Private credit nearly quadruples market share as tariffs reshape borrowing landscape; 87% of sizeable U.S. companies remain privately held.

Apollo Global Management navigated market turbulence with confidence in Q1 2025, reporting record fee-related earnings (FRE) of $559 million (+21% YoY), spread-related earnings, and achieved record inflows of $43 billion, including $26 billion at Athene, its retirement services business. CEO Marc Rowan characterized the period as transitioning from "hyper US exceptionalism" to a more normalized market environment, where Apollo's principle of "purchase price matters" should sh

Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) reported strong first quarter 2025 results with management fees up 18% year-over-year, fee-related earnings (FRE) up 22%, and after-tax realized income per share up 36% to $1.09 (beating estimates by $0.15). The company reached a significant milestone by surpassing $0.5 trillion in assets under management, reaching $546 billion (including $45 billion from the recent GCP International acquisition).

According to a recent report by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, private market investors are confronting a dual challenge: public market volatility creating the "denominator effect" while limited distributions cause a "numerator effect," forcing institutional investors to reconsider allocation strategies and commitment pacing.

Private market assets grew at an 11.1% compound annual growth rate from 2014 to 2024, far outpacing the broader asset management industry's 6.5% growth, according to BCG's Global Asset Management Report 2025. Semi-liquid funds have grown fivefold to over $300 billion since 2020, as asset managers race to package private investments for retail clients who control 48% of global assets.

Jeff Collins, Managing Partner at Cloverlay, joined S&P Global's Private Markets 360° podcast to discuss his firm's distinctive investment approach in "adjacent private markets." Established nine years ago, Cloverlay focuses exclusively on uncorrelated niche assets that exist in the spaces between traditional private equity categories. Collins explained how his 16-person team targets overlooked or misunderstood assets.

As private credit faces cash flow pressures and valuation questions, interconnections with banks create growing systemic risks in an increasingly fragile financial landscape.

On the Insurance AUM podcast, MetLife Investment Management experts Poorvi Dholakia and Paul Carroll shared insights on private structured credit (also called private ABF or Asset-Based Finance), highlighting why it's becoming a critical asset class for insurance portfolios.

Toby True, partner on the Investment Strategy and Risk Management Team at Adams Street Partners, shares insights on building effective private market portfolios for insurers in a podcast with Stewart Foley of InsuranceAUM.com.

Enterprise software firms that embrace AI quickly will deliver exponential ROI, while those slow to transform "will not have a right to exist," warns Vista CEO.

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Private equity research has a significant blind spot. When studying PE-owned companies, researchers typically track operating entities rather than the consolidated acquisition vehicles through which PE firms actually control their portfolios. This methodological error leads to dramatic underestimation of both the positive effects (faster growth) and negative consequences (higher leverage, steeper profitability declines) of PE ownership.

Summa Equity's founder Reynir Indahl reveals how his firm's thematic investing approach - focused on resource efficiency and tech-enabled transformation - is delivering superior returns while tackling environmental challenges. According to McKinsey's interview, Summa has built one of Europe's largest impact funds by targeting companies aligned with solving global problems rather than isolated industry sectors.

According to Aksia's April 2025 Private Credit Market Overview presented to the Nebraska Investment Council, private credit funds achieved record annual returns of 15.2% in 2023, while fundraising has rebounded dramatically with a 37% compound annual growth rate since 2023, significantly outpacing both private equity and real assets.

David Gross, co-managing partner of Bain Capital ($185B AUM), shared his perspective on global investment opportunities with Goldman Sachs' Allison Mass. Speaking from his background as a founder of Bain's Asia business, Gross outlined why the firm remains bullish on the US economy, Japan's maturing buyout market, and selected European opportunities despite macroeconomic uncertainty.

In a recent Goldman Sachs Exchanges interview, James Reynolds, Global Co-Head of Private Credit at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Lotfi Karoui, Chief Credit Strategist, discussed the explosive growth of private credit from under $100 billion in 2010 to approximately $2.1 trillion today. Despite current market volatility and recession fears, both experts argued that private credit remains resilient due to structural advantages like flexibility, certainty for borrowers, an

Jeffrey Perlman, CEO of Warburg Pincus, sat down with Goldman Sachs' Allison Mass to discuss the state of private equity amid rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions. In the interview, Perlman, who took the helm of the $90 billion asset manager in September 2024, emphasized how diversification has helped the firm navigate challenging markets. Unlike many competitors struggling with distributions, Warburg Pincus has returned 50% more capital than it invested over the p

Asia-Pacific private equity markets showed tentative recovery signs in 2024, with deal value increasing 11% while fundraising plunged to a 10-year low, according to Bain & Company's Asia-Pacific Private Equity Report 2025. India emerged as the region's star performer, recording double-digit growth in both deal value and count.

Howard Sharp, Chairman and Co-Head of Direct Lending at Alcentra, shared insights on the European private credit landscape. Sharp highlighted how the market has evolved following the 2022 interest rate increases, which caused a 40% drop in mid-market activity. He sees positive signs for 2025, noting increasing market segmentation.