Global asset manager Apollo Global Management has taken over JPMorgan Asset Management’s real estate portfolio in India. After the acquisition of $300-million worth portfolio, Apollo Global’s assets under management (AUM) in India is now around half-a-billion dollars.
Both JPMorgan and Apollo Global are New York-based firms. The firms have the US and European investors as their limited partners.
As a part of this multi-million deal, Apollo Global has reportedly inducted four people from JPMorgan’s India team. The newly created joint platform will be led by Nipun Sahni, who currently heads Apollo Global’s India real estate business.
Noteworthy here is that there are reportedly 14 investments across six cities and 10 joint ventures that come under JP Morgan’s Indian real estate portfolio. The JVs include partners like Hiranandani Group, Assetz Property, Kolte-Patil Developers, Sheth Developers, Aparna Group, Kanakia Group, and Vaswani Builders. It also owns the recently-opened Renaissance Marriott hotel in Bengaluru.
The India Property Fund and India Property Fund II were raised by JP to invest in residential and hotel projects between 2006 and early-2016.
“Apollo Global is a growing investment platform in India and the transaction gives it an opportunity to significantly expand its AUM here,” an insider told Live Mint. “It also gives it access to new developer partners who are part of the JPMorgan portfolio.”
This is not the first time that Apollo had acquired a real estate portfolio in India. In November 2010, it had taken over Citi Property Investors, the real estate investment division of Citigroup Inc.
Later in 2016, Apollo had invested Rs. 400 crore of structured debt in Noida-based Logix Group. So far, it has invested around Rs. 1,200 crore across projects in Mumbai and the National Capital Region (NCR).
It is being claimed that Apollo will continue to make investments across real estate asset classes on its own. Talking about its latest JP deal, there are a few deals in the portfolio that are in exit mode. However, many of JP Morgan’s real estate investments still have around four years of fund life left, which Apollo Global will now manage.