Private-equity firm Apollo Management LP pushed to join the ranks of publicly traded investing shops Tuesday, filing for an initial public offering of stock valued at about $418 million. (Read the filing.)Related: Realogy Pays off Debt with More Debt. More: Three Guys and $1 Billion.The move should unlock billions of personal wealth for Apollo's three main owners -- Leon Black, Josh Harris, and Marc Rowan -- who founded the firm 18 years ago out of the wreckage of the Drexel Burham Lambert brokerage house.
The latest move nonetheless comes at an awkward time for their breed of money-management firms. Private-equity shops like Apollo were able to feast on easily available debt to fund a spate of huge corporate buyouts over the past three years. But many of those deals are already in trouble, such as Apollo's own $1.3 billion purchase of retailer Linens 'n Things and an ill-fated $6.65 billion purchase of real-estate firm Realogy Corp.