On 2 November, Monday, NYSE-listed Apollo Global Management said it launched European Credit Company (ECC), a pan-European platform for performing credit with financing power of above 10 billion euros (press release). The vehicle aims to meed the grownd deman of alternative financing from European companies, private equity sponsors and investors in infrastructure and property.
ECC attracted the resources and support of Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC), Athora (an European insurer that is part of Apollo ecosystem), Norinchukin Bank, Standard Chartered, Aranda Principal Strategies, and other investors.
Giacomo Petrobelli will act as ceo and Christian Meissner as chairman of the vehicle that is already present in Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, and Milan ahead of expanding into other European markets in the coming quarters. ECC will operate in the fields of traditional, corporate and asset-backed lending to big caps and mid-market firms, financial sponsors and real assets owners. The sectors that Apollo aims to prioritise are energy transition and transmission, defence, digital and traditional infrastructure.
ECC will act as financing originators, to acquire exposures through strategic partnerships with European financial institutions and to access the opportunities coming from the lending platform that Apollo already developed for the area. The model therefore aims to mix local origination capabilities, relationships with the banking sector and access to international institutional capital.
Petrobelli said: “The creation of ECC stems from a once-in-a-generation opportunity to mobilise large amounts of global capital to finance Europe’s long-term growth programme. We aim to build a leading pan-European credit platform, focused exclusively on the region, with deep local relationships, diversified origination channels and flexible solutions covering all types of credit.”
Jim Zelter, Apollo chairman, commented: “The global industrial resurgence is generating enormous financing needs across the world, which are particularly acute in Europe ranging from the energy transition and supply to defence, and right through to digital and traditional infrastructure. ECC will help Apollo expand its European offering through a dedicated platform, with an approach rooted in local markets and integrated with the rest of the group”.
European Credit Company is part of Apollo strategic expansion in the credit sector, which now accounts for over 80% of the firm’s total assets under management. At the end of 2Q26, Apollo said that its aum for the credit sector amounted to 849.3 billion US Dollars (with dry powder of 46 billion) out of a total of below 1048 billion (press release). The scope includes direct origination, asset-backed finance, multi-credit and opportunistic credit, as well as investment activities linked to the group’s insurance and pensions business. In the second quarter alone, Apollo originated a total of 74 billion worth of new assets, bringing the total originated over the last twelve months to 317 billion.
Apollo regards Italy as an attractive market in terms of funding and signed major partnerships for its private credit strategies with private banks and wealth managers. In June 2026, Banca Investis signed an agreement with Apollo Global Management to distribute to its HNWI clients Apollo European Private Credit ELTIF, an evergreen vehicle that is part of SICAV Apollo Private Markets (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In January 2026, the NYSE-listed giant signed another distribution partnership with Cherry Bank for private credit products (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2025, Apollo signed similar deals with Fundstore (see here a previous post by BeBeez) and Trade Republic (see here a previous post by BeBeez). In 2024 the US firm reached an agreement with Unicredit and Deutsche Bank for distributing Apollo Clean Transition Equity Eltif and other products for UHNWIs resident in Italy, Germany, Spain, and Belgium (see here a previous post by BeBeez and another previous post by BeBeez). In 2023, Apollo announced a distribution agreement with Mediobanca Private Banking for providing its UHNWI clients with access to a diversified strategy across private equity, private credit, property and infrastructure (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
