Apollo Global Management’s Q4 profits were knocked down 69% as asset sales and the crude oil collapse dealt the firm’s portfolio a knockout blow during the quarter.
New York-based Apollo now has fewer stakes to sell compared to peers like Blackstone and Carlyle Group, Bloomberg reports. “There’s very little left," the firm's co-founder, Josh Harris, said on a Wednesday conference call.
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Apollo—which owns Las Vegas' Caesars Palace (pictured)—got in while the getting was good, selling huge chunks of private equity holdings from 2011 to 2014 for big profits.
Despite the Q4 dip, Apollo has reaped about $50B from selloffs in the past three years. "Now that the markets are low we’re slowing down our selling and doing a lot of buying.”
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That buying spree includes Apollo’s own stock. With prices down 16% on the year so far, the firm plans to buy back up to $250M of its shares.
The news comes after Blackstone—the Rocky Balboa of private equity—posted a 70% Q4 drop itself, proving that not even private equity heavyweights escape the oil slide unscathed. [Bloomberg]
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