Overview

Our flagship funds pursue investments in growth-oriented middle market companies in North America and Europe. Our senior investment professionals average over 20 years of experience investing in, advising, underwriting and restructuring leveraged companies.

We seek to invest in high-quality middle market companies in our core industries - Healthcare, Services, Industrials and Consumer - where we can utilize our extensive growth-oriented investing experience, proprietary Value Creation System and our ability to flex into distressed to generate consistent returns across market environments.

We seek to generate strong fund-level returns by identifying and investing in middle market inefficiencies. We will also seek to generate predictable alpha during our investment period by utilizing (i) our experience of systematically and sustainably building great businesses and (ii) our proprietary Value Creation System to help our companies drive long-term revenue and EBITDA CAGRs in excess of industry averages and market expectations. Utilizing these capabilities, we seek to align with management on a company's controllable growth levers (e.g., M&A, new unit openings, new products/services) and invest behind those levers to drive enduring, long-term growth.

Corporate Opportunities

We focus on identifying and investing in middle market inefficiencies in high-quality, growth-oriented companies where we can seek control or significant influence through two principal transaction types: (i) growth buyouts and (ii) distressed.

Our growth buyout-focused approach, with the ability to flex into distressed investing during periods of heightened market volatility, allows us to quickly adapt to changing market environments and continue sourcing and executing on a broad funnel of deal flow irrespective of market conditions. We pursue a relative value investment philosophy focused on identifying opportunities that maximize attractive net returns, as opposed to limiting opportunities to a specific transaction type or structure. We believe that this strategy is highly differentiated amongst our peers and widens our universe of potential investment opportunities beyond that of many other buyout firms.

We manage six flagship funds focused primarily on North America and Europe:

Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund, L.P. (2003);

Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, L.P. (2006);

Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund III, L.P. (2008);

Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund IV, L.P. (2012);

Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund V, L.P. (2017); and

Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund VI, L.P. (2020).

Targeted Investments

We seek compelling investments in leading companies that typically have not maximized their growth potential. We invest our capital in a variety of structures, depending on the needs of a company or a particular transaction. We are equally comfortable investing in both majority and shared-control situations and our Private Equity Group has developed extensive experience in working through the issues that can surround shared-control investing. As a result, this flexibility helps us to develop a creative transaction that meets the needs of a company's various stakeholders.

Targeted Investment Characteristics

Differentiated or disruptive business model
Multiple controllable growth levers
Experienced leadership characterized by strong processes and culture
Defensible market position
Ability to capitalize on supportive beta
Strong customer base

Value Proposition

For Management Teams

We work in partnership with our portfolio company management teams to employ Ares' Value Creation System, typically over a five to seven-year investment horizon. By properly capitalizing a company at the time of our investment, management can refocus its efforts toward compounding EBITDA growth and maximizing free cash flow. The chart below illustrates the prototypical actions and objectives of this process, which are customized for any given particular situation.

Corporate Opportunities Action Plan

Stage 1

Rapid Onboarding & Alignment

Establish alignment and partnership

Build early momentum and quick wins

Quickly address high-impact talent acquisition

Stage 2

Mobilization

Seek to unlock long-term growth

Prioritize key value drivers and ensure talent is aligned to value agenda

Build high impact board and align discussions to growth plans

Stage 3

Execution Support

Provide customized support to enhance execution

Deliver growth plan with sustainable long-term value creation

Support key talent to value priorities

Stage 4

Maximize "Escape Velocity"

Update mobilization plans

Invest in and execute on key value drivers; continued people investments

Position company for exit and explore exit alternatives

For Investors

The combination of our differentiated strategy and broad resources of Ares Management widens our universe of potential investment opportunities and allows us to deploy capital across various market environments while remaining highly selective. Many of these situations originate from proprietary channels and require us to generate creative and complex structuring solutions.

Portfolio of Investments

We pursue investments in growth-oriented middle market companies where we can drive long-term growth to generate attractive returns. We seek to invest in the most attractive relative value opportunities and build a diversified portfolio with uncorrelated risks. The table below lists our current platform investments.

Current Portfolio of Equity Investments¹
Initial Investment	Industry	Headquarters Location	Description
2017	Energy	TX	Long-haul midstream logistics company
2020	Healthcare Services	United Kingdom	A leading provider of full-time, specialist-nursing mental healthcare care for adults with high acuity needs
2020	Telecom	CT	Leading provider of telecommunication services in the U.S.
2020	Energy	TX	Midstream company focused on developing and operating oil gathering and blending infrastructure assets
2010	Retail	CA	Leading retailer of music products in the United States
2021	Industrial	MO	Pure-play technology and solutions integrator
2021	Healthcare	CA	Leading provider of aesthetic dermatology solutions
2014	Building Products	United Kingdom	Greater London focused residential homebuilder
2013	Retail	Germany	Global online luxury retailer
2017	Energy	TX	Midstream company focused on developing and operating gas gathering and processing infrastructure

_{The Ares current private equity corporate opportunities investments represent all unrealized and partially realized investmentsmade by the corporate opportunities funds as of September 30, 2022, with the exception of toe-holds and those investments that have been substantially written off or where the remaining value of the investment is less than 2% of total capital invested. The specific portfolio companies identified are not representative of all of the private equity corporate opportunities investments and it should not be assumed that the investment in the portfolio companies identified was or will be profitable. Actual holdings will vary for each private equity fund and there is no guarantee that a particular private equity fund will hold any or all of the portfolio companies listed (or investments in portfolio companies comparable to them). Please see a full list of Ares private equity investments excluding toe-holds on the following page: full list of investments}