Recasts with daily pricing plan, CEO comments

By Isla Binnie and Prakhar Srivastava

NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - Apollo Global Management APO.N pledged on Wednesday to provide daily pricing for its credit funds by the end of September, saying new buyers wanted more transparency as it reported inflows that pushed total assets past $1 trillion.

Private funds usually give portfolio valuations every quarter. They have come under scrutiny as many funds struggled to sell equity stakes and retail investors grew nervous about the risks of loans made outside the traditional banking system.

"When public markets reprice, private markets should too," Chief Executive Marc Rowan said on a conference call.

"If we hold a position with anyone else, we take the lowest mark, always, whether we agree with that mark or not, because that is indicative of where someone might sell the position," Rowan added.

MANAGING ASSETS, DEBT AND EQUITY DEALS BOOST NET INCOME

Apollo, which has become a major lender and pushed into insurance since starting out in private equity in 1990, reported adjusted net income of $1.94 per share for the first quarter.

This was boosted by 30% higher earnings from managing assets and arranging debt and equity transactions.

Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.93 per share, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

Shares rose around 1%, continuing a more than 30% rebound in the stock from a 52-week low hit in March.

Apollo and its peers have suffered on public markets due to concerns about lending standards, future growth and private capital's exposure to AI disruption in the software industry.

The stock is still down about 9% in 2026, compared with a 5% drop in the S&P 500 Financials sector index .SPSY.

Rowan reiterated that Apollo has invested much less in software than many peers.

HIT FROM MARKET FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS

By pushing assets to $1.03 trillion, Rowan met a target he set in 2021. He is now aiming to hit $1.5 trillion by 2029.

One negative in the forecast-beating results was a 1% loss at its asset-backed finance portfolio due to a lower contribution from its Atlas SP unit, which had financed UK-based mortgage lender Market Financial Solutions.

MFS collapsed in February, fuelling concerns about lending standards at banks and credit funds. London-listed bank HSBC HSBA.L reported an unexpected loss on Tuesday, which sources familiar with the matter told Reuters was linked to its lending to Atlas and its financing of MFS.

Returns from its direct lending funds, a part of private credit that has come under intense scrutiny, were up by 0.5% in the first quarter, compared with 8.5% over the last 12 months.

Smaller peers Blue Owl OWL.N and KKR KKR.N have also reported negative performances in that business over that period.

Apollo's flagship private equity fund lost 0.3%. Hybrid value, which CEO Rowan has singled out as a growth driver, returned 4%.

Inflows totaled $115 billion in the quarter, partly driven by the acquisition of UK insurer Pensions Insurance Corporation through Athora, a European group Apollo created. Wealthy retail investors pitched in $4 billion.

On an unadjusted basis, Apollo reported a net loss of $1.9 billion, down from a profit a year earlier, due to an unrealized loss on investments in its insurance unit.