Ares Management generated more than $36 billion of inflows during the second quarter of 2026, marking another record fundraising period as institutional clients continued allocating capital across the alternative investment manager’s strategies.
The fundraising represented approximately 5.4% of Ares’ $671 billion in assets under management at the end of June.
Ares said clients continued to commit capital because of the performance generated across its investment strategies, which include credit, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and secondary investments.
The firm ended the quarter with a record $170 billion of dry powder available for future investments.
Based on the reported figures, undeployed capital represented approximately 25% of total assets under management.
The dry powder gives Ares substantial capacity to finance acquisitions, refinancings, infrastructure projects, real estate transactions, and other investments as transaction activity improves.
Management said Ares now has its largest forward investment pipeline in the firm’s history.
The pipeline has expanded despite a slower transaction environment, with Ares using its global origination platform to identify opportunities that do not depend entirely on traditional mergers and acquisitions or broadly syndicated financing markets.
Ares believes the pickup in prospective deployment could convert more of its available capital into fee-paying investments.
Dry powder does not generally generate the same level of management fees as invested capital. Deploying the $170 billion could therefore increase fee-related earnings while also creating future performance income and realized investment gains.
The firm’s fundraising and deployment capacity are supported by a global platform operating across North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
Ares reported more than $671 billion of assets under management as of June 30. The company had a market capitalization of approximately $41.8 billion as of July 31.
This means Ares manages client assets equal to more than 16 times its own equity market value, reflecting the asset-light economics of the alternative investment management model.
Ares generates recurring fees for managing third-party capital while committing a considerably smaller amount of corporate capital to its funds and investment vehicles.
Fee-related earnings reached $491.1 million during the second quarter.
The figure exceeded Ares’ $467.6 million of after-tax realized income and was more than three times the company’s $150.6 million of GAAP net income attributable to Ares Management.
The relationship between those measures demonstrates the importance of recurring management fees to Ares’ financial model.
Fee-related earnings typically exclude performance income, realized investment gains, and other items that can create greater quarterly volatility.
After-tax realized income reached $1.29 per share, while GAAP earnings were $0.49 per share.
The substantial difference reflects the effects of compensation adjustments, equity-based expenses, investment-related items, and other accounting differences between realized and reported results.
Management said many of Ares’ key financial metrics increased by more than 20% from the prior-year period and that the company remained on track to meet its full-year financial goals.
Ares declared a quarterly dividend of $1.35 per share of Class A and non-voting common stock.
The dividend was approximately 5% higher than the quarter’s $1.29 of after-tax realized income per share. Dividend coverage can vary between quarters because realized income and performance fees are not earned evenly throughout the year.
The distribution is payable on September 30 to shareholders of record as of September 16.
Ares also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.84375 per share on its 6.75% Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock.
The preferred dividend is payable on October 1 to holders of record as of September 15.
The company is introducing a dividend reinvestment program beginning with the September 30 common-stock distribution.
The program will allow participating Class A shareholders to reinvest their dividends in additional Ares shares rather than receiving the entire distribution in cash.
Ares’ second-quarter performance shows that investor demand for private-market strategies remains strong even when transaction activity and capital deployment are comparatively restrained.
The company is entering the next phase of the market cycle with record dry powder, record fundraising momentum, and its largest prospective investment pipeline.
The central opportunity is converting that $170 billion of undeployed capital into investments that produce management fees, realized income, and performance-related earnings without weakening underwriting standards.
KEY QUOTES:
“We generated strong second-quarter results, including another record quarter of fundraising with more than $36 billion of inflows as our clients continue to reward us due to our strong and consistent fund performance across our strategies.”
“Our diverse global origination platform enabled us to remain active investing in attractive opportunities across the platform in a slower transaction environment, and we are now seeing a meaningful pickup in our firmwide investment pipeline.”
Michael Arougheti, Chief Executive Officer Of Ares Management
“We have a record $170 billion of dry powder, which positions us well to execute on our largest-ever forward investment pipeline and support continued earnings growth.”
Jarrod Phillips, Chief Financial Officer Of Ares Management
