Apollo co-founder Leon Black sells stock worth $172.8 million

(Reuters) - Billionaire and co-founder of Apollo Global Management Leon Black has sold shares worth about $172.8 million in the private equity firm, nearly three years after stepping down as its chief executive.

He sold 1.55 million shares earlier this month, a regulatory disclosure by Black made late on Monday showed.

Based on the closing price of the stock, he now owns more than 43 million shares worth $4.8 billion in Apollo, whose stock has surged nearly six times since its market debut in 2011.

The buyout firm has roughly $651 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31. Black has a net worth of $13.7 billion, according to Forbes.

He left Apollo in early 2021, in a surprise move that capped corporate governance changes triggered by a review of his ties to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The review had cleared Black of any wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)