Ares Management Corporation is a global alternative investment manager headquartered in Los Angeles, California, operating across credit, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and secondaries markets. Founded in 1997, the firm has grown from a founder-led private credit boutique into one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers, with approximately $596 billion in assets under management as of November 2025. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and joined the S&P 500 in December 2025.
Website: aresmgmt.com
Head office address: 1800 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1400, Los Angeles, California 90067
Founded: 1997
Founders: Antony Ressler, Michael Arougheti, David Kaplan, John H. Kissick, and Bennett Rosenthal
Company type: publicly traded; NYSE: ARES; S&P 500 component
CEO: Michael Arougheti
AUM: approximately $596 billion (as of November 2025)
Employees: approximately 4,200 (as of November 2025)
Regions served: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and South America
Ares Management was established in 1997 by a group of senior credit and leveraged-finance professionals, including Antony Ressler, Michael Arougheti, David Kaplan, John H. Kissick, and Bennett Rosenthal. The founders brought deep experience in complex and stressed financing, and built the early firm around disciplined credit underwriting rather than broad market speculation. That foundation shaped the firm’s identity through its first decade of growth.
From that credit base, Ares expanded into private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and secondaries through a mix of organic growth and targeted acquisitions. Key milestones include:
These moves reflect a sustained shift from a single-strategy credit firm toward a diversified, multi-asset-class platform with global reach and a growing presence in the wealth management channel.
The firm organizes its investment activity across five major groups, each with its own distinct strategy and market focus. Advisors and investors can access these strategies through both institutional funds and a growing range of vehicles designed for the wealth channel:
Through Ares WMS, the firm works with registered investment advisors, broker-dealers, and private wealth managers to provide education and access to private market strategies. Its model portfolio work includes frameworks for building portfolios with meaningful private market allocations alongside traditional public market exposure.
Private credit has become one of the fastest-growing corners of institutional investment. According to JPMorgan’s Alternative Investments Outlook for 2026, private markets have grown to an estimated $20 trillion in size, with companies staying private longer and a large pool of dry powder supporting ongoing deal activity.
Ares sits at the center of that trend. Its Credit Group is among the largest direct lenders to middle-market companies globally, and the firm’s scale — roughly $596 billion in total AUM as of November 2025 — gives it a competitive advantage in origination, pricing, and investor relationships.
The wealth channel is an increasingly important growth driver. According to iCapital’s Alternatives Decoded report for Q4 2025, the average RIA financial advisor allocates approximately 6 percent of client portfolios to alternative investments — a figure that Ares and others in the industry believe has significant room to grow as defined contribution plans begin expanding access to private markets.
Ares has been vocal about its ambitions in the private equity segment as well. CEO Michael Arougheti said in an interview with the Financial Times that the firm has the financial capacity to pursue both organic growth and acquisitions to build a broader private equity franchise, as U.S. retirement plans open up to alternative investments.
The firm’s S&P 500 inclusion in December 2025 placed it alongside Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo in the benchmark, increasing its visibility among generalist portfolio managers and wealth management platforms. That profile, combined with its multi-asset-class platform and dedicated wealth distribution team, positions Ares as one of the central players in the ongoing movement to bring institutional alternative investment strategies to individual investors.
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