During Apollo Global’s Q1 earnings call, chairman Marc Rowan launched a tirade against opaque pricing practices across the $22 trillion private‑markets sector. He singled out “day‑one mark‑ups” in retail funds that buy second‑hand private‑equity stakes, arguing they inflate paper profits and misprice assets for investors seeking quarterly liquidity. The comments rattled managers like Hamilton Lane and StepStone, whose shares fell on the news.

Rowan then unveiled Apollo’s plan to publish daily valuations on its $700bn private‑credit book, a transparency move he says rivals resist. He framed it as a defence against “evergreen” funds that obscure true pricing and hinted regulators will soon pressure the industry to follow suit. The proposal could reshape pricing standards for the $38 trillion investment‑grade loan market Apollo targets.

The call also brushed past a fresh $400 million loss disclosed by HSBC after its exposure to Atlas SP’s loan to distressed lender MFS. While HSBC’s shares slipped more than 6%, Apollo escaped scrutiny, fielding no questions on the write‑down. Rowan’s broader critique—that the market obsessively focuses on a $2 trillion leveraged‑lending slice while ignoring the larger private‑credit universe—underscored a strategic push to reposition Apollo as a pricing benchmark.