Apollo affiliate files for $600 mln REIT IPO

NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) - Apollo Commercial Real Estate Inc has filed an application to raise up to $600 million in an initial public offering and plans to invest in commercial mortgage-backed securities with part of the proceeds, according to a regulatory filing.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate, which plans to qualify as a real estate investment trust by the end of the year, will be managed by a subsidiary of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, it said in a prospectus it filed on Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition to buying CMBS, it plans to originate senior commercial real estate mortgage loans.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate said in its prospectus, "markets are likely to face a void of several hundred billion dollars over this period that must be filled by new mortgage lenders."

A REIT is a property company that in exchange for distributing at least 90 percent of its taxable income to its shareholders, pays no corporate taxes on most of its income.

The expected date of the IPO, to be managed by J.P. Morgan (JPM.N), and price estimate range were not disclosed.

The filing comes as a spate of other investment companies, including AllianceBernstein (AB.N) and Western Asset Management Co, have created REITs that have applied for IPOs in recent weeks. (Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)