Olivia, welcome.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for climate
investing?
Absolutely.
Areas in which we see big opportunities today are twofold.
One, from an asset class perspective, we see a lot of
opportunities around both private equity, as well as
infrastructure, and private credit.
There's been a lot of capital that has gone into venture
capital and growth equity over the last few years.
We think that's fantastic,
but now we're really in a scaling up phase here.
So we're very much focused on the technologies, the processes,
that, a couple of years ago, were not quite ready for prime
time.
We've taken them to the next level and now you really need
the capital to grow these businesses, to scale these
businesses, to really finance these businesses in a regular
way.
Is that the unlock then? From here
to scaling up is just a matter of finance?
It's the right finance and the right way?
Listen, not all these businesses are gonna make it and we
understand that.
When businesses have gotten to a level where they're ready for
financing, where the technology risk has been proven,
there is infrastructure capital, there is private equity capital,
and there's ultimately, for us, private credit that can really
help get these companies to the next level.
We see a tremendous opportunity there and we really think that
is what will sort of solve this "missing middle" of the climate
finance equation.
We're hearing a lot of companies that are committing to climate
targets, but how do you turn that ambition into reality?
Absolutely, we love it.
When we see our corporate partners, companies that we have
strong relationships with at Apollo, make commitments, we
call them up. We want to be their partner on so many of
these deals.
We did a really interesting deal a couple of weeks ago with Air
France, where, as part of an overall financing, we funded
€100 million tranche to solely purchase sustainable aviation
fuel.
We've had a long relationship with Air France.
This was really a way in which we could very much help them
meet their own goals.
Where does regulation fit into all this?
Regulation is important and we see things like the Inflation
Reduction Act in the US and these are fantastic.
The reality is: for these businesses to have a fighting
chance, they need to stand on their own without regulatory
incentives.
For us, when we're looking at underwriting these businesses,
we need to make sure that even without these incentives, that
there's a good business model in here. That they can make money
and at the end of the incentive period,
there is very good residual value
so that this business will keep on going even beyond the
regulatory incentive.
All right. Olivia, thank you so much.
Thank you.