Ares Management Closes $9.8B Opportunistic Credit Fund with $8.3B Equity Commitments
Ares Management secured over $9.8 billion for its Opportunistic Credit strategy, including $8.3 billion in equity commitments for ASOF III, surpassing its target and prior fund size. The fund leverages a 33-member team’s two decades of experience to deploy private debt, equity and hybrid solutions across middle-market companies.
1. Successful ASOF III Closing
Ares Management closed over $9.8 billion in capital for its Opportunistic Credit strategy, including $8.3 billion in equity commitments for Ares Special Opportunities Fund III LP, exceeding both target and prior vintage fund size and marking one of the largest private pools for opportunistic credit.
2. Deployment Strategy
The fund will provide private debt, equity and hybrid solutions to middle-market companies to support growth initiatives, refinance capital structures and return capital to shareholders, while opportunistically purchasing stressed public corporate credits.
3. Team Experience and Track Record
The Opportunistic Credit team comprises 33 investment professionals averaging 21 years of industry experience and has deployed over $17 billion since inception, generating over $11 billion in realized proceeds with a de minimis loss ratio.
4. Integration within Ares Platform
The fund complements Ares’ broader global Credit platform, which oversees $405 billion of assets under management with over 560 professionals and forms part of the firm’s nearly $623 billion total AUM across credit, real estate, private equity and infrastructure as of December 2025.