Fixed Income Replacement
The Challenge
Traditional sources of income, such as government and investment grade corporate bonds, have struggled to generate sufficient returns and diversification to meet the evolving needs of retirees, pensions and long-term institutional investors.

The Opportunity
Private credit has the potential to provide investors with enhanced returns per unit of risk.
We believe private investment-grade credit has been overlooked because it doesn’t fit neatly into the traditional asset allocation framework which has not kept up with the pace of innovation in credit markets.
This asset class can provide higher yielding, more diversified and less correlated exposure to public markets, offering a new way of thinking about fixed income generation.

Background
The landscape of investment-grade public fixed income has shifted, becoming more fragmented and increasingly driven by fund flows and passive investment vehicles.
The conventional assumption that private investments inherently carry more risk than public investments — in terms of liquidity, transparency, regulation, and issuer quality — is growing increasingly outdated, in our view.
If your investment goals have a long-term horizon, is illiquidity a risk to you? In reality, most fixed income investors don’t need fully daily liquid portfolios. By prioritizing liquidity over yield, investors may be sacrificing return potential without a corresponding benefit to their actual investment needs.

Zoom In
Traditional passive and active public fixed income strategies face inherent challenges:
- Passive strategies replicate public benchmarks, delivering low-fee beta exposure.
- Active public strategies contend with allocation constraints and limited capacity for index-diverging positions, impacting their overall performance.

"Apollo's focus on private investment-grade credit puts us in a sweet spot, offering enhanced yield over public investment-grade benchmarks while maintaining credit quality and underwriting standards.”
John Zito
Co-President, Apollo Asset Management
How Apollo is Thinking it New
As the integration of public and private assets in investment portfolios continues to accelerate, Apollo believes that investment-grade private credit will continue to play a growing role in supporting income generation and retirement security.
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Our Strategies
The information herein is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or investment advice, nor should any information in this document be relied on when making an investment decision. Opinions and views expressed reflect the current opinions and views of Apollo Analysts and are subject to change.
1. Aged over 65. Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Deloitte Insights.
2. Source: ICI Retirement Institute.
3. Source: Bloomberg, Apollo Chief Economist. Note: Data is based on estimates from sample of 8,689 funds.
4. Source: Morningstar’s Active/Passive Barometer, June 2023 & December 2016. Intermediate term bond fund performance equal weighted.
5. Source: Apollo Chief Economist