The Macquarie-SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF) is the newly-announced joint venture of India's biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) and the largest Australian investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd., which has raised $1 billion for investment in ports and power plants in India.

The SBI-Macquarie joint venture MSIF also boasts of the participation of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, as a minority shareholder and keystone investor.

In April last year, the SBI and Macquarie had mentioned their intentions to raise $2 billion for the fund. In its most recent statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the SBI said that the MSIF will aim at a raising of the total funds - with support from Indian domestic institutions - to almost $3 billion this year.

SBI, Macquarie and IFC have altogether committed $150 million apiece to bring a total amount of $450 million of sponsor commitments. In addition, international investors have committed $887 million to the fund.

As per a MSIF statement, the fund will focus on investments "in traditional infrastructure assets that generate long term identifiable cash flows, and that exhibit essential service characteristics. These include roads, sea ports, airports, power generation, transmission and distribution, gas distribution, and telecommunications. Investments will include green-field projects as well as established operating businesses."