AZB DLA and JSA help Dutch Manager APG to invest Rs 650 crore in Lemon Tree Hotels

Dutch pension fund manager APG has invested Rs. 650 crore ($122 million) to acquire 6 percent stake in Lemon Tree Hotels. Delhi-based Lemon Tree Hotels has entered into a strategic partnership with APG to build 35 hotels in the country in four years..AZB & Partners advised Lemon Tree Hotels with a team led by Delhi Partner Anil Kasturi along with Associates Debanshu Mukherjee and Shlok Chandra..J. Sagar Associates advised APG with a team led by Partner Rupinder Malik along with Senior Associate Pallavi Puri and Associates Udhav Gulati and Sheetal Kapoor..DLA Piper acted as International legal advisor to APG with a team led by Hong Kong Partner Susheela Rivers..ET reports, APG, which manages the Netherland’s largest and the world’s third largest pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, will hold 47 percent shareholding in the joint venture-Fleur Hotels Pvt Ltd-while Lemon Tree will hold the balance 53 percent..Fleur will set up 35 hotels (totalling 4,500 rooms) at an investment Rs. 2,250 crore, of which Rs 1,000 crore will be equity and Rs 1,250 crore debt. All the hotels under will be branded as Lemon Tree Hotels, Lemon Tree Premieror Red Fox Hotels..The decade-old hotel company started by Patu Keswani currently owns and operates eighteen hotels in fourteen cities with 2,000 operational rooms, making it the fourth largest hotel room owners in the country..Global private equity group Warburg Pincus also has a 25 percent shareholding in the company