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).

"There are some lessons to be learnt for us," said ARA Private Funds' chief executive Ng Beng Tiong, referring to the purchase of t…