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 brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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