Lake Shore looks at $100 mn from Apollo Global to buy Viviana Mall

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)-backed Lake Shore India Advisory is in talks with US-based private equity fund manager Apollo Global Management to raise $100-million (Rs 740 crore) debt. The proceeds will be used to fund the acquisition of Viviana Mall in Thane on Mumbai’s outskirts, said a source in the know.
 
Lake Shore is buying Viviana Mall from Singapore’s  GIC and Ashwin Sheth group for Rs 2,000 crore, said the source.
 
“Lake Shore is planning to fund the mall acquisition through equity and debt. Talks with Apollo Global Management are at an advanced stage,” said the source.
 
When contacted, Ashwin Puri, director of Lakeshore said, “As a policy, we do not comment on market speculation.”
 
Apollo Global Management did not offer any comment on the matter. Ashwin Seth group spokesperson also did not comment. A mail sent to GIC did not elicit any response.
 
Lake Shore has a operational mall in Gurugram and malls in Vasai, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad under various stages of development with about 3.2 million sq ft of retail space. Lake Shore floated a fund to build malls where ADIA is the main investor.
 
Viviana Mall is spread on a 13-acre land parcel in Thane’s Pokhran Road and has a total lease area of 1.7 million sq ft.
 
Last year, Apollo lent $500 million to Piramal Capital & Housing Finance in one of the biggest such deals in the housing finance space. Apollo came as a senior lender in some of the developer loans of Piramal and got first right on projects cash flows.

Apollo had also invested over Rs 300 crore in a premium residential development project of realty developer Transcon Developers earlier this year, said reports.
 
Apollo manages $472 billion of funds globally of which credit forms the largest chunk with a $329 billion book.
 
Another US-based PE fund manager Blackstone is the largest owner of malls in the country with an area of about 10 million sq ft.
 
About. 4.5 million sq. ft. of new mall supply is expected to come up in 2021 across Indian cities, Anarock Property Consultants said.
 
New pan-Indian retail mall supply in 2021 is likely to be more than double of 2020, when it was at 2.1 million sq. ft, it said.