Private equity firm Apollo Global Management (APO) recently agreed to acquire ClubCorp Holdings, one of the largest owners and operators of private golf and country clubs in the United States, for $1.1 billion, notes Todd Shaver, editor of BullMarket.com.
ClubCorp owns and operates 200 golf, country, business, sports and alumni clubs in 28 states, Washington D.C. and two foreign countries.
The deal comes three months after ClubCorp announced the retirement of is CEO Eric Affeldt and said it had decided not to pursue a “strategic transaction,” after efforts to explore a sale did not result in any offer for the entire company. So much for those thoughts!
Who is the man behind the curtain? Apollo Chairman and CEO Leon Black. He founded Apollo in 1990 to manage investment capital on behalf of a group of institutional investors, focusing on corporate restructuring, leveraged buyouts, and taking minority positions in growth-oriented companies.
From 1977 to 1990, Mr. Black worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he served as Managing Director, head of the Mergers & Acquisitions Group and co-head of the Corporate Finance Department.
He now serves on the boards of directors of Apollo Global Management, and The Partnership for New York City. Mr. Black is Co-chairman of The Museum of Modern Art, and a trustee of Mount Sinai Hospital, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Asia Society. He is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations.
Mr. Black is also a member of the board of FasterCures and the Port Authority Task Force. He graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a major in Philosophy and History and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
This man is a powerhouse and the success of your investment in Apollo will depend on Mr. Black. We put him in that category of people like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. We are big believers.
