The company’s SEC earnings presentation put gross new capital commitments at $29.5 billion, including $20.4 billion from the credit group and $6.2 billion from real assets. Assets under management rose to $644.3 billion, fee-paying assets under management reached $399.6 billion and available capital stood at $158.1 billion.
Ares Management fundraising points to institutional demand
The quarter offered a direct counterpoint to recent fears that private credit investors were broadly pulling back. Ares CEO Michael Arougheti told analysts the “Institutional investor is not anxious,” according to a Reuters report on the fundraising. Reuters also reported that Ares’ direct institutional client base rose by about 50% from 2022 to 2025, giving the firm a more stable base than managers more dependent on retail flows.
That distinction matters because Ares’ first-quarter activity was not limited to fundraising. The firm deployed $32.3 billion during the quarter, including $23.7 billion through its credit group. U.S. direct lending accounted for $9.5 billion of gross new capital commitments, while European direct lending added $4 billion.
Private credit fears remain part of the story
The strong raise did not happen in a calm market. An April Reuters review of private credit jitters said several funds had capped withdrawals while some banks tightened lending to the roughly $2 trillion industry. The concerns centered on valuations, transparency, software exposure and whether semi-liquid funds could meet redemption pressure without selling hard-to-trade loans.
Ares was part of that stress test. In March, the firm capped withdrawals at Ares Strategic Income Fund after investors sought to redeem 11.6% of outstanding shares, with the fund planning to honor repurchase requests equal to 5% of shares, according to an older Reuters article on the withdrawal cap. Ares said at the time that most requests came from a limited group of family offices and smaller institutions.
The broader risk picture is mixed rather than one-sided. A separate Reuters analysis of BDC loan maturities found that only about $15 billion of $84 billion in assets reviewed mature in 2026, with maturities peaking in 2028 and 2029. That does not eliminate credit risk, but it suggests the sector’s refinancing wall is not immediate.
Ares Management has been building toward this moment
The latest quarter looks less like a surprise than another step in a multiyear expansion. In May 2024, Bloomberg reported that Ares aimed to exceed $750 billion in assets under management by 2028, a target that framed the firm’s push into wealth, credit and real assets, according to an older Bloomberg article on Ares’ 2028 target.
Two months later, Ares closed a U.S. senior direct lending strategy with a $34 billion capital base, the largest fund in the company’s history at the time, according to an older Reuters article on the direct lending fund. That raise showed how quickly private credit demand had scaled even before the latest market turbulence.
Ares also widened its platform outside credit. In October 2024, the company agreed to buy GLP Capital Partners’ international business, excluding China operations, in a $3.7 billion deal that expanded its real assets and infrastructure footprint, according to an older Reuters article on the GCP International deal. That transaction helped support the larger real assets base now contributing to fundraising.
What the numbers say about risk and opportunity
Ares’ first-quarter results show both sides of the private credit debate. Fee-related earnings rose to $464.4 million, up 26% from a year earlier, while after-tax realized income rose to $1.24 per share from $1.09. Those figures point to durable fee growth at a time when investors are questioning how some private market valuations will hold up.
The firm also reported $101.7 billion of assets under management not yet paying fees, including $79.4 billion available for future deployment. That gives Ares a large runway for future management fees if the capital is invested, but it also raises the stakes for underwriting discipline as competition, borrower stress and macro uncertainty continue.
For now, Ares Management has delivered a fundraising result that cuts against the most bearish private credit narrative. The next test is not whether investors will commit capital, but whether Ares can deploy that capital into loans and assets that justify confidence through the next phase of the credit cycle.
