastructure loans - but the schemes are closed-ended, so the asset pool only gets smaller.** - **A mutual fund for infrastructure loans** - IL&FS Infra Asset Management Limited (86.61%-owned) is the asset manager of the IL&FS Mutual Fund, an Infrastructure Debt Fund registered under SEBI’s mutual fund regulations, with a separate 100%-owned trustee company providing oversight. - **Five schemes left** - the fund’s assets under management stood at ₹1,348.78 crore across 5 schemes as of March 2023, down from ₹16.7 billion across 7 schemes two years earlier, because the closed-ended structure means capital is returned to investors as loans mature and no new money flows in. - **Fee income follows the AUM down** - the company earns fee income from managing these schemes, recognised over time as services are provided, so every repayment shrinks the revenue base. ## 3. Urban infrastructure finance: a public-sector lending and project-management franchise **Two subsidiaries lend to municipalities and manage urban projects, mostly in Andhra Pradesh - a steady but concentrated fee stream that depends on government clients.** - **A lender to cities** - IL&FS Urban Infrastructure Managers Limited (100%-owned) runs the Pooled Municipal Debt Obligations Facility, which provides long-tenure term loans to urban infrastructure projects across Indian cities, earning asset management fees of roughly 1% per year on the outstanding loan balance. - **An end-to-end partner for Andhra Pradesh** - Andhra Pradesh Urban Infrastructure Asset Management Limited (51% IIML, 49% state government) finances urban local bodies and delivers integrated project development and programme management, handling projects of around ₹132 billion as of FY23. - **Concentration risk is real** - APUIAML’s customers are urban local bodies and government authorities in a single state, and as of early 2026 the auditor flagged that unbilled revenue outstanding for more than a year ought to have been reversed, potentially overstating revenue and contract assets. # Group structure and partners **IIML is a subsidiary of a parent in resolution, with a simplified structure after recent mergers and a board dominated by the troubled promoter.** - Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited owns 50.42% of IIML and has been trying to sell that stake since the 2018 crisis, with a fresh expression of interest invited in December 2023 and the process still underway as of May 2025. - The company’s six-person board includes three non-executive promoter nominee directors from IL&FS, alongside an independent chairman, one other independent director, and one executive director - and the NCLT has granted an exemption from the requirement to appoint independent and women directors. - Two wholly owned subsidiaries - IL&FS Asian Infrastructure Managers Limited and IIML Asset Advisors Limited - were amalgamated into IIML effective July 2024, eliminating duplicate entities and rationalising compliance costs since all three were in the same line of fund-management business. - The offshore subsidiary in Mauritius remains active as investment manager to two legacy funds, while the Singapore fund-management subsidiary was struck off in November 2024 after surrendering its licence in FY2019 with no operations or employees. - The 50:50 joint venture with Standard Chartered Bank, which managed an Asia infrastructure growth fund, was struck off in February 2025 after the fund completed all divestments and was wound up.