Apollo's PE Creed

With the AION Capital Partners joint venture, Apollo Global struck deals focussing on distressed assets. Now, setting out on its own in India, it has eyes on larger transactions

- Pooja Sarkar

Imagine a hall booked in New Delhi for 150 people. Though star-studded with noted lawyers, bankers and fund managers, it was neither a wedding nor a soirée. A private equity firm had booked the venue in 2018 for a session where people, representing 28 lenders, were present. The fund had to pitch a resolution scheme that would eventually decide the fate of the sale process of one of the ‘dirty dozen’ companies.

The ‘dirty dozen’ is probably the most talked about list of companies in Indian financial circles—companies that were referred, for the first time in India, to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) by the central bank to kickstart the resolution process in the middle of 2017.

On this not-so-merry list was Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd (MIEL) promoted by Sandeep Jajodia with admitted claims of $1.6 billion. While trouble had been brewing at the company for some time and over the years many private equity fund managers had looked at the asset, nothing had ever really worked out.

One of the frequent visitors had been AION Capital Partners, the joint venture between the US-based alternate asset manager Apollo Global Management, Inc and homegrown fund ICICI Ventures (I-Ven). AION, which had been on the road to raise capital since 2011, returned home with $825 million by 2014 with a focus on investing in distressed assets and Monnet Ispat was on their radar.