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New York-listed Ares Management, which manages alternative investments, has announced the final closing of a fund with a hard cap of $7.1 billion.

The fund is Ares Special Opportunities Fund II.  

The “special opportunities” strategy seeks to invest in a range of private, special-situation opportunities and flexes into stressed/distressed public market debt when deemed attractive. So far, the Ares strategy has deployed nearly $12 billion across a diverse portfolio, of which ASOF II has invested or committed about $3 billion, or roughly 45 per cent of its investible capital base.

“We seek to be a partner of choice for healthy, stressed and distressed companies across the private and public markets with individualized financing needs. We leverage the full capabilities of our team and platform in order to support companies undergoing transformational change with bespoke debt or equity capital solutions and strategic guidance,” said Aaron Rosen and Craig Snyder, partners and co-portfolio managers of Special Opportunities in the Ares Private Equity Group. “We believe our strategy is well-suited for the current volatile market conditions and that we are strategically positioned to identify the best relative value investment opportunities to drive attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”

In January 2017, the Ares Private Equity Group developed its Special Opportunities strategy. As part of an integrated Private Equity team located across the US and Europe, the strategy comprises 24 investment professionals, led by six partners – Scott Graves, Aaron Rosen, Craig Snyder, Felix Bernshteyn, James Kim and Matt Underwood.

As of June 30, 2022, Ares Management's global platform had approximately $334 billion of assets under management, with more than 2,300 employees operating across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.