GLOBAL - Apollo Global Real Estate Management (AGRE) has completed its acquisition of City Property Investors (CPI), the real estate investment management group of Citigroup investment bank.

It will mean that AGRE, a subsidiary of New York-based private equity firm Apollo, will take on a global property platform with more than $3bn (€2.2bn) in assets under management.

The majority of CPI's employees, spread across Europe, North America and Asia, will join AGRE, which will take over the management of a number of CPI's funds, including its flagship vehicles: CPI Capital Partners Asia Pacific, CPI Capital Partners Europe and CPI Capital Partners North America.

A number of pension funds are invested in the funds. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System, the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System and the New Jersey Division of Investment have all made commitments to the European fund.

Investors in the North America fund include the New York State Teachers Retirement System, while the Asia fund saw commitments from the Australia Post Superannuation Scheme.

The deal unites two commercial real estate investment organisations under the leadership of Joseph Azrack, former president and chief executive at CPI, who has served as managing partner and head of AGRE since it was established in 2008.

Azrack said: "The global reach of this combined platform will strengthen our ability to serve our investor base while growing as we do so.

"I am also pleased to note that with the completion of this transaction we have rounded out AGRE's leadership team."

Azrack noted that Roger Orf, who most recently served as the president and chief executive at CPI, would now serve as the head of AGRE Europe, joining Ray Mikulich, head of AGRE North America, and Grant Kelley, head of AGRE Asia Pacific.

The combined group will be headquartered in New York, with offices in London, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Los Angeles.
 

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