Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES), a global alternative investment manager, announced today the pricing of its first European Direct Lending Collateralized Loan Obligation (CLO), Ares European Direct Lending CLO 1, at £305 million.
Ares believes this is the first reinvesting CLO in the European Direct Lending market and “is one of the first direct lending CLOs issued in Europe.”
Ares European Direct Lending CLO 1 is “a diversified CLO comprised entirely of directly originated and actively managed loans issued by over 50 middle-market companies based in the United Kingdom, primarily operating in defensive industries.”
The CLO, which is weighted towards “senior-secured floating rate loans, will be rated by S&P and KBRA.”
Michael Dennis, Partner and Co-Head of European Credit
“This successful pricing of our first European Direct Lending CLO is a testament to Ares’ 18 years of leadership in European private credit and builds on our ability to source, underwrite and manage scaled portfolios of direct loans. We are grateful for the strong support we have received in our efforts to deliver a differentiated product suite to meet the growing demand from investors and borrowers.”
Andrea Fernandez, Partner & Head of Product Management and Investor Relations for European Credit said:
“We believe the strong demand for this product underscores our new and existing investors’ confidence in our platform’s experience in quality credit selection and managing direct loans and bespoke structures.”
Matt Theodorakis, Partner and Co-Head of European Direct Lending said:
“In navigating a complex and volatile market environment, we will continue to harness our investment discipline and portfolio management capabilities as we seek to generate risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”
Ares’ European Direct Lending strategy comprises “approximately 95 investment professionals operating across seven offices in Europe and manages over $77 billion in assets as of March 31, 2025.”
Since its inception in 2007, the European Direct Lending business “has completed over 390 investments totaling over €73 billion.”
In addition to this, Ares is one of the “largest and most experienced CLO managers globally, having issued 107 CLOs since 1999, of which 60 are active today.”
As of March 31, 2025, Ares’ CLO portfolio represented “$32 billion of the $359 billion of assets managed across the Ares Credit Group.”
As noted in the update, Ares Management Corporation is a global alternative investment manager offering clients “complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, real estate, private equity and infrastructure asset classes.”
They seek to provide flexible capital to “support businesses and create value for our stakeholders and within our communities.”
By collaborating across our investment groups, they aim to “generate consistent and attractive investment returns throughout market cycles.”
As of March 31, 2025, Ares Management Corporation’s global platform had approximately “$546 billion of assets under management, with operations across North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.”
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