Editor’s note: This article’s headline has been updated to clarify that the $600 million raised in 2025 was across Ares Management’s private credit and private equity funds alone. Ares has other strategies as well, such as real estate, digital infra, and infra debt.
Ares Management gathered $600 million in new capital commitments across its Asia Pacific private credit and private equity funds in 2025, per its earnings release on Thursday (Feb 5).
The group’s seventh special situations fund for Asia, also known as SSG Fund VI, raised $400 million in fresh capital in the year. The fundraising, which started around last year, came only two years after the firm secured $2.4 billion in the final close of its predecessor vehicle in 2023.
DealStreetAsia had previously reported that IFC was considering investing up to $150 million for a separately managed account, which has a mandate similar to Ares’ SSG series. The fund focuses on acquiring non-performing loans and single-asset distress situations in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Ares’ latest APAC special situations fund is in the market at the same time as Bain Capital Special Situations Asia III, which has a similar fund mandate and was reportedly targeting at least $2.1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
Separately, Ares raised $100 million in new capital across its APAC private equity funds, as it seeks to expand the business following last year’s acquisition of Northstar’s funds and the integration of Crescent Point. The group’s business segment now manages $3.5 billion in assets as of the last quarter of 2025.
While little is known about any new underlying funds in the business, the regional corporate private equity business of Ares targets growth equity deals in the “structured consumer” segment within Southeast Asia and China, per a disclosure in September. The APAC private equity business has about 65 portfolio companies as of September 2025.
Some of Ares’ recent equity deals include an investment in Vietnam’s Medlatec Group and Belo Medical Group, a medical aesthetic clinic in the Philippines.
