Apollo Global Management has wound down its Asia real estate equity business to focus on real estate debt and special situations opportunities in the region, PERE has learned.
It is understood the wind-down was communicated to its investors in fall 2023. The firm’s Hong Kong-based partner Ian Cohen, who led its real estate equity investment in Asia, left the firm this month, according to filings with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Cohen joined the firm in 2012 from investment bank Morgan Stanley’s real estate business, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. His departure coincided with several members of his team.
Three other Asia real estate equity professionals including Christina Jian, Frank Hu and Chongren Zhang also left or moved to other teams in Apollo, according to the filings. These departures came shortly after the firm’s Asia real estate partner Roy Kwok stepped down and became an adviser to the firm in April 2023.
“Last fall, we began an orderly wind down of our Asia real estate equity fund business, which has resulted in certain personnel changes. We continue to lean into real estate debt and special situations in Asia, which align with our scaled pools of global capital,” an Apollo spokesperson told PERE.
It is understood the firm completed its last investment for Apollo Asia Real Estate Fund II, which has now completed its investment period. The fund was closed in August 2021 with $464 million. While the firm’s asset management team remains in place to manage the existing investments, Apollo will not raise another distinct Asia real estate equity fund, according to a source close to the situation.
The US private equity giant entered Asia’s private real estate market in 2010 when it acquired Citi Property Investors. Led by the firm’s former head of Asia real estate Grant Kelley, the majority of the business in the region came from the Asian component of CPI, until in 2017 Apollo raised its first Asia real estate equity fund Apollo Asia Real Estate Fund, collecting $691 million in equity commitments.
It was subsequently led by Philip Mintz, who joined in 2015 when Apollo acquired his business Venator Real Estate, which he founded two years prior. Mintz was elevated to chief investment officer for the real estate business, relocating to the US in the process, in 2018.
Apollo’s global real estate business has $70 billion of assets under management. The firm was most active in the US and in Europe in 2023, where it completed more than $9 billion of loan originations as well as launching its US non-traded REIT Apollo Realty Income Solutions.
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