Ares Management Corporation announced the launch of Ares Strategic Income Fund (“ASIF”), a perpetual capital, continuously offered, non-traded business development company, which seeks to primarily invest in directly originated, senior secured, floating-rate loans to U.S. middle-market companies. The Fund has launched with approximately $1.5 billion in initial investible capital, including more than $847 million of equity commitments raised from certain existing institutional relationships in a private placement, and approximately $625 million in credit facility commitments.
ASIF is designed to leverage the scale, breadth and depth of the Ares Credit Group’s extensive, cycle-tested platform, which had over $214 billion in assets under management and more than 355 dedicated investment professionals as of December 31, 2022. ASIF will have a core allocation to senior secured directly originated loans within Ares’ leading U.S. Direct Lending strategy and the flexibility to invest in, and benefit from, the adjacent investment strategies within the Ares Credit Group. The Fund has access to Ares’ extensive origination capabilities and expects to benefit from the platform’s information advantages and proprietary transaction sourcing.
The Fund will be distributed through Ares Wealth Management Solutions, LLC (“AWMS”) and will be available through registered investment advisers and financial advisors across the United States.
“We believe that ASIF offers a compelling value proposition as a product that has the potential to deliver attractive levels of current income with relative downside protection throughout market cycles,” said Mitchell Goldstein, Partner, Co-CEO of ASIF and Co-Head of the Ares Credit Group. “As high-net-worth investors seek alternative sources of income, we believe that ASIF provides investors a differentiated opportunity to benefit from Ares’ leading credit investment platform and cycle-tested investment approach. Further, we appreciate the strong initial support from Ares’ institutional relationships in the private placement, which we believe underscores their confidence in ASIF and Ares’ credit capabilities.”
“The Ares Credit Group and our global direct lending platform bring decades of experience and a highly developed relative value lens when investing in middle-market companies,” said Michael Smith, Partner, Co-CEO of ASIF and Co-Head of the Ares Credit Group. “We believe Ares Credit Group’s broad credit platform and flexible capital uniquely position us to construct high-quality and diverse portfolios. We are excited to launch ASIF as we seek to build on Ares’ demonstrated track record of generating attractive risk-adjusted returns for institutional and retail investors.”
“ASIF is a strong complement to Ares’ perpetual capital offerings across the credit, private equity and real estate asset classes,” said Raj Dhanda, Partner and Global Head of Ares Wealth Management Solutions. “At AWMS, we continue to execute on our commitment to provide financial advisors and their clients with greater access to differentiated private market solutions while also supporting investment allocation decision-making through innovative research and educational tools.”