Episode summary
Going Public Ep. 1 with Evercore's Glenn Schorr
Alt Goes Mainstream
· · Hosts: Michael Sidgmore · Guests: Glenn Schorr
Summary
Glenn Schorr argues that alternative asset managers became more accepted as public companies only after they changed structure, broadened their investor base, and proved they could grow beyond their original private equity and real estate roots. Early public investors disliked the K-1s, partnership structures, and volatile earnings, but conversion to C-corp status and the rise of wealth-channel demand made the stocks easier to own and understand. He sees the biggest long-term driver as structural: more capital is moving into private markets, more companies are staying private longer, and public alternatives firms are building ecosystems around distribution, origination, and permanent capital.
He says performance still matters a lot, but platform breadth, duration of capital, and fundraising discipline increasingly shape valuations. In his view, Apollo, Blackstone, KKR, Blue Owl, TPG, and Carlyle are all trying to extend their moats through private credit, insurance, asset-based finance, secondaries, and global distribution. He is most positive on the secular growth in the wealth channel and on private credit, especially as rates come down and monetizations improve.
Schorr’s caution is that the industry must avoid repeating traditional asset management’s path of fee compression and commoditization. He thinks success will belong to firms that stay disciplined, keep investing ahead of growth, and keep proving their strategies through multiple vintages.
Key takeaways
- Schorr says the public-market acceptance of alt managers improved after C-corp conversions and broader index/fund eligibility expanded their investor base.
- He thinks the wealth channel is the key structural tailwind, with major managers targeting a jump in private-markets allocations from low single digits toward 10% to 20%.
- He argues long-duration capital and permanent vehicles deserve higher valuations than shorter-duration or more volatile fee streams.
- He sees private credit as a durable winner, especially as rates ease and floating-rate returns remain attractive versus cash.
- He warns that alt managers must avoid the mutual-fund industry’s fate of fee compression and commoditization by staying disciplined and differentiated.
Notable quotes
“In the beginning, they didn't think about them that much. There wasn't a lot of liquidity. They traded at bad multiples”
“The tailwind conquers a lot. The rising tide does lift all boats. It lifts the better managers a lot better”
“just because I want to be in the secondary business doesn't mean that I can be who's you managing the money”
How the episode opens
Everybody gets a piece. We're going mainream. Everybody's going to eat.
We're going mainream. All my family sing. See you on mainream.
We're going mainream. From Wall Street to Melrose Avenue. We're going mainream.
venture capitalists to athletes to creators to the person who's collecting trading cards. We're going to collision of culture and finance. We're going.
Welcome to the alt goes mainstream going public series with Glen Shore. In this special series, we aim to make private markets more public. We take a deep dive into the public side of the alternative asset management industry.
Our guide, Glenn Shore, is a well-known Wall Street analyst who has covered alternative asset managers since the first firms in the industry have gone public. Glenn is a senior managing director and senior research analyst at Evercore ISI. Glenn has covered the financial sector since 2000 as a senior analyst and has consistently been named to institutional investors allameric research team for his coverage of brokers, asset managers, and exchanges in large cap banks.
most recently ranking number two and runnerup respectively in the sectors in 2023 and number one and number two in 2022. Listen in as Glenn shares market stories, the evolution of alternative asset managers as businesses, the biggest and most exciting trends in private markets based on what the industry's largest players are doing. And we also will go around the horn for his analysis on each of the publicly traded firms.
Couldn't ask for anyone better to take us on this journey. Glenn and I hope you enjoy. We're going.
Welcome first episode of Going Public with Glenn Shore, Michael Sigmore. Welcome to the show. First, I want to start with your background because you've been an equity analyst since all the alts managers have gone public.
So, tell us a bit about your background.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- going public for alternative asset managers
- public vs private alts strategy
- alts manager revenue models
- blackstone business model
- industry outlook for private markets
Companies and tickers mentioned
- BX
- APO
- KKR
- NMR
- OWL
- Evercore
- Blackstone
- Apollo Global Management
- KKR
- Nomura
- Blue Owl Capital
Watch the episode
Watch “Going Public Ep. 1 with Evercore's Glenn Schorr” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Alt Goes Mainstream, this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Sidgmore. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
