Apollo Global Management is planning to build out a secondary trading desk for private debt provided by a handful of lenders, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified as the details are private.
Plans are preliminary and Apollo may decide to not pursue them, the people added. An Apollo representative declined to comment.
The big asset manager would follow some others in the $1.7 trillion private credit industry that have set up operations to buy and sell the illiquid loans. Golub Capital has been trading direct loans, having bought and sold about $1 billion the first half of this year.
Firms such as Antares Capital and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have also been involved in trading as market participants look to shuffle their holdings. Although most lenders hold private-credit debt until maturity, some may look to shed positions due to liquidity constraints or a desire to free up capital for new investments.
