Apollo Global's chief, Rowan, says that Europe is “at war with itself” regarding financial regulation

Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management, a major US-based alternative asset manager with over $600 billion in assets under management, in a recent interview, criticized what he calls Europe’s fragmented approach to financial regulation. 

According to Rowan, Europe is “at war with itself” as regulation has become excessive, stifling growth and making it hard to keep up with the US. As far as he is concerned, the approach is self-sabotaging, especially amid the EU’s push for greater economic competitiveness. 

Marc Rowan nudges Europe to relax regulations

Rowan, who co-founded the New York-based private capital group, believes Europe has barely made any progress in implementing the reforms needed to secure investment and revive the region’s ailing economy.

“I see Europe a little bit at war with itself with respect to financial regulation,” Rowan told the Financial Times. “On the political side, you have all the signals of embracing risk-taking, equitisation and private markets. [But] on the regulatory side, not so much.”

He highlighted how there are lots of problems currently plaguing the US, but in the UK, those problems are worse. 

Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, last year warned that there could be an “existential challenge” if the continent is unable to improve its productivity. 

If it is able to, Rowan projects, on a relative basis, that Europe will grow much more rapidly than the US, where private capital is concerned, because it needs it more.

According to him, European businesses and governments are embracing private capital groups to encourage competitiveness in their technology sectors. 

“They do not want to be, I saw the word this morning, a technology colony,” said Rowan. “They want to be leaders — they want to actually have their own infrastructure, their own defence base, their own everything. To do that, you’re going to need massive amounts of capital.”

Marc Rowan sees potential in Europe despite comments 

Apollo already has considerable clout in the investment community with more than $500 billion in AUM. Still, it is ever working on expanding, and it sees Europe as fertile grounds despite Rowan’s criticism of its approach to financial regulation. 

It estimates a $15 trillion opportunity in Europe and the Middle East for household assets, indicating a significant market for private capital managers.

In fact, last month, Apollo Global Management launched three new private capital funds targeting wealthy individual investors in Europe, with a focus on private credit, diversified credit, and private markets secondaries.

According to a Bloomberg report, investors who want to participate will need a minimum investment of €10,000, with opportunities to add capital monthly and a quarterly redemption limit of 5%.

This move puts Apollo in a competitive race with other firms like Blackstone and Ares Management, also targeting wealthy individuals, with Blackstone’s ECRED fund holding €2.7 billion and Ares’ fund at €4.6 billion.

“It’s a huge market which today is much more accessible for private capital managers, and with an investor base that increasingly wants to access private markets,” Véronique Fournier, Apollo’s head of EMEA wealth distribution. said.

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