Apollo, SUN raise $630m India fund

New York-based Apollo and Indian investment group SUN have closed a $630m fund focused on the Indian property sector.

New York-based private equity real estate firm Apollo Real Estate Advisors and Indian investment firm SUN Group have closed a fund on $630 million (€485 million) to invest in Indian property.

The fund was launched last April and held a first close in August, according to the two firms. It has already invested in a development project, a 5-million square foot, mixed-use IT park located on 58 acres of land outside of Chennai.

The fund, which will have an advisory team based in Mumbai, will be headed up by real estate pro Chetan Davé, formerly chief investment officer for Transwestern in Houston. He was previously a principal in the real estate group at JP Morgan Partners in New York.

“I have long believed that the Indian real estate sector has strong fundamentals and the potential to offer attractive risk-adjusted returns,” Davé said in a statement.

LPs in the fund include institutional investors and high net worth individuals from the US, Europe and the Middle East.

SUN is an investment firm owned by the Khemka family and is focused on the former Soviet republics, in addition to India. The firm built SUN Brewing/SUN Interbrew into the twelfth largest beer company in the world. Apollo closed its fifth US-focused fund on $700 million in June.