GMR says to invest $650 mln by March 2011

Indian conglomerate GMR Infrastructure Ltd which has interests spanning from aviation to power, has 30 billion rupees ($650 million) to invest in existing businesses by March 2011, a top official said. Separate to that investment, the group is also talking to half a dozen investors, including private equity players, about possible stake sales as it looks to scale up its power and infrastructure businesses. "We are in discussion with a number of ... private equity or any other pure financial investors would come in at holding company level, not at project level," A Subba Rao, group chief financial officer of the GMR Group told the Reuters India Investment Summit on Tuesday. GMR, based in Bangalore, builds and manages infrastructure projects such as airports, roads and power plants. Its operations outside of India include power plants in Europe, Mexico and Australia, as well as an airport in Turkey. Shares in GMR Infrastructure, valued at $5.3 billion, rose 0.8 percent on Tuesday in a Mumbai market .BSESN that fell 0.3 percent. The shares have risen 77 percent in 2009, boosted by government focus on infrastructure building, in line with the 78 percent rise in the main index. (For more on the Reuters India Investment Summit.