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Apollo Global Management Inc.’s partner for real estate in India, Nipun Sahni, is leaving the firm, according to people familiar with the matter.

Sahni, who joined Apollo in 2015 and is responsible for investments in India, is departing amid a shift in Apollo’s property strategy in the region, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information is private. Apollo began winding down its Asia real estate equity fund last year, but said it planned to continue its involvement in real estate debt and special situations in the region. 

Arpito Mukerji, a managing director in Apollo’s real estate group responsible for sourcing and overseeing real estate investments in India, is also leaving the firm, one of the people said.

A representative for Apollo declined to comment. Sahni and Mukerji didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Sahni will continue to serve as an adviser to Apollo for a year, the people said. The real estate team in India will continue to report to Steven McElwain, partner for real estate at Apollo, they said. 

Apollo had put about $1 billion of private credit into 10 transactions involving developers in India in the past two and half years, Sahni told Bloomberg News in November. The country is a hotspot for private credit because rules restrict bank lending to the sector and India’s rapid urbanization has caused an affordable housing shortage.

Apollo, Ares Lead Private Credit Push Into India Property (2)

The firm will continue to deploy credit capital into real estate deals in India, the people familiar said. Apollo plans to write larger checks of between $200 million and $250 million instead of the $50 million to $100 million deals it was doing before, they said. 

India’s real estate market has been attracting other global investors, with Blackstone Inc. and Brookfield Asset Management benefiting from large multinational companies and banks setting up their back offices in India.

(Updates with additional departure in third paragraph.)

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