Apollo Global Management
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm investing primarily in alternative assets. As of 2025 it had 840 billion dollars of assets under management, including 392 billion dollars in credit, covering mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans and collateralised loan obligations, 99 billion dollars in private equity and 46.2 billion dollars in real assets.
| Apollo Global Management, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Traded as | NYSE: APO |
| Industry | Asset management, private equity, credit |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Leon Black, Josh Harris, Marc Rowan |
| Headquarters | Solow Building, New York City, United States |
| Area served | North America, Europe, Asia |
| Key people | Marc Rowan (CEO) |
| Services | Private equity, credit investment, real assets, retirement services |
| Total assets | US$840 billion under management (2025) |
| Subsidiaries | Athene Holding, Apollo Investment Corporation |
| Website | apollo.com |
The firm invests on behalf of pension funds, endowments and sovereign wealth funds as well as other institutional and individual investors. In June 2024 it ranked 29th in Private Equity International's PEI 300 list of the largest private equity firms in the world.
Apollo was founded in 1990 by Leon Black, Josh Harris and Marc Rowan, former investment bankers at the collapsed Drexel Burnham Lambert. Black resigned as chief executive in 2021 following allegations of sexual misconduct and the disclosure that he had paid 158 million dollars to Jeffrey Epstein.
History
Foundation, 1990 to 1994
Apollo, originally Apollo Advisors, was founded after the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990 by Leon Black, formerly head of Drexel's mergers and acquisitions department, with his associates Josh Harris and Marc Rowan. Tony Ressler, another former senior Drexel executive, was among the original members.
Within six months of Drexel's collapse the firm launched Apollo Investment Fund L.P., raising approximately 400 million dollars on the strength of Black's reputation as a prominent lieutenant of Michael Milken and a central figure in the buyout boom of the 1980s.
The strategy was shaped by circumstance. Little financing was available for new leveraged buyouts in the aftermath of Drexel's failure, so Apollo pursued distressed-to-control takeovers instead, buying distressed securities that could be converted into a controlling equity interest through bankruptcy reorganisation or restructuring. The approach gave it positions in Vail Resorts, Walter Industries, Culligan and Samsonite.
Apollo acquired interests in companies Drexel had financed by purchasing high-yield bonds from failed savings and loans and insurance companies, and bought several large asset portfolios from the Resolution Trust Corporation. Among its earliest and most profitable transactions was the acquisition of the bond portfolio of Executive Life Insurance Company, which produced substantial gains when high-yield values recovered but also generated regulatory difficulties in California.
Lion Advisors was founded in 1990 to provide investment services to Crédit Lyonnais and foreign institutions seeking to profit from depressed high-yield prices. In 1992 it entered a formal arrangement to manage a three billion dollar high-yield portfolio for the French bank, which with a consortium of international investors supplied the capital for its activities.
Apollo Real Estate Advisers was founded in 1993 with William Mack to pursue opportunities in United States property. Apollo Real Estate Investment Fund closed in April 1993 with 500 million dollars of commitments. Apollo exited the partnership in 2000, and it continued independently, renaming itself AREA Property Partners in January 2009.
Growth, 1995 to 2004
In 1995 Apollo raised its third private equity fund with 1.5 billion dollars of commitments from investors including CalPERS and the General Motors pension fund. Fund III proved only an average performer for its vintage; investments included Alliance Imaging, Allied Waste Industries, Levitz Furniture, Dominick's, Ralphs, Telemundo and WMC Mortgage Corporation.
The founding partner Craig Cogut left in 1995 to establish Pegasus Capital Advisors. In 1997 Ares Management was founded by Antony Ressler and John H. Kissick, both Apollo partners, with Bennett Rosenthal from the leveraged finance group at Merrill Lynch, to manage a 1.2 billion dollar collateralised debt obligation vehicle. Although technically a spin-out from its formation, Ares maintained a close relationship with Apollo for its first five years and operated as its West Coast affiliate, completing a full corporate separation in 2002.
Apollo Investment Fund IV raised 3.6 billion dollars in 1998 during the dot-com bubble and had generated a ten per cent internal rate of return net of fees as of April 2008. Investments included AMC Entertainment, Berlitz International, Rent-A-Center, Sirius Satellite Radio, United Rentals and Wyndham Worldwide.
Fund V raised 3.7 billion dollars in April 2001 and performed far better, showing a 54 per cent internal rate of return net of fees as of April 2008. Investments included Affinion Group, Berry Plastics, Compass Minerals, General Nutrition Centers, Goodman Global, Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Intelsat, Linens 'n Things and Metals USA.
In April 2004 Apollo raised 930 million dollars through the flotation of Apollo Investment Corporation, a listed business development company providing mezzanine debt, senior secured loans and equity to middle-market companies, which has historically not invested in companies controlled by Apollo's private equity funds.
Later developments
Apollo became a public company in 2011. Its most consequential subsequent transaction was the merger with Athene Holding, the retirement services business it had helped establish, completed in January 2022. The combination gave Apollo permanent capital in the form of annuity liabilities to invest, and shifted the firm's centre of gravity from private equity toward credit and insurance. Marc Rowan, who had led the Athene relationship, became chief executive.
Controversies
Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein
In 2020 it was reported that Leon Black had made payments to Jeffrey Epstein for tax and estate planning advice. An independent review commissioned by Apollo's board and conducted by the law firm Dechert found that Black had paid Epstein 158 million dollars between 2012 and 2017, after Epstein's 2008 conviction. The review concluded that Black had not been involved in Epstein's criminal activities and that the payments were for genuine services, while describing the sums as far in excess of what the work warranted.
Black announced in January 2021 that he would step down as chief executive, and he left earlier than planned in March 2021 amid continuing pressure and separate allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. Marc Rowan succeeded him. The affair prompted scrutiny of the governance of founder-controlled asset managers and of the adequacy of board oversight of personal conduct by principals.
Executive Life
Apollo's acquisition of the Executive Life Insurance Company bond portfolio in 1991 produced protracted legal difficulties. In 2002 the California attorney general Bill Lockyer accused Black and an investor group led by Crédit Lyonnais of violating state law by allowing a bank owned by a foreign government to acquire the insurer's assets and bond portfolio. The litigation concerned the losses suffered by Executive Life policyholders, many of them annuitants of modest means, and resulted in settlements with Crédit Lyonnais and related parties totalling several hundred million dollars.
Portfolio company outcomes
Several Apollo investments have ended in bankruptcy, including Linens 'n Things, Claire's and, most prominently, Caesars Entertainment, whose 2008 buyout with TPG led to a contested bankruptcy in which creditors alleged that assets had been improperly moved beyond their reach. The case was settled in 2017. Critics of private equity cite such outcomes as evidence that leverage transfers risk to employees and creditors; Apollo's position is that it specialises in businesses already in difficulty and that its record across funds has been strong.
Insurance and private credit
The growth of Apollo and its peers in insurance-backed private credit has attracted supervisory attention. Regulators and the International Monetary Fund have raised concerns about the valuation and liquidity of illiquid private credit held against annuity liabilities, about the use of offshore reinsurance in jurisdictions such as Bermuda, and about the transparency of the resulting exposures. Apollo argues that matching long-dated liabilities with long-dated assets is prudent and that its credit underwriting is conservative.
Ownership of media and other sensitive assets
Apollo's acquisitions in sectors including local media, education and healthcare have drawn objections from unions and public interest groups concerned about cost reduction in services with a public character, including its involvement in for-profit education businesses and in staffing companies supplying emergency medicine.
See also
References