Apollo Global exits luxury realty project in Mumbai

PE firm makes 2.3 times return on Rs 200-crore investment

Global private equity (PE) giant Apollo Global Management has sold its entire stake in the ‘super luxury’ Ahuja Towers residential project of real estate company Ahuja Constructions, for a hefty profit.

Apollo had invested about Rs 200 crore in the project at Worli in this city for a 49 per cent voting right, six years earlier. It has exited for Rs 460 crore. Ahuja Towers is a 53-storey project.

Early this year, Apollo  set up real estate PE platforms in Asia with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Delhi, among other cities.

Nipun Sahni, former managing director and India head of the real estate investment group at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and founder and chief executive officer at Rezone Investment Advisors, has joined Apollo as partner and head of real estate, India.

Other team members of Sahni at Rezone have also joined Apollo in India.

As of March 2015, the NYSE-listed Apollo managed $163 billion of investor commitments across its PE, credit and real estate funds and other investment vehicles, making it one of the largest global alternative investment management firms.

Its focus on Asia real estate comes as global real estate investors such as US-based Blackstone and Singapore's GIC are aggressively buying commercial assets in countries such as India.