Apollo partners with Hostplus to launch $1.25bn Asia Pacific Credit Strategy

Jun 23, 2022 | News

Apollo announced the formation of an Asia Pacific Credit Strategy in strategic partnership with Hostplus, one of the five largest superannuation funds in Australia. The new strategy launches with $1.25bn in assets, following an inaugural raise that includes a $500m anchor commitment from Hostplus alongside Apollo’s internal and affiliated insurance balance sheets.

The dedicated strategy brings Apollo’s global credit platform together with local expertise to capitalize on growing demand for private credit across Asia Pacific, providing companies and sponsors with flexible and bespoke solutions.

The Asia Pacific Credit Strategy is designed to leverage Apollo’s credit expertise and differentiated asset origination to source high-quality opportunities across the yield spectrum. Today, Apollo has more than $10bn of assets under management invested in the region and a growing team of nearly 60 investment professionals. Last year, Apollo appointed Partner Matt Michelini as Head of Asia Pacific, now based in Singapore, and hired an Australia-based credit team led by Partner Anthony Hermann, among other key additions.

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Apollo Co-President Jim Zelter said, “This strategy is a natural extension of our global credit capabilities and reflects growing demand in the region for flexible, expedient capital solutions from non-bank lenders. We are pleased to launch Asia Pacific Credit in alignment with our long-term partners at Hostplus, who share in our disciplined investment philosophy.”

Hostplus CEO David Elia commented, “We are delighted to extend our 13-year relationship with Apollo, one of the leading global credit managers. This launch is part of our broader investment strategy to help to further diversify our investment portfolio to protect and grow our member investments over the long-term. Credit plays an important role in our strategic asset allocation to ensure we spread investment risk and help stabilize our investment portfolio, smoothing the ups and downs of investment market cycles.”

“We continue to make tremendous progress building our team and capabilities across Asia Pacific to serve the growing credit needs of companies in the region,” said Matt Michelini, Apollo Partner and Head of Asia Pacific. “This new strategy seamlessly combines our global capital base and ability to provide large-scale, differentiated, cross capital structure solutions with local expertise and origination.”

The Asia Pacific Credit Strategy will focus geographically on Australia, India, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, with select deployment across other parts of the region. Launch of the strategy follows increasing investment activity in APAC for Apollo. Recently, Apollo-managed credit funds provided a comprehensive, $750m financing for Mumbai International Airport Ltd., one of the largest-ever private placements in India. Apollo also helped to structure and made a cornerstone investment in a A$150m sustainability-linked note issuance for Ampol in Australia, with targets that included carbon-emission reductions and installation of EV charging points supported by 100% renewable energy.

In addition to increased investment opportunities in the region, Apollo continues to grow its partnership with key Asian and Australian investors. Since 2017, Apollo has raised more than $22bn from institutional investors in the region.

Source: GlobeNewswire

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