Apollo CEO Marc Rowan: Elon Musk represents wholesale change, and the US needs it
11/12/2024 23:10Apollo co-founder and CEO Marc Rowan weighs in on the incoming Trump administration.
Apollo Global (APO) CEO Marc Rowan is bullish on the incoming Trump administration, including those with unique views on how to fix government for the good of business. (Disclosure: Yahoo Finance is owned by Apollo Global Management.)
"I think Elon Musk represents wholesale change, and I think we actually need wholesale change," Rowan said at Yahoo Finance's Invest conference on Tuesday. Rowan has been among the power players on Wall Street communicating with the president-elect's transition team on potential individuals to join the administration.
Musk is expected to have some form of role in a second Trump term. On the campaign trail, Musk floated leading a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. He says the department could strip out $2 trillion in costs from the government.
Added Rowan, "Our financial situation is fixable. It is fixable in a way that is positive for the base that the president-elect has said that he wants to help. But it is not fixable by small amounts of tinkering. It is about wholesale change."
Rowan's comments come as Apollo enjoys a banner year amid momentum behind its retirement business Athene and expansion further into private markets.
Apollo's third quarter fee-related earnings hit a record at $531 million, up 12.5% from a year ago. Total assets under management rose 16% from the prior year to $102 billion. The gain was fueled by $72 billion of inflows from asset management and $79 billion of gross inflows from retirement services.
The company's origination volume hit a quarterly record of $62 billion.
Spread-related earnings, excluding one-time items, improved 6.3% year over year.
"Apollo is particularly well positioned to continue benefiting from the much discussed robust tailwinds in the space," JPMorgan analyst Ken Worthington said in a client note. On the equity side, Apollo’s focus on investing in value and special situations positions it well to operate in a new normal of higher-for-longer interest rates.
Worthington rates Apollo shares at Overweight, or buy-equivalent.
Shares are hovering around a record high after a 73% year to date gain, according to Yahoo Finance data.
At a recent investor day, Apollo said it plans to more than double its $562 billion private lending business to $1.2 trillion in five years.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else? Email [email protected].
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