Apollo leads $1.2 billion investment in Brad Jacobs’ QXO

An investor group led by Apollo Global Management Inc. has agreed to invest $1.2 billion in QXO Inc. to support the building products company’s acquisition strategy.

The financing for the company, which is led by billionaire and serial dealmaker Brad Jacobs, will be in convertible perpetual preferred stock, according to a statement on Monday that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. Under the agreement, the investors have committed to purchase the stock to fund one or more acquisitions by QXO by mid-July.

The new convertible preferred stock will pay an annual dividend of 4.75% with a conversion price of $23.25 per share, roughly 18% above QXO’s Friday closing price of $19.72. The stock rose 18% to $23.34 at 11:34 a.m. in New York trading Monday, giving the company a market value of about $16 billion.

The investment into Greenwich, Connecticut-based QXO is also backed by other firms including Franklin Templeton, people familiar with the matter have said.

The backing of Apollo, which has $908 billion of assets under management, gives Jacobs more ammunition to pursue his expansion plan. Apollo has invested alongside Jacobs before in an earlier company he founded called United Rentals Inc.

Jacobs created QXO in 2023 with the goal of using it as a vehicle to consolidate the building products distribution industry. It also hired a veteran investment banker Ihsan Essaid to be its chief financial officer.

It targets a wide range of products to distribute, including construction materials, plumbing supplies, fencing and decking, finished products such as doors and windows, and even heating and cooling equipment.

Its only acquisition so far was a big one. In April 2025, it completed the purchase of Beacon Roofing Supply Inc. for $11 billion, including debt, after a takeover battle.

Beacon was generating $10 billion in revenue at the time of the transaction and marked Jacobs’ first step toward his goal of making QXO a $50 billion revenue company within a decade.

It also tried to buy rival building distributor GMS Inc. for $5 billion, which was ultimately sold to Home Depot Inc. last year.

Jacobs is holding talks with seven different targets with revenue of up to $20 billion, one of the people have said. He stepped down from the boards of XPO Inc. and GXO Logistics Inc. at the end of last year.

Last summer, QXO turned to the equity markets to sell $2 billion in shares to replenish its coffers following the Beacon acquisition.

– By David Carnevali (Bloomberg)