Largest Realogy investor, Apollo Global, sees profits jump by over 100 percent

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management, the largest single investor in brokerage owner Realogy, said its profits jumped by more than 100 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, thanks in part to a boom in the real estate market towards the end of the year, Bloomberg News reported.

The company saw its net income after tax rise to $655.8 million, or $1.69 a share, for the quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2011, that figure was $302 million, or 80 cents a share.

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Realogy is the owner of New York City brokerages the Corcoran Group and Citi Habitats, as well as national franchises Coldwell Banker, Coldwell Banker Commercial, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Sotheby’s, Century 21 and ERA. Realogy Holdings jumped 55 percent in value during the fourth quarter, Bloomberg said.

As previously reported, sellers fearing capital gains tax increases and the fiscal cliff rushed to close high-end transactions en masse late last year, leading to dramatic increases in the number of transactions and sale prices in the fourth quarter of 2012. [Bloomberg News]Katherine Clarke