Apollo Global Management is an alternative asset manager running private equity, credit and real estate investment strategies, with a particularly large private credit business that has grown to rival its traditional private equity operations in size. The firm built much of its recent growth around Athene, an annuity and retirement services company it acquired, giving Apollo a large, permanent pool of insurance assets to invest alongside the capital it raises from outside institutional investors. Private credit, where Apollo and firms like it lend directly to companies rather than through traditional bank loans or public bonds, has grown substantially as banks have pulled back from some corporate lending following stricter post-financial-crisis regulation. Like other alternative asset managers, Apollo earns management fees on assets it oversees and performance fees tied to investment returns, a model that scales with the capital it can raise and deploy.