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US private capital giant Apollo Global Management said it could invest as much as $100bn in Germany over the next decade, in a boost to chancellor Friedrich Merz’s efforts to unleash investment and stimulate growth in Europe’s largest economy.
The New York-based investment group has about $100bn of its roughly $800bn in assets under management in Europe, Apollo president Jim Zelter said on Wednesday at an industry conference in Berlin.
Donald Trump’s administration has made Europe “focus on financing industry, military . . . we see a bright future of being part of that dialogue”, he said.
“We see in this country alone the opportunity for us to put $100bn in the ground in the next decade,” Zelter said, adding it was “a number that would be hard to match around the globe”.
His comments come as Germany’s new chancellor has set out plans to revive the country’s stagnant economy by unleashing spending on defence and infrastructure.
Merz, who is due to meet the US president on Thursday, has slashed the country’s strict public borrowing caps, opening the door for an additional €500bn of debt-funded infrastructure investment over the next 12 years as well as a sharp increase in defence spending.
Investors have warmed to Europe as part of an effort to rebalance portfolios away from the US, where faster growth had led US investments to claim an increasing share of their funds.
Germany’s blue-chip stock market index, the Dax, is up 21 per cent this year. Trading near an all-time high, it is one of the best-performing stock indices this year.
Although that process had started before Trump’s inauguration as president, it has gathered pace in the months since amid worries about the country’s outlook for economic growth and policy instability.
Heightened tension between the US and its traditional allies has prompted the EU to re-examine its defence capabilities, and to search for new funding for the substantial investments needed at a time when public sector budgets are stretched.
Zelter said “private capital is a growth engine for Europe”, joining other private capital executives at the conference who said they saw the region as increasingly attractive amid rising volatility and uncertainty in the US.
Apollo’s investments in Germany include real estate assets in partnership with listed landlord Vonovia and a portfolio of legacy life insurance policies. It also owns German lender OLB, which it agreed to sell earlier this year to French bank Crédit Mutuel for €1.7bn.
Additional reporting by Olaf Storbeck
