Ares Management Corp Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Lots of good color on credit. So I actually was going to ask you guys something on a different topic, which is about real estate and maybe real assets broadly. It feels like there's a number of green shoots across the real estate market, as you pointed out. So maybe you could expand a little bit on how you envision your franchise position in case LPF starts to normalize and resume in the real estate channel across both the institutional base as well as your wealth clients?

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Can you guys hear me okay?

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Perfect. Good morning, Mike, Jarrod. Hope everyone's doing well. My question is on the potential for lower yields in private credit, driven mostly by lower base rates. So how do you think investors will react to lower yields if the Fed continues to cut? So could we see softer private credit fundraising if they pivot to other asset classes? Or do you expect some of that record cash and money market funds on the sidelines to provide a new source of flows?

Question: Patrick Davitt - Bernstein Autonomous LLP - Analyst : Just touching on the point you just made on spread, obviously, had some wobbles in the bank loan market, had some deals pulled and repriced, which theoretically, to your point, I think, should be good for direct lending dynamics. So curious if you're seeing any sign that banks are getting more conservative, so potentially less competitive and through that lens, how the new origination spreads track through 3Q and looking so far in 4Q? Thank you.

Question: Bill Katz - Cowen and Company LLC - Analyst : I joined a couple minutes, so I apologize if this question is a bit redundant. Maybe just to change topics a little bit. I was wondering if you could give us an update on the GCP transaction. It seems like the integration is going very well from Jarrod's comments on the margin opportunity into next year. But wondering if you could talk a little bit about the growth opportunity, whether it be on the infrastructure side or the real estate side, it seems like still pretty fertile areas as well? Thank you.

Question: Brennan Hawken - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : I wanted to touch on wealth on fundraising. Mike, you spoke to the floor being higher in fundraise and it looked like you had a nice acceleration on the wealth front. You also spoke to offshore being particularly strong. Was there anything in particular in the quarter that caused the pickup in fundraising on wealth to be particularly noteworthy or is this just a building pace that you expect to continue to see strengthen? Thanks.

Question: Kenneth Worthington - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Can you talk about the acquisition of Blue Cove and Liquid credit and how it fits into the insurance capabilities and your operations there? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 03, 2025 / 2:00PM, ARES.N - Q3 2025 Ares Management Corp Earnings Call

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : I was wondering if you could unpack the deployment in the quarter a little bit more. I think the sequential step-up was quite a bit larger than I think a lot of folks expected. You talked about the pipeline remaining near your all-time highs. Was there anything that stood out this quarter? Should this be a number that is repeatable in upcoming quarters? You talked about again, a very robust pipeline, a lot of opportunities in the next few quarters. But just curious, if anything stood out, anything unusual that may not be repeatable in the near term? Thank you,

Question: Brian McKenna - Citizens JMP Securities LLC - Analyst : So you had a great outcome in the quarter for a direct lending portfolio company. It was actually an underperforming asset that was previously on non-accrual status. The investment got restructured to the equity owner. You actually sold in the quarter for $260 million and generated a 15% IRR on the investment. That's probably more than what you would have generated if the loan had performed. So how critical is your portfolio management and workout capabilities to get outcomes like this? And then can you just remind us of historical recovery rates within your direct lending business?

Question: Brian Bendell - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Maybe just to come back to the comments you had at the opening, Mike, about the credit cycle and the idiosyncratic instances of fraud. We have had a few just in a very short time frame in the industry. Do you think there's anything structurally going on in the industry aside from a credit cycle that is creating these fraud events? And is this something that could be a concern for retail investors? I guess what questions are you getting from your financial advisor partners regarding this?