Excerpt:
California’s huge public retirement system, for one, offered only cautious support after new disclosures of financial ties between the firm’s chief, Leon Black, and Jeffrey Epstein.
When investors in Apollo Global Management learned last week that the firm’s chief executive had paid $158 million to the registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, they hardly blinked.
After the private equity firm announced the figure, revealed by an outside investigation, its stock rose nearly 7 percent. That was a far different response from three months ago, when shares plunged over concerns about the financial ties between Mr. Epstein and the chief executive, Leon Black.
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A more important test could come the next time Apollo seeks to raise money from the 1,500 pension plans, foundations, sovereign wealth funds and other institutions that invest with it. These limited partners fuel its ability to carry out corporate buyouts, extend loans to companies and make other investments.
So far, their response has been mixed. One of the biggest public pension plans in the United States — the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS — offered only cautious support.
Author: Matthew Goldstein
Publication Date: 3 February 2021
Publication Site: NY Times