The Trikona Group, a real estate and infrastructure investment firm, has appointed Maharaja Gajsingh of Jodhpur as chairman of its hospitality arm Apodis Hospitality. The arm has been recently set up to invest in and also operate and develop hotels across India. Gajsingh will provide strategic guidance to Apodis Hospitality to develop properties across the country, said Trikona in a release. Gajsingh is president of 150 member Indian Heritage Hotels Association. He has also formed a joint venture with ITC Ltd called WelcomeHeritage, which has over 60 heritage destination sites.
Apodis has raised $80 million for investments in the hotels space and has commitments of $100-120 million. It has already invested in several projects. It has allocated around $40 million for luxury segment, where it plans to partner with well-established brands.
Trikona Group recently appointed Michael McCook as one of its three senior advisors. McCook is a former senior investment officer of real estate for the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest US pension fund with a real estate portfolio of more than $20 billion. He also sits on board of Apodis Hospitality. Dr. P.S. Rana, former chairman and managing director of Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO), is also on board of Apodis.
Trikona Group co-founded by two New York-based NRIs, Rak Chugh and Ashish Kalra is currently managing over $1 billion in Indian infrastructure and real estate assets. It also operates a real estate fund listed at the AIM market of London Stock Exchange having raised £250 million in 2006.
