Ares Management, one of the world’s alternative asset management giants, raised USD 31 billion in the third quarter, driven by strength across its private credit, real estate and infrastructure businesses.
The California-based company, in Q3, bolstered its business beyond private credit through 2025’s acquisition of GCP International, gaining a stronger foothold in domains like real estate and digital infrastructure.
Ares, as per the reports, is on track for its best-ever fundraising year as institutional investors continue strong allocations to alternative assets.
Over half of Ares’ inflows came from its non-credit businesses, highlighting the breadth of its platform.
The real assets division raised USD 11.2 billion in the quarter, while the credit group brought in USD 15.2 billion.
“We continue to expect another record year in fundraising with visibility for a strong fourth quarter, driven by sustained demand in our global institutional and wealth channel,” CEO Michael Arougheti told the investors and analysts.
Ares’ asset gathering mechanism, largely concentrated around institutional clients, has so far protected the company from fundraising volatility in private credit from wealthy investors.
Ares’ fundraising includes a roughly USD 4 billion Japan-focused logistics real estate development fund and a USD 4.2 billion debut secondaries fund.
Ares’ assets under management jumped 16% to USD 690.6 billion in the three months ended September 30, while fee-related earnings rose 11% to USD 524.2 million.
What makes Ares’ Q3 achievements even sweeter is the fact that deal activity for private credit firms has remained slow in the last couple of months, reflecting subdued buyout activity and competition from the broadly syndicated loan market.
Ares deployed USD 34.8 billion of capital, driven by US and European direct lending, alternative credit and infrastructure debt and equity strategies.
Ares’ uninvested capital jumped 16% to USD 173.8 billion as of September 30.
The company expects investing activity to pick up in the fourth quarter.
“As we head into our strongest seasonal quarter, recent market volatility is driving increased demand for our scaled and reliable capital,” Arougheti said.