Apollo Acquiring Bridge Investment Group for $1.5B

Marc Rowan is ready to take a bigger bite out of real estate.

Apollo Global Management is acquiring publicly traded real estate investment firm Bridge Investment Group for $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. The deal is expected to double Apollo’s real estate assets under management, pushing the number past $110 billion.

As of Friday’s close of business, the market capitalization of Salt Lake City-based Bridge was $960 million. The company went public in 2021, but its shares have struggled to gain traction since then and are down almost 20 percent in the past three months alone as interest rates drag down real estate values.

The stock is down roughly 31 percent all-time, but rose more than 36 percent as of 10:55 am ET on Monday as news spread of the company’s acquisition. Apollo stock, meanwhile, is down nearly 2 percent as of 11:05 am ET.

Bridge counts $50 billion in assets under management and employs 300 people. The company’s real estate strategy is focused on multifamily housing and logistics properties, as well as real estate debt. The company also operates in the property management, leasing and construction spaces.

Bob Morse, the executive chair of Bridge, will be joining Apollo as a partner and leader of its real estate equity business.

Rowan — once a member of the commercial real estate doom chorus — is building up Apollo’s real estate business as he aims to have $1.5 trillion in total assets under management by the end of the decade. This year alone, Apollo has moved to acquire Argo Infrastructure Partners and collateralized-loan-obligation manager Irradiant Partners.

Still, Rowan has a long way to go before his real estate business catches up to the top players in the field such as Blackstone. Apollo Realty Income Solutions has roughly $1 billion in assets, miniscule compared to BREIT’s $54 billion net asset value at the end of last year.

— Holden Walter-Warner