Equity Residential Chair Sam Zell is going head to head with his former partner Gary Garrabrant in the world of emerging markets. Zell, whose Chicago-based firm owns 38 residential buildings with roughly 10,330 apartment units in the New York area alone, is looking to raise as much as $600 million.
The funds would go toward the purchase of stakes in property companies in China, India and Latin America.
Garrabrant, who made a sudden exit as chief executive of Equity in 2012, has similar goals. He wants to raise as much as $1 billion for a fund at Jaguar Growth Partners, a Pennsylvania-based firm he founded last year.
“It will be interesting to see where the major investors put their money,” Rick Singer of New York-based property investment firm Eastbridge Group told the Wall Street Journal. “I’d be shocked if they share between the two funds.”
Sources told the Journal that Zell and Garrabant, both founders of Equity, are going after the same investors and citing their early track record at that firm. [WSJ] — Mark Maurer