Apollo CEO Rowan warns of market correction, slams ‘egregious’ practices at rival insurers

Marc Rowan, chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management LLC, speaks during an interview on an episode of Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan on Wednesday warned investors that he was preparing his giant asset management firm for a potential market downturn and sharply criticized what he called the "egregious" practices of some rival insurers. The current solid economic backdrop — which helped Apollo report a banner quarter, in which the firm reached $1 trillion in assets under management and record fee-related earnings — is masking a growing risk of what he called "out of the box" shocks. "Everything we see in front of us is actually quite strong," Rowan said. But there is "a much greater chance, in our opinion, of out-of-sideline results." Rowan, who co-founded Apollo in 1990 and oversaw its transformation into an alternative asset and insurance giant, said he is now more concerned about outside factors derailing the economy than at any time in his four decades on Wall Street. His comments, which come as the U.S. stock market is trading near record highs, add to concerns voiced by financial executives including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon . Rowan put the odds of an exogenous shock at somewhere between 30% and 35%, far higher than the usual level of risk, he said. …