On 26 October 2026 Mubadala Capital, the alternative asset management arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company, announced that Apollo Global Management will take a minority equity stake in it and commit capital across its strategies. Apollo and other, unnamed strategic investors are expected to commit an aggregate $5bn to Mubadala Capital’s strategies at initial close, with completion targeted for Q4 2026 (Apollo IR). Neither price nor stake size was disclosed; CNBC, citing people familiar with the matter, put Apollo’s holding at nearly 10% (CNBC).
The Financial Times’ standfirst carries the more consequential point: the deal comes 18 months after Mark Walter’s TWG Global announced its own equity stake in Mubadala Capital, and that stake was never completed (FT, via BizToc).
Key conclusions
- Apollo is filling the seat TWG was meant to occupy. The 26 October release names only the founders of Silver Rock Financial as existing outside equity holders. TWG is absent.
- This is a GP-stake and distribution deal, not a takeover. Mubadala Investment Company remains the majority shareholder.
- The $755bn headline is not comparable with Apollo’s AUM. It is assets “managed, advised and administered”, including strategic partnerships. The core alternatives business is over $60bn.
- The relationship was already deep. Apollo funds provided preferred equity and co-led the debt for the Mubadala Capital/TWG buyout of Clear Channel Outdoor, which completed on 14 October 2026.
- The football link is direct. Apollo Sports Capital became majority owner of Atlético de Madrid in March 2026; Apollo now becomes a part-owner of a manager controlled by the Abu Dhabi state, whose senior figures also lead Manchester City.
The transaction
| Term | Position |
|---|---|
| Buyer | Apollo (NYSE: APO), plus unnamed “additional strategic investors” as minority shareholders |
| Instrument | Minority equity stake in the manager, plus commitments to its funds |
| Stake size | Not disclosed; nearly 10% per CNBC sources |
| Price / valuation | Not disclosed |
| Fund commitments | $5bn aggregate at initial close, across Apollo and the other new investors, not Apollo alone |
| Control | Mubadala Investment Company remains majority shareholder |
| Other outside equity holders | Founders of Silver Rock Financial |
| Timetable | Close expected Q4 2026, subject to regulatory and legal approvals |
| Advisers to Mubadala Capital | Goldman Sachs and Jefferies (financial); Skadden (legal) |
| Advisers to Apollo | Morgan Stanley (financial); Paul, Weiss (legal) |
Sources: Business Wire; MEED; GuruFocus.
Apollo shares rose 3.11% to $116.33 by 11:10am ET on the day. The same morning an Apollo-managed entity also announced a $40bn AI-chip financing with SpaceX, so the move cannot be attributed to this deal alone.
Who is Mubadala Capital
Mubadala Capital was founded in 2011 as the asset management subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s c.$385bn sovereign investor. It has over 250 staff in Abu Dhabi, London, New York, Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco (Semafor). Its growth has been almost entirely acquisitive.
| Date | Figure quoted | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Over $755bn; core alternatives over $60bn | Managed, advised and administered, incl. partnerships |
| Oct 2025 | Over $430bn | Same broad basis, after CI Financial closed |
| Apr 2025 | Over $30bn | Four investment businesses |
| Dec 2024 | $27bn | Own AUM |
Sources: Apollo IR; Mubadala Capital; Business Wire; The Daily Upside.
The acquisitions that built the platform
| Completed | Target | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct 2026 | Clear Channel Outdoor | Take-private at $6.2bn EV, $2.43 a share; c.$3bn equity from Mubadala Capital with TWG Global; Apollo funds provided preferred equity and co-led the debt with JPMorgan (SEC 8-K) |
| 1 Oct 2025 | Silver Rock Financial (c.$10bn credit manager) | 42% stake for cash and Mubadala Capital stock; $1bn+ fund commitments (Mubadala Capital) |
| 12 Aug 2025 | CI Financial / Corient | 100% at C$32 a share, equity c.C$4.7bn, total C$12.1bn; Corient agreed to buy London’s Stonehage Fleming and Stanhope Capital (CI Q3 2025 report) |
| May 2024 | Fortress Investment Group | Mubadala Capital-led consortium owns 68%, management 32% (A&O Shearman) |
The TWG stake that never completed
On 30 April 2025 TWG Global, led by Mark Walter and Thomas Tull, announced that it would commit $2.5bn to Mubadala Capital products and take a “strategic minority stake”, aiming for up to $20bn more over time. In return Mubadala Capital would anchor $10bn of TWG’s $15bn equity raise (Business Wire).
Several outlets reported that TWG paid $2.5bn for a 5% stake. The official release does not say that: the $2.5bn is a product commitment, and the stake is a separate element. Any $50bn “implied valuation” of Mubadala Capital derived from those figures rests on a misreading of a deal that never closed and should be disregarded.
Bloomberg reported in July 2026 that the TWG–Mubadala deal was an early focus of the federal investigation into Walter’s businesses, and that prosecutors had examined whether Mubadala Capital was misled about valuations. It was unclear whether that line of inquiry was still being pursued; Mubadala Capital declined to comment (reported via Naked Capitalism). No charges have been brought against Walter or TWG, and TWG says it has acted in good faith and is cooperating (Bloomberg Law).
Three points should be kept separate:
- The equity seat was vacant. Apollo, Mubadala’s longest-standing Western partner, takes the position TWG was announced into.
- The commercial relationship with TWG continues. Mubadala Capital closed Clear Channel with TWG twelve days before the Apollo announcement.
- The reason for non-completion is not public. It should not be attributed to the investigation without evidence.
The Esk’s earlier analysis: Related parties: inside the Walter probe and what it means for Chelsea’s ownership.
The Apollo–Mubadala relationship, 2020–2026
| Date | Transaction |
|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | Apollo minority stake in Mubadala Capital |
| Feb 2026 | Apollo funds provide preferred equity and co-lead debt on the Clear Channel buyout |
| Nov 2024 | Multi-year extension of the origination partnership feeding Apollo Capital Solutions |
| Sep 2023 | Apollo invests in Mubadala Capital’s new evergreen Solutions strategy |
| Jan 2023 | $2.5bn private credit joint venture |
| Feb 2022 | Origination partnership expanded |
| Jul 2020 | Apollo Strategic Origination Partners formed, anchored by Mubadala; c.$12bn of financings targeted over three years |
Sources: Apollo IR, Nov 2024; Mubadala Capital, Sep 2023; Enterprise AM; Paul, Weiss; Apollo, Jul 2020.
Why Apollo is doing it
Apollo runs a manager partnerships and stakes strategy aimed at returns plus forward deal flow onto its own platforms; earlier examples include up to 24.9% of Motive Partners (2021) and c.5% of Diameter Capital Partners (2022). Origination is its binding constraint: in October 2024 it set a target of $275bn of annual origination within five years. Mubadala Capital’s platform, from Fortress and Silver Rock to CI/Corient, generates assets and private-wealth distribution Apollo can lend into, co-invest alongside or place product through.
For Mubadala Capital, outside shareholders validate a valuation, align large LPs with its success as a manager and reduce dependence on the parent’s balance sheet. Replacing TWG’s unconsummated stake with an NYSE-listed firm with SEC disclosure obligations is a credibility upgrade.
Valuation: what can and cannot be inferred
No defensible valuation of Mubadala Capital can be derived from public information. Price, stake size and fee-paying AUM are undisclosed. It is also unknown whether the stake covers the whole group, including the look-through holdings in Fortress and CI, or only the core alternatives business; whether consideration is primary or secondary; and whether Apollo receives a board seat or economic rights beyond ordinary equity. A single multiple applied to the $755bn headline would be meaningless.
What it means for football
- Interconnection. Apollo will sit as lender, preferred-equity provider, LP, co-investor and shareholder across Mubadala Capital’s ecosystem. Nothing suggests impropriety, but the pattern of connected ownership across lenders and borrowers is the same structural question that drew prosecutors to Walter’s empire, and is one regulators should map.
- Conflicts. Mubadala Capital controls Fortress, a direct Apollo competitor in private credit. Information barriers and governance terms are undisclosed.
- Club ownership. Apollo Sports Capital completed its majority acquisition of Atlético de Madrid on 12 March 2026 (Apollo).
- Abu Dhabi and Manchester City. Mubadala’s chairman, Sheikh Mansour, owns Manchester City through City Football Group, and its group chief executive, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairs City. Mubadala Capital does not own City; the link is at the level of the Abu Dhabi state and its leadership. See our board-relationship mapping.
- Regulation. Any future Mubadala Capital or Fortress capital into an English club would sit within a structure with both Abu Dhabi state and Apollo shareholders, which the Independent Football Regulator’s owners’ and source-of-funds tests would need to look through.
Open questions
- Who are the other strategic investors, and how is the $5bn split?
- Price, percentage and primary versus secondary consideration, likely visible first in Apollo’s Q4 2026 results.
- Why did the TWG stake not complete, and was the $10bn syndicated investment into TWG funded?
- Is the reported line of inquiry into Mubadala Capital’s valuations still live?
- Which change-of-control approvals are required, given Fortress, CI and Stonehage Fleming are regulated in the US, Canada and the UK?
Sources and limitations
Primary sources are the Apollo/Mubadala Capital release, the 2025 TWG release, Mubadala Capital’s Silver Rock release, Clear Channel Outdoor’s SEC filings and CI Financial’s Q3 2025 report, all linked above. The FT and WSJ are paywalled and are cited only as reported by the secondary sources linked. This piece is part of The Football Capital Tracker.