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Apollo Agrees to Acquire Bridge Investment Group for $1.5B

by Taylor Williams

NEW YORK CITY AND SALT LAKE CITY — Global alternative asset manager and private equity firm Apollo (NYSE: APO) has entered into an agreement to acquire Bridge Investment Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BRDG) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.5 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Based in Salt Lake City, Bridge operates nearly a dozen offices nationwide and has approximately $49 billion in assets under management. In addition to some 13.5 million square feet of industrial holdings, the company’s portfolio includes nearly 65,000 residential units across the market-rate, workforce/affordable housing, seniors housing and single-family rental verticals. Bridge was ranked No. 21 on the American Seniors Housing Association’s (ASHA) 2024 list of largest seniors housing owners.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bridge stockholders will receive 0.07081 shares of Apollo common stock for each share of Bridge common stock at closing. Both parties value the per-share price at $11.50, which represents a premium of about 45 percent over the company’s closing stock price of $7.92 per share on Friday, Feb. 21.

Upon closing, Bridge will operate as a standalone platform within Apollo’s asset management business. Bob Morse, the current executive chairman of Bridge, will be named a partner at Apollo and lead the company’s real estate equity franchise division.

“This transaction will allow the Bridge and Apollo teams to grow on the strong foundation that Bridge has built since 2009 as we work to pursue meaningful value and impact for our investors and communities,” says Morse.

Apollo executives said that the acquisition of Bridge offers an opportunity to accelerate the push to grow its real estate holdings and platform, which also includes lending services for commercial real estate assets and borrowers.

“Their business will complement and further augment our existing real estate capabilities, and we believe we can help scale Bridge’s products by leveraging the breadth of our integrated platform,” says David Sambur, partner and co-head of equity at Apollo.

Apollo’s team of financial advisors includes BofA Securities, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Newmark Group. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as financial advisor to Bridge.

Based in New York City, Apollo has approximately $750 billion in assets under management. The company’s stock price opened at $151.91 per share on Monday, Feb. 24, the day the deal was announced, up nearly 40 percent from $110.88 per share a year ago.

Taylor Williams

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