Apollo Credit Twice Size of LBOs Shows Private-Equity Shift

Leveraged-buyout firms led by billionaire Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management LLC, seeing fewer bargains in acquiring companies, are loading up on high-risk debt being abandoned by the world’s biggest banks.

Apollo’s credit unit has swelled to $103 billion in assets from about $4 billion in seven years, first by buying loans from banks hurt by the 2008 financial crisis and now by benefiting from regulations designed to prevent a repeat of that event. The expansion has put the company co-founded by Black, known for acquiring companies such as Vail Resorts Inc., at the forefront of private-equity firms from Blackstone Group LP to KKR & Co. scooping up debt as banks unload.