Apollo Adds 150 in Global Wealth, Poaching From Goldman and HSBC

(Bloomberg) — Apollo Global Management Inc. is expanding its global wealth business, bringing in new hires at a rapid clip as it pushes to win the wallets of individuals seeking investments outside of stocks and bonds.

The alternative-asset management giant has added about 150 people since May for global wealth, including senior hires from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc, according to Stephanie Drescher, who Apollo named last year to oversee global wealth.

Related: Private Equity Managers Turn to Wealth Market for New Clients

“When we think about the investors who are eligible for alternatives today, the landscape has changed pretty dramatically,” Drescher, Apollo’s chief client and product development officer, said Thursday at the Bloomberg Wealth Summit in New York. “Being able to provide institutional quality opportunities to individuals through financial advisers is absolutely what we and others are looking to do.”

New York-based Apollo said at an investor day in October that 2022 should be its best year ever for fundraising, with Drescher calling global wealth a “key bet” and a bigger contributor to new funds. 

The firm has said it expects in the years ahead global wealth will rise to 30% of new capital raised, up from 5% last year, and could be even more. Drescher said on Thursday that Apollo remains on track to reach those goals.

Part of the plan to expand the business will involve making it easier to get into private credit, real estate and buyout funds through technology. 

“It’s a matter of when, not if, that it can be a simple click” to invest in Apollo funds, Drescher said.

Apollo isn’t the only alternative-asset manager looking to seize on the surge in global wealth since the Covid-19 pandemic. Ares Management Corp. Chief Executive Officer Michael Arougheti said earlier at the Bloomberg summit that there’s a “revolution” in the way individual investors can access private equity and other alternatives.

Read more: Ares CEO Arougheti Bets On Retail ‘Revolution’ for Alternatives

Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Canada is in talks with several fund providers, including Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions and Blue Owl Capital Inc., to steer individual investors into private credit, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.

Investors are flocking to the private credit market, where some companies opt to borrow instead of through syndicated loans, for its higher yields and with U.S. Treasuries coming off their worst quarter of losses since at least 1973. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index dropped about 5% in the three months ended March 31.

“As we approach this opportunity set for the global wealth channel, it feels like it’s the absolute right time to bring a fabulous team together,” Drescher said. Unlike much of the past decade, now is “a time when purchase price matters.”