Apollo’s Kleinman Says ‘Open Your Eyes,’ Inflation Not Tamed

(Bloomberg) -- Scott Kleinman, co-president at Apollo Global Management Inc., has warned markets not to get too comfortable with the current trajectory of inflation and interest rates.

“Inflation is not tamed,” Kleinman said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Tuesday. “The Fed can say what it wants. You just have to open your eyes and look around.”

Kleinman was speaking a week after Donald Trump won the US presidential election. The Republican has vowed to introduce a raft of import tariffs that economists warn could stoke inflation just as the US Federal Reserve has started to cut interest rates on the road to bringing price growth back to 2%.

But Kleinman said that, aside from any potential impact from Trump’s policies, inflationary pressures are already established because of global megatrends like the build out of digital infrastructure and decarbonization. “We’re going to have to live with a higher rate environment for a lot longer,” Kleinman said.

He echoed comments made by Apollo’s Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan, who said last month that he didn’t see a reason for the Fed to keep cutting interest rates to stimulate the economy.

“The more the Fed cuts, the more you’re lifting your hand off that lever to hold inflation down,” Kleinman said.

Dealmaking Drive

Trump’s victory also led to predictions of a friendlier environment for mergers and acquisitions in the years ahead, helped by a softer touch from antitrust regulators. While Kleinman acknowledged that expectation, he said that conditions for dealmaking were dictated more by the strength of the underlying economy.

“Everything starts with the economy,” he said. “The economy has been incredibly robust for the last several years in an environment that, let’s be honest, has been fairly anti-business from a regulatory environment.”

Apollo last week reported adjusted third-quarter net income of $1.13 billion, amounting to $1.85 per share. That beat analysts’ estimates of $1.73 per share. The firm’s push to target wealthy individuals helped boost assets under management to $733 billion — a 16% increase over the same period a year earlier. Earlier this year, Kleinman said the firm was selling about $1 billion a month across semi-liquid products to wealthy individual investors.

On Tuesday, Kleinman said that private capital’s involvement in the broader individual savings market was one to focus on and something that he said regulators may now be more open to encouraging.