In Conversation with Jim Zelter & Eric Needleman

Jim Zelter and Eric Needleman challenge outdated views of private credit. 

Private credit has evolved into a $40 trillion-plus asset class that is largely investment grade, and central to financing the real economy. In a lively conversation, Apollo President Jim Zelter and Head of Apollo Capital Solutions Eric Needleman challenge outdated perceptions of private credit, highlighting its scale, structure and growing role in global markets.

They also discuss Apollo’s work to build an open-architecture secondary trading infrastructure and why transparency is critical to making private credit more efficient and accessible.

“I think when people talk about private credit, they are talking about the small pond of direct lending, that’s a market that’s about $1.8 trillion. We're really talking generally around the investment grade private credit market – which is an addressable market of about $40 trillion.”

Eric Needleman, Partner and Head of Apollo Capital Solutions

Tune into the conversation as they explore:

• How market structures have fundamentally changed
• What if you could trade private IG loans? 
• LP value and the origination premium
• Issuer needs and market size
• Marketplace evolution: where are we now?
• Banks as partners

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Private credit is a roughly $40 trillion addressable market, the majority of which is investment grade, far larger than the commonly cited ~$2 trillion direct lending segment.
• We believe the next phase of growth will be driven by bespoke financing solutions that offer speed, scale and certainty of execution.
• Transparency and secondary trading are accelerating adoption, with private credit increasingly becoming a tradable asset class.
• Banks and private credit platforms are complementary partners, combining origination capabilities with long-duration capital.
• We believe origination is the primary source of alpha in private credit. Learn more about Apollo’s proprietary ecosystem dedicated to high-quality private credit origination. 
• Long-duration capital needs tied to the global industrial renaissance, energy transition and data infrastructure are creating structural demand for private IG credit.