By Team InBilt
Published on November 6th, 2026
Foreign markets ain’t very foreign for Indian infrastructure companies. Many of the major ones, have at all times, upwards of 10 percent or more of their exposure elsewhere than India. Despite this, the last few months has thrown some interesting new regions and sectors that Indian infra companies have set eyes on – Central Asia, Europe and Metros in foreign lands.
Growing Interest in Central Asia
In October, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced it has commenced initial engineering, detailed design, planning, procurement preparation and other related pre-construction activities for the contract awarded by from the PPP consortium developing the New Tashkent International Airport in Uzbekistan. The contract is valued upwards of Rs 15,000 crore, making it a high-value, one of the bigger contracts for the company. In August, Uzbekistan offered Indian companies the opportunity to participate as investors in five energy projects with a combined value of US$3.4 billion, Energy Minister Sherzod Khodjaev told O’zbekiston 24 television.
Uzbekistan is not the only Central Asia company attracting attention from Indian infrastructure companies. PNC Infratech, recently announced it has incorporated a subsidiary, PNC Infratech (Kazakhstan) LLP to evaluate long-term opportunities arising from Kazakhstan’s planned 9.8 billion US Dollars road infrastructure program in the country, spanning over 3,000 kilometers over the next three years. The country recently announced an Infrastructure Modernisation Plan to be supported by approximately 6.5 trillion tenge ($14.27 billion) from the National Fund by the end of 2029.
To be sure, these geographies come with their own set of challenges, and occasionally slow starts. For instance, in November 2024, Afcons Infrastructure approved the winding-up of “Afcons Infra Projects Kazakhstan LLP. Some of the interest, that energy companies from India expressed in this region prior to the pandemic, did not see much traction.
Gautam Adani goes shopping in Europe
This week, Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) said it has agreed to acquire 100% stake in Netherlands-headquartered Evos B.V. (Evos) from Igneo Infrastructure Partners. The proposed transaction is an all-cash deal at an enterprise value of €2.56 billion. This deal marks Adani Ports entry into the Europe market. The port company’s international presence so far includes 4 international ports across Australia, Colombo, Israel, and Tanzania. Evos is Europe’s second-largest independent liquid storage operator with 6.3 mn cubic meters of storage capacity at eight strategically located port-based terminals across the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Malta, all of that now gets added to APSEZ’s international portfolio.
Here is what APSEZ hopes to get out of the deal – significant upside “driven by price realization, export potential of key liquids including diesel and transition to high value liquids including methanol, biomethanol, SAF, etc.”, expansion, “APSZ can also use this platform to expand its presence in energy transition within Europe and beyond Europe around the world” and foreign currency earnings, “EVOS will add sizable euro denominated hard currency earnings that will enhance overall APSZ risk profile,” the company executives noted in a call with analysts.
This year, Europe has found a place of interest with more infrastructure companies, with Afcons Infrastructure announcing their biggest ever international order won for a railway project valued at €677.07 million in Croatia.
DMIL’s Foreign Ambitions
India has been a country of interest for many foreign entities – pension funds, investment funds, cement companies, engineering equipment companies, infra-tech companies, over the last two decades, particularly in the infrastructure segment. This interest is owing to a combination of a population density, along with low per capita consumption of many building materials such as metals and cement, and a long road ahead of new infrastructure projects. Indian infrastructure companies, though with major focus on the domestic markets, have over the years sensed the opportunity to capitalise on their expertise and strength, elsewhere.
A host of infrastructure companies – Kalpataru Projects International (KPIL), Afcons, L&T, KEC International, all have expanded to foreign markets. An unusual participant, however, is latest entrant Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Formed largely from a public sector interest, ambitions to operate foreign assets in an unusual pursuit, however, DMRC is keen to do so. The metro company has formed a subsidiary – Delhi Metro International Ltd and news reports suggest it has bid for five overseas projects. In doing so, DMIL will be competing with the only other major Indian company building metros elsewhere – L&T. While, L&T does these projects on EPC basis, DMIL looks to operate. Nevertheless, with that we have yet another Indian infrastructure entity making a go for the foreign shores.
