Interview, Fireside Chat
Marc Rowan, CEO and Co-Founder of Apollo Global Management
- Apollo aims to reach $1 trillion in assets by 2026 without adding new business units or acquiring new capabilities over the next 12 months, relying instead on existing in-house capacity to execute its five-year plan.
- The firm intends to scale its current private equity investment process cautiously, viewing the segment as a growing business rather than a growth engine, and explicitly states that expanding the investment-grade alternative business beyond its current size will not make it relevant to the market.
- Outlooks for public markets indicate narrowed performance gaps between public and private sectors, increased liquidity in private markets, and reduced liquidity in public markets, particularly during downturns, leading to the projection that no alpha remains in publicly traded fixed income or broadly syndicated markets.
- Market dynamics are predicted to shift toward indexing and correlation, with open-ended mutual funds, ETFs, and derivative traders acting as marginal buyers who lack direct management contact, creating a strategy where fundamental investors must step away from public markets to generate alpha.
- The financial services sector is expected to undergo radical transformation driven by technology, with a forecast that every banking process will face fintech competition and that no asset management process will remain the same within five to ten years.
- Traditional institutional structures are considered potentially obsolete within the next five years regarding education and product research, with future industry infrastructure anticipated to be built on gaming world mechanics, necessitating significant online education and research shifts.
- Personnel strategy reflects a belief that an MBA is not required for success at Apollo, with non-traditional and non-business backgrounds viewed as beneficial for long-term performance compared to traditional undergraduate business education.