Apollo is hiring junior Goldman and J.P. Morgan bankers in London

If you want to leave your investment banking job and work in private equity, you've probably eyed by Apollo Global Management already. Founded by Leon Black, a former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker, Apollo has a reputation for making aggressive value-driven investments in distressed companies other funds avoid - and succeeding. It ranks fifth on our list of private equity funds people want to work for and it pays well. Last year, 18 partners in the London office received an average profit share of $3m each; the highest paid partner got $27m.

It's of interest, therefore, that Apollo has been hiring in London. Even better, that it's been hiring juniors from investment banks.

While other private equity funds have a tendency to hire analysts with one or two years' experience, Apollo's sweet-spot seems to be first year associates. So far this year it's hired at least four in London, one of whom's an intern.

The fund's most recent London associate hire is Matthieu Forgeard, who joined this month from Goldman Sachs, where he was an associate in the private equity division. In August, Apollo hired Charles Galinier-Warrain, an associate in J.P. Morgan's investment banking business. And in June, it hired Chelsea Lau, an associate in Citi's leveraged finance division. In July, Apollo also brought in HuiYing Chan, a former investment banking summer associate at Deutsche Bank, who joined as a credit investing associate intern.

Galinier-Warrain excepted, all Apollo's hires were in the first year of the associate programme and had been promoted after around two years - making them third year analysts under the old way of doing things. Meanwhile, Bruno Tambosso, a former analyst intern on Apollo's European credit team, went in the other direction and joined J.P. Morgan's EMEA technology, media and telecommunications team as an analyst this summer.

Apollo Management International has 87 UK staff registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. They've been busy: in 2016 Apollo's international business generated $141m in revenues. In June this year, Apollo hit a record for the biggest pool of capital ever gathered by a buyout firm after raising $23.5bn. In April, it began raising a €2.7bn European distressed debt fund.

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