Ares Management has raised over €2.2 billion ($2.3 billion) primarily from wealthy individuals for its open-ended European direct lending fund, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg News.
The Ares European Strategic Income Fund, or AESIF, marketed to the mass-affluent in Europe and Asia, looks to provide loans to mid-sized companies. First made available to individual investors in January 2024, the evergreen fund will finance businesses based primarily in Europe.
Raising money from the region’s rich is an increasing focus for the large players at the top of the $1.6 trillion private credit industry. While private lenders typically obtain capital from institutional investors, now they are diversifying their inflows, and obtaining a smaller amount of cash from a wider pool.
There’s plenty of potential in Europe to fundraise from individuals, as the region is home to about one-third of the world’s population with at least $1 million in assets, UBS estimates show. The European Commission’s rule changes have also made it easier for wealthy individuals to invest in private markets funds.
But competition to tap wealthy Europeans is ramping up, as large credit managers such as Blackstone and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have set up their own funds.
Ares believes it is particularly well placed to attract the wealthy as it uses a network that includes local private banks, wealth managers and family offices to reach the cohort.
The Los Angeles-based firm is an experienced lender on the continent. “Our European direct lending strategy has an over 15-year track-record with institutional investors,” said Mark Serocold, partner and EMEA head of Ares Wealth Management Solutions.
Ares said the scarcity of deals in the large-cap space is not a huge issue for the fund manager, as its core business is lending to middle-market companies. As of December 2024, AESIF has been invested in over 230 portfolio companies.
“There will be more opportunities to deploy, the market is expanding as banks continue to retrench,” said Andrea Fernandez, Ares’ head of product management and investor relations, European credit and corporate secondaries.
The firm aims to amass $100 billion of assets under management globally from wealthy individuals by the end of 2028 across its private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure platforms. Its global platform managed approximately $464 billion in assets as of September.
