Ares Management (ARES) Q1 FY26 earnings call

Earnings call· Mar 2026 (Q1 FY26)· Financials· May 1, 2026

Source: earnings call transcript

Ares framed the quarter's dislocation as opportunity: institutional demand keeps consolidating toward scaled managers even as retail US private-credit flows wobble, and management argues the same senior-secured assets simply re-route into institutional, SMA and other vehicles with negligible profitability impact. Diversification across credit, real assets and secondaries carried deployment through a soft US direct-lending quarter, positioning the firm for wider spreads and better terms into the back half.

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ARES operating KPIs by quarter

ARES operating KPIs stated on its earnings calls, by fiscal quarter
KPI	Dec 2024 Q4 FY24	Mar 2025 Q1 FY25	Jun 2025 Q2 FY25	Sep 2025 Q3 FY25	Dec 2025 Q4 FY25	This call Mar 2026 Q1 FY26	Jun 2026 Q2 FY26	Change vs prior quarter
Assets under management (AUM)	$484B+ This fundraising momentum helped our assets under management grow by 16% year-over-year to over $484 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	$546B The first quarter also marked a significant milestone for Ares as we crossed over $0.5 trillion and reached $546 billion of total AUM, including $45 billion of AUM added through the acquisition of GCP. Source: earnings call transcript	$572B As a result of our strong fundraising, AUM increased to $572 billion, which represents quarter-over-quarter organic growth of 19% on an annualized basis. Source: earnings call transcript	$595B+ As a result, AUM increased to more than $595 billion and fee-paying AUM increased to $368 billion, both up 28% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	$622B+ This success, along with the closing of our GCP acquisition in March, resulted in AUM growth of 29% over the previous year to reach over $622 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	$644B Our AUM increased 18% year-over-year to $644 billion, and our fee-paying AUM increased 19% to $400 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	~$671B This drove 17% year-over-year increases in both our AUM and fee-paying AUM to approximately $671 billion and approximately $410 billion, respectively. Source: earnings call transcript	—
Assets under management (AUM) Semi-liquid products	$39B+ We now have over $39 billion in AUM across 8 semi-liquid products, and we are well on our way to the $100 billion target that we outlined at our Investor Day last year. Source: earnings call transcript	—	$50B+ AUM across our eight semi-liquid products crossed $50 billion, and now seven of our eight products are over $1 billion with our eighth product launched in June, seeing early traction and well on its way. Source: earnings call transcript	—	$66B In the wealth channel, 2025 was a transformational year with equity flows into our semi-liquid wealth products totaling $16 billion and net flows of $14 billion, which drove our AUM in our semi-liquid wealth products to $66 billion at year-end. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—
Assets under management (AUM) Semi-liquid European direct lending	—	$3B+ Our public and private BDCs combined raised over $4 billion of AUM in the quarter and our semi-liquid European direct lending product raised over $630 million and now stands at over $3 billion in AUM after only 15 months. Source: earnings call transcript	$4.3B+ We experienced accelerated inflows from our leading open-ended European direct lending fund, raising over $800 million in the quarter, bringing total AUM in the fund to over $4.3 billion, which we believe makes it the largest fund of its kind in the market. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—	—	—
Assets under management (AUM) APMF	—	$3B+ In private equity secondaries, APMF now has exceeded $3 billion in AUM, and we're also seeing good momentum across our institutional products. Source: earnings call transcript	$3B+ APMF raised over $370 million in the quarter and has now surpassed $3 billion in total AUM. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—	—	—
Assets under management (AUM) Insurance	—	—	$79B+ With over $79 billion in insurance AUM across the platform, we have a demonstrated track record of capabilities and performance to enhance returns for Aspida and our third-party insurance clients and we anticipate further growth in this business in the coming years. Source: earnings call transcript	—	$86B At Aspida, sales volumes totaled $8.8 billion for the year, a 39% increase over 2024, and we continue to see interest from third-party insurance companies as total insurance-related AUM increased 20% year-over-year to $86 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—
Dry powder	—	—	—	<$150B We're also seeing the transaction market starting to rebound across many of our investment groups and believe that we are well positioned for new deployment opportunities with nearly $150 billion in dry powder. Source: earnings call transcript	$156B We're seeing improved conditions for future deployment across a broader range of investment strategies than we have in several years, and we're well prepared to invest with substantial dry powder of $156 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	$158B+ Our available capital continues to expand on the back of our strong fundraising and it now stands at over $158 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	$170B This positions us with a record $170 billion of dry powder and $114 billions of AUM not yet paying fees which sets us up well for future earnings growth. Source: earnings call transcript	—
Assets under management (AUM) Wealth Management	—	—	—	—	$66B+ The scale, expansion and diversification of our product suite also drove growth in our Wealth Management business to over $66 billion in AUM, up 69% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	$68B On a year-over-year basis, our wealth AUM increased 54% to $68 billion. Source: earnings call transcript	$76B+ We finished the second quarter with over $76 billion of AUM in our Wealth products and even with some noise in the channel, our Wealth AUM increased at an annualized rate of more than 25% quarter-over-quarter. Source: earnings call transcript	—

Operating figures the company stated on at least two of the calls shown, checked against each call's transcript. Click a figure to read the sentence. A dash means it was not stated that quarter.

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