Apollo Global Management LLC has set its eyes on the latest investment trend in the market today, impact investing. People with direct knowledge of the plans said the firm is thinking of gathering $1 billion in funding to jumpstart the initiative.
Apollo remains to be one of the worlds biggest alternative investment manager with an estimated $312 billion of assets under management as of June 2019. Headquartered in the United States and with offices across the country, the private equity and real assets manager also has offices in London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
With the number of assets under its belt, it was only expected that its next move is to enter the biggest emerging market at present. Impact Investing is placing money in funds, projects, or startups that are devoted to promoting environmental, social, and governance or ESG. It is also referred to as sustainable investing.
According to the Global Impact Investing Network's Sizing the Impact Investing Market report released in April estimated that the global investing market currently stands at $502 billion. A separate report from McKinsey & Co. released in 2017 stated that more than a quarter of the $88 trillion assets under management were placed in impact investing.
Apollo has yet to confirm or deny the report about is reported venture in impact investing. The report comes as the firm has also been linked with unconfirmed merger and acquisitions. A report from the Wall Street Journal this week said Apollo has also proposed Tegna Inc., a TV station operator, for possible acquisition. The news pulled Tegna's shares were up 5 percent after its association with Apollo.
In July, Reuters reported Apollo also approached Coface SA with another acquisition proposal. Coface is the credit insurance company partly owned by French bank Natixis SA. Coface is a credit insurance provider, protecting companies against customers who may flee from paying debts.
Reports of setting up an impact investing an arm and the possible acquisitions of Tegna and Coface comes after Apollo reported satisfying results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019. The firm reported earnings of $0.58 earnings per share and $2.19 per share for the last twelve months.
Apollo also reported a 16 percent increase in its total assets under management which as mentioned above is at about $312 billion.
None of the reported steps were mentioned or hinted during the firm's second-quarter report. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Leon Black, however, mentioned that Apollo hopes its pending acquisition of VIVAT N.V.s life insurance and asset management businesses could drive future growth.
