Ares Management announced that it has raised over $9.8 billion for its Opportunistic Credit strategy, including the final close of Ares Special Opportunities Fund III LP. The fund secured more than $8.3 billion in equity commitments, exceeding both its target and the size of its predecessor, making it one of the largest dedicated pools of private capital raised for opportunistic credit.
The strategy focuses on providing flexible capital solutions to middle market companies, supporting growth initiatives, refinancing capital structures, and returning capital to shareholders. The fund invests across private debt, equity, and hybrid structures, while also pursuing opportunities in stressed public corporate credits. It is designed to bridge the gap between traditional corporate lending and control oriented private equity.
Ares’ Opportunistic Credit platform has scaled significantly over the past decade, deploying more than $17 billion since inception and generating over $11 billion in realized proceeds with minimal losses. The broader Ares Credit platform includes more than 560 investment professionals and oversees over $405 billion in assets under management as of the end of 2025.
The Opportunistic Credit team consists of 33 investment professionals with an average of approximately 21 years of industry experience. The strategy benefits from Ares’ extensive sponsor network, data driven insights, and ability to execute across both private and public markets.
The firm cited current market volatility as a driver of attractive investment opportunities, particularly for managers with the flexibility to provide liquidity solutions and invest across different asset classes.
KEY QUOTES
“We are proud of the strong global institutional investor demand for our strategy, which we believe reflects our team’s performance and differentiated market position. For nearly 10 years, we have scaled our Opportunistic Credit platform to deliver bespoke capital solutions to a broad set of middle-market businesses, and we look forward to continuing to execute on our strategy for the benefit of our portfolio companies and Limited Partners.”
Aaron Rosen, Co-Head Of Opportunistic Credit, Ares Management Corporation
“We believe current market volatility is contributing to a pipeline of attractive relative value opportunities for managers with the discipline to invest across private and public companies and experience delivering liquidity solutions. As one of the largest opportunistic credit providers, we believe our sponsor network, data-driven insights and value-creation capabilities, combined with the scale and reach of the Ares platform, position us to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”
Craig Snyder, Co-Head Of Opportunistic Credit, Ares Management Corporation
