What did Apollo report for the third quarter of 2026?
A record quarter for putting money out, and a fourth record in a row for the fees it earns on arranging deals. Apollo Global Management originated $114 billion in the three months to 30 September 2026, against $74 billion in the second quarter (Apollo, third quarter 2026 results, 3 November 2026).
"Our strong third quarter results reflect the flywheel of our model, which starts with originating increasing amounts of good assets," said Marc Rowan, chairman and chief executive, who also pointed to "record pipelines" (same release). Apollo attributes the quarter to "significantly higher activity across all channels", and reports $356 billion of origination over the last twelve months and $117 billion of gross capital deployment in the quarter (same results).
The same results report $290 million of capital solutions fees, up 37 percent on a year earlier and, in Apollo's words, "a fourth consecutive quarterly record", earned across about 115 separate transactions, about 60 percent of them in credit and 40 percent in equity. Management fees, the larger line, rose 18 percent to $1,017 million (same results).
What does Apollo count as origination?
More than loans to companies. In Apollo's definition, origination is capital invested in new equity, debt or debt-like investments where Apollo or one of its origination platforms sourced, negotiated or significantly affected the terms, whether its own funds kept the investment or it was syndicated to third parties (Apollo, third quarter 2026 results, definitions).
It also counts new pools of capital formed by issuing debt, including collateralized loan obligations, and net purchases of certain private, illiquid assets, and it generally excludes debt issued by companies its funds own (same definitions). The $114 billion is therefore a measure of how much business Apollo's platform sourced and shaped. The results do not split it by borrower size, asset type or sector; a companion piece sets out the second quarter's mix, which leaned heavily toward investment grade.
A single quarter is also a poor guide to a trend. Origination was $75 billion a year earlier, a then-record $97 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, and $71 billion and $74 billion in the two quarters after that (Apollo quarterly results, 4 November 2025 to 4 August 2026). In its second-quarter results Apollo reported "a record quarter of signed not yet closed origination activity" (4 August 2026). A record of signed deals followed by a record of closed ones is a consistent sequence; the results do not say how much of the $114 billion had been signed by June.
Which of Apollo's fee lines grew fastest?
The fee for doing deals. Capital solutions fees grew 37 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2026, about twice the 18 percent rise in management fees (Apollo, 3 November 2026). Over the five quarters from the third quarter of 2025 the line rose every quarter, from $212 million to $290 million, and on our arithmetic it is now about 21 percent of Apollo's fee-related revenues, against about 18 percent a year earlier.
Apollo describes the line as primarily transaction fees earned by Apollo Capital Solutions for underwriting, structuring, arranging and placing debt and equity, and for syndication, on behalf of Apollo's funds, companies those funds own, and third parties. It also includes fees for monitoring portfolio companies' operations, directors' fees and property management fees, and part of it is credited back to fund investors as a reduction in their management fees, which Apollo calls the management fee offset (same results, definitions).
A management fee accrues for as long as money is managed. A transaction fee is earned when a deal is done. On our reading, a growing share of income from the second kind gives a platform lender a reason to arrange more transactions as well as to hold more loans. Apollo does not give fee rates or deal sizes, and we do not divide the line by the number of transactions, because it is not made up of transaction fees alone.
| Quarter | Origination | Gross capital deployment | Capital solutions fees | Management fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3Q 2025 | $75bn | $99bn | $212m | $863m |
| 4Q 2025 | $97bn | $113bn | $226m | $942m |
| 1Q 2026 | $71bn | $103bn | $246m | $952m |
| 2Q 2026 | $74bn | $111bn | $277m | $1,001m |
| 3Q 2026 | $114bn | $117bn | $290m | $1,017m |
Who pays an arranging fee in a private financing?
Usually the company raising the money, at closing. Apollo's results do not say who paid its fees, and we attribute none of them. In our experience of private financings generally, the arranger's underwriting, structuring and placement fees are charged to the borrower, either as a separate fee or as a discount to the face value of the loan, known as original issue discount, and they sit beside the interest margin in the all-in cost.
From one financing, a platform that both arranges and lends can therefore earn a fee for arranging it and, where its own funds hold the loan, a management fee on the money invested in it, while the interest goes to the funds that lend. None of that is unusual, and none of it is hidden: it is how the model is built. It does mean the fee page of a term sheet is income to someone on the other side of the table, and it is negotiable.
Sponsor-owned companies meet the same question from another side. Apollo's definition names companies its own funds own among the parties for which its capital solutions business arranges deals, and includes monitoring and directors' fees (same definitions). In our judgement, an owner who sells to any sponsor and keeps a stake should ask, before signing, which fees the sponsor's affiliates may charge the company after closing, because those fees come out of the company's cash and so partly out of the stake.
“A record origination quarter tells you lenders want to put money out. It does not tell you what they will charge to do it. The fee page is paid on the day the loan closes, whether or not the loan runs its full term, so it deserves the same negotiation as the margin.”
What should an owner or sponsor do when lenders are originating at a record pace?
Price the whole offer, not the margin. Ask for every fee in writing: upfront fee or original issue discount, arrangement or structuring fee, underwriting or commitment fee, agency fee, and any monitoring or advisory fee. Then compare offers on all-in cost to the date you expect to repay or refinance, not to final maturity. An upfront fee is spread over the years a loan is outstanding, so it costs more per year the sooner the loan is repaid.
Ask who will hold the loan after closing. Apollo's definition of origination includes investments syndicated to third parties (Apollo, 3 November 2026). An arranger that places part of a financing with others is not the only lender you will deal with when you need a waiver or an amendment, and the holders you meet then may not be the institution that signed the term sheet.
Use the moment, and watch the next print. A lender reporting record origination and record pipelines is a lender with capacity, which in our judgement is when fee terms move most easily for a financing that fits. Apollo's fourth-quarter results, due early in 2027 (last year's came on 9 February), will show whether origination stays near this quarter's level and whether the fee line sets a fifth consecutive record.
As of November 2026
Sources: Apollo Global Management, Inc., Apollo Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1, 3 November 2026, read on SEC EDGAR, for the remarks of Marc Rowan; the third quarter 2026 earnings presentation filed with it, read first-hand, for origination of $114 billion in the quarter and $356 billion over the last twelve months, gross capital deployment of $117 billion, capital solutions fees and other, net, of $290 million, up 36.8 percent year on year and described as a fourth consecutive quarterly record across about 115 discrete transactions, about 60 percent credit and 40 percent equity, segment management fees of $1,017 million, up 17.8 percent, fee-related revenues of $1,374 million against $1,148 million a year earlier, the attribution of origination to higher activity across all channels, and the definitions of origination and of capital solutions fees and other, net; the earnings presentations for the second quarter of 2026 (4 August 2026), the first quarter of 2026 (6 May 2026), the fourth quarter of 2025 (9 February 2026) and the third quarter of 2025 (4 November 2025), each read first-hand on SEC EDGAR, for the earlier origination, gross capital deployment, capital solutions fee and management fee figures in the table, the description of fourth-quarter 2025 origination as a record, and the record quarter of signed not yet closed origination activity reported for the second quarter of 2026. The changes in origination, the shares of fee-related revenues and the comparison of the two fee lines' growth are our arithmetic. The companion article cited for the second quarter's origination mix carries its own sources. The readings on who pays arranging fees, on syndication and on negotiation are ours and describe private financings generally, not any Apollo transaction.
Corrections: factual errors are corrected on the page and the correction dated. Write to admin@kadenwoodcapital.com.
This position sits within our debt advisory practice.