Skill and luck playing out in ARA's private funds

[SINGAPORE] The interplay of skill and luck often plays out in private equity investing - and this could well be seen in some of the most notable investments by ARA Private Funds.

A club deal sealed just over a weekend with a few other investors in 2009 to take over the Suntec convention centre reaped a sterling 65 per cent internal rate of return (IRR) for the initial investors of the fund, who exited in 2011.

But elsewhere, it was a less rosy picture for ARA's bulk purchase of condo units at upscale project Grange Infinite in 2008, which was met with a legal tiff with the developers and tepid resales since the introduction of the total debt servicing ratio (TDSR).