Apollo to Price Its $800 Billion Credit Arm Daily Amid Scrutiny

Apollo Global Management will begin offering daily valuations on its more than $800 billion credit portfolio by September 30, a landmark move toward transparency in the opaque private credit market. The decision, announced during the firm’s first-quarter earnings call where it also confirmed its assets under management had surpassed $1 trillion, is a direct response to mounting investor anxiety over the rapidly growing asset class.

"This is the beginning of standardization across this marketplace," Apollo Chief Executive Marc Rowan said on the call, positioning the initiative as a foundational shift for the industry.

The push for transparency comes as private credit faces its first significant stress test. Redemption requests from investors have hit record levels, with some funds from firms like Blue Owl reporting withdrawal requests on nearly 41 percent of a fund's value. Fitch reported that the default rate among US corporate borrowers in private credit surged to 9.2 percent in 2025, fueled by elevated interest rates pressuring the floating-rate loans that dominate the sector.

Apollo’s initiative directly confronts the core investor fear: that the quarterly, manager-supplied valuations are masking underlying weakness in a portfolio. By providing daily marks derived from observable trades and comparable assets, Apollo aims to replace opacity with data, potentially setting a new industry standard that could pressure rivals like Blackstone and KKR to follow suit.

A Market Under Pressure

The private credit market, which has swelled to an estimated $1.7 trillion, is grappling with the consequences of the most aggressive rate-hiking cycle in decades. For years, the asset class thrived in a low-rate environment, but the new reality of higher-for-longer rates has exposed vulnerabilities. With most private loans structured with floating rates, borrowers’ cash flows are being squeezed, leading to the spike in defaults.

This stress is compounded by a heavy concentration in the software sector, which constitutes about 20 percent of private credit exposure, according to Reuters. These companies, often leveraged at more than seven times earnings, face a double threat from higher debt service costs and investor reassessment of their value in the age of artificial intelligence. In response, banks are reportedly tightening their own lending standards for private credit funds, increasing the cost of back-leverage facilities and further pressuring returns.

Rowan's Rebuttal

Despite the market-wide jitters, Apollo’s CEO Marc Rowan argued that the broader concerns are “overblown” and largely driven by media focus on a small, high-risk portion of the market. He asserted that the fundamental principles of lending remain unchanged, regardless of the originator.

“The notion that a loan is somehow riskier because it wasn’t originated by a bank is not a coherent argument,” Rowan stated. “Private credit is just credit. You underwrite it well and it performs. You underwrite it poorly, and it doesn’t.”

Rowan sought to reframe the narrative, highlighting that the largest opportunity lies not in risky, highly-levered loans but in the vast world of investment-grade corporate lending. The firm plans to roll out daily pricing for this segment by June 30, ahead of the full credit business rollout by the end of September. This strategic sequencing underscores Apollo's bet that increased transparency will attract more stable, long-term capital to the asset class, rewarding disciplined underwriters and separating them from managers who may have taken on excessive risk during the boom years.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.