Oregon Investment Council, Tigard, which runs the $70.5 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, Salem, committed up to $500 million to Apollo Investment Fund IX, a buyout fund managed by Apollo Global Management, spokesman James Sinks said.
The council has a decadelong relationship with Apollo and has committed a total of $1 billion to previous Apollo funds. However, staff members are concerned that although Apollo has not specified a fundraising target the fund is expected to be the largest any firm has raised since the financial crisis, a staff memo to the council for its March 15 meeting said. Mitigating the staff's concern over the expected size of the new fund, is that Apollo's prior fund is currently the largest at more than $18 billion, and Apollo has invested it into “an increasingly frothy valuation environment” while maintaining purchase price discipline, the memo said.