Apollo Makes ‘One Giant Loan for Mankind’ With an $11B European Credit Backed by Abu Dhabi

Goodnight, sweet liquidity…

Private credit is so back… in Europe, anyway. On Monday, Apollo Global Management launched European Credit Company (ECC), a private credit platform with more than €10B (~$11.2B) of lending capacity. Its biggest backer? Apollo’s new sugar daddy strategic partner, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council

As for what it’ll actually do, ECC will lend to big and mid-sized European companies (think: corporate loans, asset-backed deals, and cash for infrastructure and real estate owners). Running the show is CEO Giacomo Petrobelli, a former Apollo adviser who calls ECC a “generational opportunity” to bankroll Europe with “global pools of capital” (read: Abu Dhabi). His chairman is Christian Meissner, who used to run Credit Suisse’s investment bank (pour one out for Credit Suisse).

Now, Apollo and the big brains wallets in Abu Dhabi have been moving fast. Last week, Apollo went shopping for a nearly 10% stake in Mubadala Capital, the asset-management arm of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. Apollo’s resident big swingin’ d*ck, CEO Marc Rowan, put the price tag at “a little over a billion dollars.” For context, Mubadala has owned ADIC since 2018, which, convenient. And to finish off this little circle jerk, some of ECC’s starting money comes from Apollo’s own funds and Athora, the European insurer Apollo owns a piece of.

Also chipping in are Standard Chartered, US credit investor Aranda Principal Strategies, and Japan’s Norinchukin Bank, which got burned by the First Brands blowup and came back for more (They swear it’s not like the last guy). 

Friendly reminder, Apollo’s own investors spent Q2 trying to get their money out. The fat cats in its ~$26B Apollo Debt Solutions fund asked to yank 16.8% of their shares, so Apollo pulled a BlackRock (which capped its own $26B private credit fund in March) and went all “best I can do is 5%.” Friendlier reminder: back in April, Rowan said any credit manager who can’t meet 5% quarterly redemptions is, and I quote, “an idiot.” So technically… not an idiot.

To be fair though, the pitch isn’t crazy. Per Apollo president Jim Zelter, the “Global Industrial Renaissance” (whatever tf that means) is creating “tremendous financing needs” in Europe. Translation: Europe needs to pay for power lines, tanks, and data centers, and Apollo wants to be its plug.

Probably just a coincidence that Apollo unveiled its shiny new €10B toy the day before it reports Q3 earnings.

Of course, the beauty of a sugar daddy is that he never asks for his money back… not even 5% a quarter. Abu Dhabi, you still shopping for sugar babies? Asking for a friend…

Until next time, friends! 

 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.