Leon Black Quotes
102 Leon Black Quotes
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[In 2006] How many people are able to do very large deals? There will be only so many funds that investors are willing to go with and they have a more interesting group of targets with less competition.
Leon Black
[In April 2007 on whether to sell Apollo shares to the general public.] We’re looking at this, as is every other private-equity fund.
Leon Black
[In April 2007] When you go public, clients don’t feel you lost their money. They feel like you stole their money.
Leon Black
[In April 2007 on describing himself.] Generally a glass-half-empty person.
Leon Black
[In April 2007 on the economy. It’s not] About to fall over a cliff.
Leon Black
[In April 2007] From the get-go, [Apollo's] view always was to look at a balance sheet and decide where was the best risk/reward.
Leon Black
[In April 2007] Private equity today, and what we try to do, is to have this integrated platform - we have no Chinese walls in our private equity business. We do it around industry verticals where we think we have real expertise.
Leon Black
[In April 2007 on rumors of Apollo going public.] The real issue is looking at it as you look at everything. Is there really a strategic reason to do it? There are real positives, and there are some real negatives.
Leon Black
[In April 2007] Every time is different, but clearly we go through cycles. The question is, how long will these cycles be?
Leon Black
[In April 2007] It doesn′t feel to me that it's about to fall off a cliff, subject to the geopolitical risks.
Leon Black
[In February 2008] You can get equity-type returns from debt instruments that may be a better play than pure equity right now, where you can’t get leverage.
Leon Black
[In April 2008] There are many roads to Rome.
Leon Black
[In April 2008] Volatility is not the enemy. The distressed area is just beginning.
Leon Black
[In April 2008] The recession deepens.
Leon Black
[In April 2008] The market is a little confused about what to do.
Leon Black
[In November 2008] Most of the companies we own are businesses or industries that we really like.
Leon Black
[In November 2008 on Hexion Speciality Chemicals and Huntsman deal made in July 2007.] Sure, I regret where things stand now. But there was originally a very good industrial logic to doing the deal. I’m not smart enough to predict how things will turn out.
Leon Black
[In November 2008] I don’t believe in the notion of Masters of the Universe. People either do their job or they don’t. It’s ultimately all about performance.
Leon Black
[In December 2008] Traditional private equity is dead and has been for a year. It will probably remain so for a couple of years.
Leon Black
[In December 2008 on Apollo having just raised $20 billion in new money.] We’ve totally turned into a bond house.
Leon Black
[In December 2008 on Linens ‘n Things collapsing but only costing them a half a percentage point on returns.] Unusual. [Apollo] Underestimated the severity of the downturn of the housing market.
Leon Black
[In February 2009] The thing that is going to save us, if we’re going to be saved, is long-term nature of our capital, which came out of engineering. On the other hand, it has to be that these are good, solid businesses that we can operate, that we can belt-tighten. What we’re doing is playing about two-thirds defense and one-third offense.
Leon Black
[In February 2009] In our portfolios right now, we’re attacking both the left and the right side of the balance sheet. Clearly we’re trying to squeeze out everything we can operationally without hitting muscle. But, at the same time, now is an extraordinary period to trying to attack the right side of the balance sheet. I think what you’re going to be seeing in our industry over the next 24 months is a lot of debt buy-ins, a lot of exchanges, a lot of restructurings, a lot of re-engineering of the corporate balance sheets to try to delever them.
Leon Black
[In February 2009] When you talk about what distressed investment really is, it’s a delevering process… This may be for third-party companies, but one should be attacking one’s own portfolio companies in the same way. Hopefully, Congress, in its inevitable wisdom, will agree with that and do some alterations in the existing laws which will allow companies to buy in their debt without as severe tax consequences as exist today… We have to delever our economy before we’re going to have our recovery that we’re all looking for.
Leon Black
[In 2010 on a possible tax increase.] It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for some adjustment.
Leon Black
[In January 2010 on keeping carried interest taxed as capital gains.] I’m not sure I would. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to have some adjustment… I don’t think it should be ordinary income, but maybe something in between.
Leon Black
[In March 2010] We acted aggressively and decisively when other market participants were not as active to capitalize on what we believed to be unprecedented opportunities in the credit markets.
Leon Black
[In April 2010] The world is off the edge of a precipice. What a difference a year makes.
Leon Black
[In March 2011] When you look at the spectrum between greed and fear, we’re moving back to the greed side. [On the market] Hot. [Not overheated.]
Leon Black
[In March 2011] One should be attacking both the left and right side of the balance sheet to find cost savings, to de-lever and to push out maturities. A hope and a prayer is not a strategy.
Leon Black
[In November 2011] Although volatile global equity and credit markets resulted in lower unrealized values in our portfolios during the third quarter, today’s environment plays to our strength as a contrarian, value-oriented investor. We are confident that our funds will generate long-term value for our investors, and I believe Apollo is well-positioned for the secular trends taking place in our industry.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] If other things happened politically, if the euro zone were to break apart or the euro was no longer the currency, I think the opportunities would be greater than they are today – and they are already huge.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] We are talking $1.5 to $2 trillion worth of assets that have to come out and on the demand side the traditional proprietary desks and a lot of the hedge fund players are not there.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] What we have been looking at is trying to buy performing or non-performing loans, most of them high up in the capital structure, and try to underwrite those at low-twenties or so returns, which to us is a pretty extraordinary risk-reward on the senior credit side.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] What is interesting it has become the flavor of the month; Europe is the place to be. I don't think they are going to be all these fire sales. The banks that have to delever there are not fools.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] I and my wife Debra, we are pretty major investors in medical research. Both on the stem cell research side, and also on starting the melanoma research alliance.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] Mike Milken… has been a close friend or almost now 30 years. Over that 33 years today.
Leon Black
[In December 2011] I’ve always dealt with the world of finance and of Wall Street…
Leon Black
[In December 2011] I think it’s important that we take a real good look at our values in this country. It’s quite a dichotomy.
Leon Black
[In February 2012] 2011 was an outstanding year for Apollo as we remained focused on our core investment strategies while continuing to drive growth across all of Apollo’s businesses.
Leon Black
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