Ares Management is preparing to sell stock in the biggest initial public offering of an alternative money manager since Carlyle Group went public in 2012, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Ares, which oversees $74 billion in credit and private equity, is set to disclose its plan in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission within days, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The firm is working with J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America.
CEO Tony Ressler, who co-founded Ares in 1997 after working at Drexel Burnham Lambert and Apollo Global Management, is taking advantage of a five-year stock market rally that pushed shares of peers near record highs. Apollo, run by Mr. Ressler's brother-in-law Leon Black, and Blackstone Group more than doubled in the past two years.
Ares last year made its biggest private equity investment, buying luxury retail chain Neiman Marcus with the C$201.5 billion (US$182.6 billion) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, from TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus for $6 billion.
Ares sold a 6.25% stake in the firm to Alleghany Corp. for $250 million last year, and the $773 billion Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought a 20% stake for $375 million in 2007.
Ares spokesman Bill Mendel, J.P. Morgan spokeswoman Jessica Francisco and Bank of America spokesman John Yiannacopoulos declined to comment on the IPO process.
Arleen Jacobius contributed to this story.