Ares Management’s special opportunities strategy, currently a business within its private equity group, will be joining the firm’s credit group and renamed opportunistic credit.
According to a press statement, moving the strategy to the credit group is expected to enable greater collaboration across the Ares platform, enhancing benefits to Ares’s LPs, sponsor partners and portfolio companies.
The opportunistic credit team will build on the work of the special opportunities strategy and leverage the experience and direct origination network across the firm’s leading global credit platform. The team will continue to partner with companies and businesses in need of transitional capital and provide flexible debt and non-control equity solutions to both private and public companies.
According to Ares, this multi-strategy approach seeks to fill the void between for-control private equity and more traditional direct lending and emphasises differentiated deal flow through direct origination.
The opportunistic credit team will be led by Aaron Rosen and Craig Snyder, who serve as Co-Portfolio Managers of special opportunities. Rosen and Snyder have led the team and its day-to-day operations since 2018 and will continue to be supported by longstanding colleagues including Felix Bernshteyn, Brad Friedman, James Kim and Matt Underwood. The team has around 30 dedicated investment professionals in the US and the UK.
Adjusted for this change, Ares’s credit group had approximately $300bn in AUM with around 490 investment professionals operating across the US, Europe and APAC as of 31 December 2023. The opportunistic credit strategy will be reflected within Ares’s credit group in the company’s public reporting, effective 31 March 2024.
