Apollo Global Management LLC ended the initial stage of assets raising for its latest leading buyout fund. Leon Black's private equity firm, Apollo, presently has around US$6.8 billion. A source acquainted with the issue said.

The fund called Apollo Investment Fund VIII was striving for US$12 billion. It set US$15 billion as the utmost amount. This was prior to the New York-headquartered Apollo's move to start marketing the funds without limit. Two people with knowledge of the matter stated last month.

Apollo's spokesman, Charles Zehren refused to give a statement regarding the fundraising development. Zehren was a staff of Apollo at Rubenstein Associates, its public-relations firm.

Apollo was one of a small number of firms that was expected to raise a greater fund than it did earlier. 2007-2009 were the years of financial crunch that terminated some negotiations.

A large share of resources became hard to achieve. Fewer buyout companies were able to raise money higher than before. As the industry continued to consolidate, investors also tried to allot their funds to smaller groups of managers. This was done because they sought after cutting costs.