Ares Management Corporation held the final close earlier this month of its second special opportunities fund that exceeded handily its $4 billion target in raising $7.1 billion in investor commitments.
Ares Special Opportunities Fund II targets private and public market debt and non-control equity investments in healthy, stressed and distressed companies undergoing transformational change, officials said.
“Since the development of the Special Opportunities strategy in 2017, our team has focused on extending Ares’ position as a leading middle market investor by consistently supporting companies, management teams and sponsors through cycles and transformational change,” said Scott Graves, partner and co-head of the $33.4 billion Ares Private Equity Group and head of Special Opportunities at the Los Angeles-based firm.
The scale of the Ares platform will continue to drive sourcing and due diligence advantages he added in the press statement. Graves is part of the special opportunities strategy team that is an integrated private equity team located across the U.S. and Europe that is comprised of 24 investment professionals. Graves is one of six partners leading the effort. He is joined by Aaron Rosen, Craig Snyder, Felix Bernshteyn, James Kim and Matt Underwood.
The special opportunities strategy dates back to 2017, as part of an expansion of Ares flexible capital investment activities and to be a non-control complement to Ares’ existing for-control private equity strategy.
The focus remains on a range of private, special-situation opportunities that ‘flexes’ into stressed/distressed public market debt when deemed attractive. The team, on which each individual totals 20-plus years’ experience, partners with companies to enhance enterprise values and fill the void between for-control private equity and private debt.
To date, the strategy has deployed nearly $12 billion across a diverse portfolio. The second fund has invested or committed roughly $3 billion or roughly 45% of its investable capital base.
