We offer our investors a range of investment strategies and seek to deliver
attractive performance to a growing investor base that includes approximately
680 direct institutional relationships and a significant retail investor base
across our publicly traded and sub-advised funds. Since our inception in 1997,
we have adhered to a disciplined investment philosophy that focuses on delivering
strong risk-adjusted investment returns through market cycles. Ares believes
each of its distinct but complementary investment groups, which were organized
in four business lines comprised of Tradable Credit, Direct Lending, Private
Equity and Real Estate, is a market leader based on assets under management
and investment performance. In February 2016, we announced the combination of
the Tradable Credit and Direct Lending Groups to form the Credit Group and now
operate through three business lines. We believe we have created value for our
stakeholders not only through our investment performance but also by expanding
our product offering, enhancing our distribution channels, increasing our global
presence, investing in our non-investment functions, securing strategic partnerships
and completing accretive acquisitions and portfolio purchases.
We have an established track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns
through market cycles. We believe our consistent and strong performance in a
broad range of alternative assets has been shaped by several distinguishing
features of our platform:
Robust Sourcing Model: our investment professionals’ local market presence
and ability to effectively cross-source for other investment groups generates
a robust pipeline of high-quality investment opportunities across our platform.
Multi-Asset Class Expertise and Flexible Capital: our proficiency at evaluating
every level of the capital structure, from senior debt to common equity, across
companies, structured assets, power and energy assets, and real estate projects
enables us to effectively assess relative value. This proficiency is complemented
by our flexibility in deploying capital in a range of structures and different
market environments to maximize risk-adjusted returns.
Differentiated Market Intelligence: our proprietary research on over 50 industries
and insights from a broad, global investment portfolio enable us to more effectively
diligence and structure our products and investments.
Consistent and Replicable Investment Approach: we believe our rigorous, credit-oriented
investment approach across each of our investment groups is a key contributor
to our strong investment performance and ability to expand our product offering.
Talented and Committed Professionals: we attract, develop and retain highly
accomplished investment professionals who not only demonstrate deep and broad
investment expertise but also have a strong sense of commitment to our firm.
Collaborative Culture: we share ideas, relationships and information across
our investment groups, which enables us to more effectively source, evaluate
and manage investments.
We operate our increasingly diversified and global firm as an integrated investment
platform with a collaborative culture that emphasizes sharing of knowledge and
expertise. We believe the exchange of information enhances our ability to analyze
investments, deploy capital and improve the performance of our funds and portfolio
companies. Through collaboration, we drive value by leveraging our capital markets
relationships and access to deal flow. The management of our operating businesses
is currently overseen by our Management Committee, which is comprised of our
executive officers and other heads of various investment and operating groups,
and ultimately by our Co-Founders. The Management Committee meets bi-weekly
to discuss asset deployment, strategy and fundraising. Additionally, we have
a Global Markets Committee comprised of over 30 senior investment professionals
from various investment groups around the world who meet monthly to discuss
market trends and issues affecting specific investment groups. Within this framework,
we have established deep and sophisticated independent research capabilities
in over 50 industries and insights from active investments in over 1,100 companies,
525 structured assets and 155 properties. Further, our extensive network of
investment professionals includes local and geographically positioned individuals
with the knowledge, experience and relationships that enable them to identify
and take advantage of a wide range of investment opportunities. These professionals
are supported by a highly sophisticated operations management team. We believe
this broad and deep platform and our operational infrastructure provide us with
a scalable foundation to expand our product offering, geographic scope and profitability.
Each of our investment groups employs a disciplined, credit-oriented investment
philosophy and is managed by a seasoned leadership team of senior professionals
with extensive experience investing in, advising, underwriting and restructuring
companies, power and energy assets, or real estate properties. In the first
quarter of 2016, we announced the combination of our Tradable Credit and Direct
Lending Groups to form a single segment called the Ares Credit Group to manage
Ares’ broad array of credit products in a more effective manner.
2.85% 
65.58 %