Ares was founded by a veteran team of investment professionals to pursue investment activities in leveraged loans, high yield bonds, private debt, private equity and other types of investments. After becoming an independent firm in 2002, the Firm raised its first dedicated private equity and private debt funds in 2003 and 2004, respectively. The development of our Private Equity and Credit Groups significantly benefited from our senior professionals' deep middle market experience and the reputation of our Credit Group in the investment community.

In 2004, Ares created a specialty finance company, Ares Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: ARCC, "ARCC") for corporate lending activities, which is now the largest business development company by market capitalization. ARCC further enhanced its leadership position in U.S. middle market direct lending with the strategic acquisition of American Capital, Ltd. in January 2017.

Ares launched its Real Estate Group in 2010 with the objective of extending its underwriting discipline, credit orientation and investment experience to invest across the capital structure and address the growing need for financing solutions in middle-market commercial real estate. Since then, Ares has made meaningful acquisitions to enhance its real estate platform and extend its reach into commercial real estate lending and real estate private equity. 

Ares became a publicly traded partnership in May 2014. Its common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "ARES."

In November 2018, Ares completed its conversion to a corporation under Delaware law and was renamed Ares Management Corporation, leading the alternative asset management industry as the first to make this shift.

More recently, Ares has expanded into new and adjacent products, as well as continued to grow its core offerings and infrastructure.

In 2020, Ares closed on the acquisition of SSG Capital, a leading pan-Asian alternative asset manager, which has go-forward been re-branded to Ares SSG to reflect the combined strengths and capabilities of both platforms. 

In early 2021, Ares launched Ares Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company formed for the purpose of entering into a combination with one or more businesses. Later that year, Ares also consummated two strategic opportunities to acquire Landmark Partners and Black Creek Group, and identified a significant opportunity to expand its distribution to satisfy the demand for alternative investments from retail investors. In February 2022, a subsidiary of Ares Management Corporation completed its acquisition of one of the largest infrastructure debt investment platforms globally, AMP's Private Markets Co Infrastructure Debt platform, which allows Ares to capitalize on the rapidly growing infrastructure asset class.