Ares Management Corp (ARES) Business

Item 1. Business

Overview

Ares is a leading global alternative investment manager with $622.5 billion of assets under management and over 4,250 employees in over 55 offices in more than 25 countries. We offer our investors a range of investment strategies and seek to deliver attractive performance to an investor base that includes over 2,850 direct institutional relationships and a significant retail investor base across our publicly-traded funds, sub-advised accounts and perpetual wealth vehicles. Since our inception in 1997, we have adhered to a disciplined investment philosophy that focuses on delivering strong risk-adjusted investment returns through market cycles. Ares believes each of its distinct but complementary investment groups in Credit, Real Assets, Secondaries and Private Equity is a market leader based on assets under management and investment performance. We believe we create value for our stakeholders not only through our investment performance, but also by expanding our product offerings, enhancing our distribution channels, increasing our global presence, investing in our non-investment functions, securing strategic partnerships and completing strategic acquisitions and portfolio purchases.

Our AUM has grown to $622.5 billion as of December 31, 2025 from $94.0 billion a decade earlier. As shown in the chart below, over the past five and 10 years, our assets under management have achieved a compound annual growth rate (“CAGR”) of 26% and 21%, respectively ($ in billions):

We have an established track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns through market cycles. We believe our consistent and strong performance in a broad range of alternative investments has been shaped by several distinguishing features of our platform:

•Comprehensive Multi-Asset Class Expertise and Flexible Capital:  Our proficiency at evaluating every level of the capital structure, from senior debt to common equity, across companies, structured assets, real estate projects, and infrastructure and energy assets enables us to effectively assess relative value. This proficiency is complemented by our flexibility in deploying capital in a range of structures and different market environments to maximize risk-adjusted returns.

•Differentiated Market Intelligence:  Our proprietary research on over 55 industries and insights from a broad, global investment portfolio enable us to more effectively diligence and structure our products and investments.

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•Consistent Investment Approach:  We believe our rigorous, credit-oriented investment approach across each of our investment groups is a key contributor to our strong investment performance and ability to expand our product offering.

•Robust Sourcing Model:  Our investment professionals’ local market presence and ability to effectively cross-source for other investment groups generates a robust pipeline of high-quality investment opportunities across our platform.

•Talented and Committed Professionals: We attract, develop and retain highly accomplished professionals who not only demonstrate deep and broad investment and non-investment expertise but also have a strong sense of commitment to our firm.

•Collaborative Culture: We share ideas, relationships and information, which enables our investment groups to more effectively source, evaluate and manage investments. We also leverage the OMG to help drive the efficiencies across the platforms and support our investment process.

Integrated Investment Platform and Process

We operate our firm as an integrated investment platform with a collaborative culture that emphasizes sharing of knowledge and expertise. We believe the exchange of information enhances our ability to analyze investments, deploy capital and improve the performance of our funds and portfolio companies. We have established deep and sophisticated independent research capabilities in over 55 industries and insights from investments in over 2,150 companies, over 1,900 alternative credit investments, over 1,300 properties, over 90 infrastructure assets and over 1,000 limited partnership interests in investment funds.

Our investment process leverages the power of the Ares platform and an extensive network of professionals across our investment areas to identify and source attractive risk-adjusted return opportunities while emphasizing capital preservation. We utilize our collective market and company knowledge, proprietary internal industry and company research, third-party information and financial modeling to drive fundamental credit analysis and investment selection. We are able to invest up and down a company’s capital structure, which we believe helps us capitalize on out-performance opportunities and assess relative value for a particular investment. The investment committees of our investment groups review and evaluate investment opportunities in a framework that includes a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the key risks of each investment. We do not have a centralized investment committee and instead our investment committees are generally structured with overlapping membership from different investment groups to ensure consistency of approach, shared investment experience and collaboration across our platform. Our extensive network of investment professionals includes local and other individuals based in our markets with the knowledge, experience and relationships that enable them to identify and take advantage of a wide range of investment opportunities. In addition, our investment vehicles have investment policies and procedures that generally contain requirements and limitations, such as concentrations of securities, industries, and geographies in which such investment vehicles will invest, as well as other limitations required by law.

•Credit: Our experienced team takes a value-oriented approach which, among other factors, considers industry and market analysis, technical analysis, fundamental credit analysis and in-house research to identify investments that offer attractive value in comparison to the perceived credit risk profile. We use our longstanding relationships, considerable scale, research, industry knowledge, structuring expertise and often our direct-origination capabilities to invest actively across capital structures with a focus on selecting the best risk-adjusted returns for our investors, while also seeking to provide our borrowers a valued capital solution. Each investment decision involves an intensive due diligence process that is generally focused on evaluating the target company or portfolio, as applicable, and its current and future prospects, its management team and industry, its ability to withstand adverse conditions and its capital structure, sponsorship and structural protection, among others.

•Real Assets: With our experienced team, along with our expansive network of relationships, our Real Assets Group manages equity and debt strategies across real estate and infrastructure investments. Across our real estate investment strategies, our team differentiates itself through its cycle-tested leadership, demonstrated performance across market cycles, access to real-time property market and corporate trends, and proven ability to create value through a disciplined investment process. Our real estate activities are managed by equity and debt teams in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific (“APAC”), supported by our vertically-integrated operating platforms. These professionals collaborate frequently within and across strategies to enhance sourcing, exchange information to inform underwriting and leverage relationships to drive pricing power. Our real estate teams have the flexibility to invest across the risk-return spectrum through core/core-plus, value-add and opportunistic investments.

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The infrastructure strategy invests through both equity and debt in infrastructure assets and companies that provide essential services with stable cash flows and high barriers to entry. These investments typically demonstrate a lower correlation to public markets and may have inflation protections. Within our infrastructure strategy, we have a long-tenured global team utilizing deep local sourcing capabilities and extensive sector experience to originate and manage a portfolio of diverse, high-quality investments across the globe. We have dedicated direct infrastructure teams that collaborate to share market insights, support underwriting and enhance origination. Our infrastructure opportunities investment approach focuses on both core and value-add equity strategies leveraging flexible capital to build a diversified infrastructure portfolio. Our infrastructure debt investment approach targets global assets and businesses with defensive characteristics across the digital, transport, energy and utility sectors. Our digital infrastructure investment approach combines investment management with in-house data center development and operational expertise. Leveraging the established long-standing relationships, the infrastructure strategy seeks to generate exclusive deal flow and high-quality investment opportunities.

On March 1, 2025, we completed the acquisition of the international business of GLP Capital Partners Limited and certain of its affiliates, excluding its operations in Greater China (“GCP International”), and existing capital commitments to certain managed funds (such acquisition of GCP International and the capital commitments, the “GCP Acquisition”). The GCP Acquisition added complementary logistics and digital infrastructure investment capabilities and expanded our geographic presence. The activities of GCP International are included within the Real Assets Group.

•Secondaries: Our team invests in secondary markets across a range of alternative asset class strategies, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and credit. Our secondary funds acquire interests across a range of partnership vehicles, including funds, multi-asset portfolios, single asset joint ventures, as well as build structured solutions to provide primary and secondary investors with flexible investment and exit options. These strategies involve the acquisition of interests from investors in existing funds as well as recapitalizing and restructuring the funds, including transactions that can address pending fund maturity, strategy change or the need for additional equity capital.

•Private Equity: Our private equity investment professionals have demonstrated an ability to deploy capital across market environments, which allows them to be disciplined in their assessment of the best relative value opportunities and pursuit of attractive returns. From diligence through exit, our private equity investment professionals partner closely with management teams to scale businesses organically and inorganically, leveraging thematic insights, operational expertise and leveraging the resources of our broader platform. Our private equity strategies are centered on driving durable growth and positioning companies for long-term success beyond our period of partnership. We believe our deep industry experience and collaborative culture enable us to identify catalysts, unlock value and deliver repeatable outcomes across market cycles.

•Our other businesses include: (i) Ares Insurance Solutions (“AIS”); (ii) strategic investments resulting from company sponsored SPACs that were formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination; (iii) a venture capital business with fund strategies that are focused on growth-stage companies and applied artificial intelligence, among others; and (iv) other initiatives, including investments in certain structured financing vehicles that we manage.

We also recognize the importance of what we consider material environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors in our investment process to help enable us to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns and have adopted a responsible investment program for this purpose. We work collaboratively with our various underwriting, asset management, legal and compliance teams to appropriately integrate relevant ESG considerations into our investment process.

In addition, as part of our growth strategy, we from time to time engage in discussions with counterparties with respect to various potential strategic transactions, including investments in, and acquisitions of, other companies or assets. We incur significant expenses for the evaluation, due diligence investigation and negotiation of potential strategic transactions.

Breadth, Depth and Tenure of our Senior Management

Ares was built upon the fundamental principle that each of our distinct but complementary investment groups benefits from being part of our broader platform. We believe that our strong performance, consistent growth and high talent retention through economic cycles is due largely to the effective application of this principle across our broad organization of over 4,250 employees. The management of our operating businesses is currently overseen by our board of directors and managed by our senior leadership. We have an Operating Committee comprised of leadership from our investment and business operations groups that meets regularly to discuss strategy and operational matters. We also have a Partners Committee comprised of senior leadership from across the firm that meets periodically to discuss our business, including investment and operating

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performance, fundraising, market conditions, strategic initiatives and other firm matters. Each of our investment groups is led by its own deep leadership team of highly accomplished investment professionals, who average approximately 25 years of investment experience in managing, advising, underwriting and restructuring companies. While primarily focused on managing strategies within their own investment group, these senior professionals are integrated within our platform through economic, cultural and structural measures. Our senior professionals have the opportunity to participate in the incentive programs of multiple investment groups to reward collaboration across our investment activities. This collaboration takes place on a daily basis and is formally promoted through internal systems and widely attended weekly or monthly meetings.

Human Capital

We believe that our people and our culture are the most critical strategic drivers of our success as a firm. Creating a welcoming and inclusive work environment with opportunities for growth and development is essential to attracting and retaining a high-performance team, which in turn is necessary to drive differentiated outcomes. We believe that our unique culture, which centers upon values of collaboration, responsibility, entrepreneurialism, self-awareness and trustworthiness makes Ares a preferred place for top talent at all levels to build a long-term career within the alternative investment management industry. To foster this culture, we invest heavily in our human capital efforts, including:

Talent Management: As of December 31, 2025, we had over 4,250 employees, comprised of over 1,650 professionals in our investment groups and over 2,550 operations management professionals, located in over 55 offices in more than 25 countries. We provide a comprehensive set of programs, policies and benefits to enable team members to thrive, grow and contribute to their highest potential.

•Governance and Policies: Ares is committed to providing a work environment in which all individuals act with integrity, and are treated with respect and dignity. Our equal opportunity employment, compliance, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies reinforce our culture.

•Recruiting and Onboarding: We pursue several strategic paths to hire top talent, including campus and lateral recruiting efforts. We prioritize making all new team members feel welcome and set them up for success through comprehensive onboarding training, ongoing touchpoints, and connections with our employee communities that are open to all employees.

•Internship Training Program: Ares offers a formal internship program for students between their junior and senior years of college with the possibility of conversion to a full-time position in our analyst program upon graduation. Available roles span our investment, wealth management and institutional fundraising businesses.

•Mentoring, Training and Employee Engagement: We provide formal and informal mentoring, learning and development, and employee engagement opportunities. We host frequent town hall meetings hosted by senior leadership and events to foster information sharing, relationship building and connection. We also conduct surveys to measure employee engagement and overall well-being, using the results to develop action plans to improve the employee experience.

•Education Sponsorship Program: Employees are encouraged to participate in degree programs, ad-hoc academic courses and other outside business-related seminars and training opportunities to facilitate ongoing professional development and to maintain job-related licenses and/or certifications.

•Internal Training and Development Programs: We continue to foster an environment that cultivates employee growth through internal educational programs focused on various professional skills, management and leadership training, mandatory compliance and policy training and other learning opportunities.

•Performance Management: We take a continuous feedback approach to performance management, encouraging leaders and team members to participate in goal setting and ongoing transparent feedback discussions throughout the year. Our formal, firm-wide annual review process includes a self-assessment, a 360-degree feedback component, and talent assessment discussions between managers and employees.

•Retention, Rewards and Recognition: We provide market-competitive compensation and benefits designed to: (i) attract, develop and retain top talent through programs that support career growth and mobility; (ii) align employee incentives with long-term investor and shareholder outcomes through a mix of base salary, annual performance-based bonuses and equity and carried interest participation; and (iii) support employees across multiple dimensions of well-being, including health and wellness, financial security and work-life balance. Our approach focuses on an appropriate

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balance between short and long-term wealth creation which varies by seniority, while also working to ensure pay for performance and pay equality. In addition, we maintain firm-wide recognition programs, including discretionary awards and enterprise-level acknowledgements that celebrate significant contributions, collaboration and innovation aligned with our values and strategic objectives.

Responsible Investment: We believe the consideration and integration of ESG factors into the investment and portfolio management processes helps enable us to generate attractive investment returns to our investors. Our approach seeks to integrate what we consider to be business-relevant ESG considerations in the investment process to help manage risk, shape the long-term growth and performance of our investments and enable value creation opportunities. Our Responsible Investment Policy describes the ESG integration and management processes that we believe are broadly relevant for our asset classes. We also publish annual sustainability-related reports and disclosures on our website, which provide further details about our approach to responsible investment and other sustainability topics relevant to our business.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: We consider diversity, equity and inclusion as an embedded component of our various talent processes and global business practices. Our human resources function and our business leaders, as well as our global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and team work in partnership to implement a strategic framework to attract, engage and develop talent within an environment of inclusion and excellence, as well as to support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in select investments and through our broader involvement in our communities.

•People and Culture: As part of our ongoing effort to foster a culture built on apprenticeship, we support the growth and advancement of talent through various mentorship and professional development programs. In line with our continued commitment to support an environment where all team members experience a genuine sense of belonging, we hold educational trainings and employee engagement events, often in partnership with our 14 employee communities that help to support our inclusion strategy and recognize the different cultures, backgrounds and experiences of our employees. In addition, as part of our commitment to pay equality for all employees, we monitor and assess total compensation to help ensure we have alignment with role responsibilities and contributions.

•Business Processes and Investment Platform: We seek to embed diversity, equity and inclusion best practices into our business and investment diligence processes in an effort to drive innovation and returns. We work with each investment group to help develop strategies for their asset class and integrate diversity, equity and inclusion considerations into the investment lifecycle, as appropriate.

•Communities: We partner with organizations to foster inclusion within our communities and promote corporate citizenship through charity and volunteerism. In partnership with our employee communities, we donated to various community organizations.

Health and Wellness: We believe that healthy team members are more productive, and we invest heavily in benefits and initiatives to support our working families. In addition to medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability insurance and retirement benefits, we provide generous primary and non-primary caregiver leave, domestic partner health and life insurance, adoption and reproductive assistance, family care resources and mental health benefits. We also provide employees with access to a medical advisory team and concierge service at no cost to help them navigate complex health situations and concerns. We also host several wellness-related events throughout the year on topics such as nutrition and stress management.

Flexibility: We believe that our culture benefits from people collaborating in-person in our offices, while also recognizing the value of flexibility. We are committed to providing flexibility to our employees, and in 2025, we continued to offer business-group-driven flexibility frameworks, a day off for mental health and our summer “Work From Anywhere” program, which allows people to work virtually for up to a maximum of three weeks.

Philanthropy: We strive to be a force for good and to be a leader in our approach to giving and engagement. Our core values are to be collaborative, responsible, entrepreneurial, self-aware and trustworthy. These core values motivate us to seek innovative yet practical solutions to some of society’s most pressing concerns. Empathy and compassion guide our approach to “doing good” such that our charitable efforts aim to help improve people’s quality of life. Philanthropy at Ares includes:

•Ares Charitable Foundation (the “Ares Foundation”): A 501(c)(3) qualifying organization sponsored by the firm, the Ares Foundation, launched in 2021 and envisions a world in which people have access to the financial knowledge, resources and opportunities needed to advance economically and chart pathways to self-sufficiency.

The Ares Foundation funds initiatives that help provide career preparation and reskilling, encourage entrepreneurship and deepen individuals’ understanding of personal finance. This includes support for the design, pilot and scale up of

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new approaches that encourage innovation to help individuals achieve economic mobility as well as support local economies. Moreover, the Ares Foundation undertakes research and special initiatives intended to inform the philanthropic and non-profit sectors, business and industry and civil society.

In addition to fiscal support, the Ares Foundation engages its grantees through learning communities that provide a forum for non-profits to deepen their understanding of and share best practices with one another. These communities of practice help organizations establish aligned networks, develop knowledge to inform their work and build organizational capacity for innovation, including to help them attract support from other funders. The year-long, cohort experience explores topics like measurement, evaluation and storytelling.

Ares believes that the communities where we do business should share in the firm’s success. As such, the firm donates a portion of annualized, realized net performance income from select Ares funds to the Ares Foundation to tie investment performance to social impact.

•Pathfinder and Other Funds: In addition, Ares committed to donate a minimum of 10% of the carried interest generated from Ares Pathfinder Fund, L.P. (“Pathfinder I”) and Ares Pathfinder Fund II, L.P. (“Pathfinder II”) and 5% of the incentive fees generated from an open-ended core alternative credit fund to global health and educational charities, contributed by the firm and our team members.

•Ares in Motion (“AIM”): Launched in 2012, AIM is Ares’ global community engagement program designed to foster volunteerism and philanthropy in local communities. AIM provides employees with opportunities for skills-based and service-based volunteering, non-profit board service and pro bono engagements. Through AIM, we host more than 100 volunteer events annually across major campaigns, offering matching programs to amplify employee charitable contributions and mobilize resources for disaster and humanitarian relief. We also train and place employees on non-profit boards, deepening community impact and leadership development.

Ares is committed to leveraging AIM to strengthen communities worldwide while fostering employee growth and engagement.

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2025 Highlights

Fundraising

In 2025, we raised $113.2 billion in gross new capital commitments for more than 190 different investment vehicles. Of the $113.2 billion, $77.4 billion was raised directly from over 540 institutional investors, including more than 235 that were new to Ares, and $35.8 billion was raised through intermediaries. The charts below summarize our gross new capital commitments by investment group and strategy ($ in billions):

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The chart below summarizes gross new capital raised from existing and new direct institutional investors for the year ended December 31, 2025:

In 2025, 79% of our fundraising from direct institutional investors was from existing investors that either committed to a new product or committed to a subsequent fund vintage within the same product. We believe the fundraising from existing investors demonstrates our investors’ satisfaction with our performance, disciplined management of their capital and diverse product offering.

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Capital Deployment

In 2025, we invested $145.8 billion across our diverse global platform as shown in the following charts ($ in billions):

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Of the $145.8 billion invested, $69.1 billion was from our drawdown funds. Our capital deployment in drawdown funds was comprised of the following ($ in billions):

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Investment Groups

Each of our investment groups employs a disciplined, credit-oriented investment philosophy and is managed by a seasoned leadership team of senior professionals with extensive experience investing in, advising and underwriting assets held by our funds.

(1)As of December 31, 2025, AUM amounts include vehicles managed by Ivy Hill Asset Management, L.P., a wholly owned portfolio company of ARCC and an SEC-registered investment adviser (“IHAM”).

(2)$86.5 billion in AUM represents investments by insurance companies in various Ares’ funds, SMAs and co-investments versus one discrete insurance platform. The AUM for these investments is included across each of our investment strategies and presented within other businesses to demonstrate the scale of our aggregated insurance platform.

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Credit Group

Through our Credit Group, we serve as one of the largest managers of credit strategies across the non-investment grade credit universe, with $406.9 billion of AUM and over 305 funds as of December 31, 2025. The Credit Group provides solutions for investors seeking to access a wide range of credit assets, including liquid credit, alternative credit and direct lending products. The Credit Group is one of the largest self-originating direct lenders to the U.S. and European middle markets with a growing presence in the APAC region, offering one-stop financing solutions for small-to-medium sized companies and counterparties that we believe are increasingly underserved by traditional bank lenders. Our approach combines structuring expertise and origination capabilities to deliver directly originated fixed and floating rate credit assets, enabling investors to capitalize on illiquidity premiums across the credit spectrum. Our U.S. and European direct lending strategies rank among the largest in their respective markets, supported by investment committee members who average decades of experience.

The Credit Group offers the following credit strategies across the liquid and illiquid spectrum:

Liquid Credit: Our liquid credit investment solutions help fixed income investors access the syndicated loan and high yield bond markets in the U.S. and Europe and capitalize on opportunities across multi-asset credit. The syndicated loans strategy seeks to deliver a diversified portfolio of liquid, traded secured loans to corporate issuers, offering one of the few floating-rate fixed income alternatives that can help investors manage duration. The high yield bond strategy seeks to deliver a diversified portfolio of liquid, traded corporate bonds, incorporating secured, unsecured and subordinated debt instruments of issuers. Multi-asset credit is a global, highly flexible “go-anywhere” strategy that combines syndicated loans, high yield bonds and other credit assets, allowing us to tactically allocate across markets and capture strong relative value in varying conditions. As of December 31, 2025, our liquid credit team of over 45 investment professionals managed $53.1 billion of AUM in over 115 funds and separately managed accounts (“SMAs”).

Alternative Credit: Our alternative credit strategy focuses on asset-based finance and providing investment opportunities in the non-traditional markets, leveraging structural gaps to deliver attractive yields. Our alternative credit strategy emphasizes downside protection and capital preservation through a focus on investments that tend to share the following key attributes: asset security, covenants, cash flow velocity and other features designed to capture value and minimize risk to principal. Our investment approach is designed to capture and create value by including our firm’s platform insights to assess risk and relative value. As of December 31, 2025, our alternative credit team of over 85 professionals managed $48.1 billion of AUM in over 25 private funds and SMAs.

Opportunistic Credit: Our opportunistic credit strategy primarily targets debt and structured investments in middle market companies requiring flexible capital. We partner with healthy, stressed and distressed companies operating in the void between traditional senior private debt and private equity, with a focus in the U.S., Canada and Europe. We seek to consistently invest in a range of private opportunities and flex into public markets, when deemed attractive, often seeking to leverage a public investment into a private follow-on opportunity. As of December 31, 2025, our opportunistic credit team of over 35 investment professionals managed $19.8 billion of AUM in seven funds.

Direct Lending: We manage various types of direct lending vehicles within our U.S. and European direct lending teams including commingled funds, SMAs for large institutional investors seeking tailored investment solutions and joint venture lending programs. We serve as one of the largest self-originating direct lenders to the U.S. and European markets, with $274.3 billion of AUM in over 105 fund, investment vehicles and SMAs, as of December 31, 2025.

Our direct lending team has a multi-channel origination strategy designed to address a broad set of investment opportunities in the middle market. We focus on being the lead or sole lender to our portfolio companies which we believe allows us to exert greater influence over deal terms, capital structure, documentation, fees and pricing, while securing our position as a preferred source of financing for our transaction partners. The team maintains a flexible investment strategy with the capability to invest in first lien senior secured loans (including “unitranche” loans which are loans that combine senior and subordinated debt, generally in a first lien position), second lien senior secured loans, subordinated debt, preferred equity and non-control equity co-investments in middle market companies.

U.S. Direct Lending: Our U.S. direct lending team is comprised of over 225 investment professionals that cover more than 520 financial sponsors and provide a wide range of financing solutions to middle market companies that typically range from $10 million to over $500 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”). As of December 31, 2025, our U.S. direct lending team and its affiliates managed $189.6 billion of AUM in approximately 90 funds and investment vehicles. Primary areas of focus for our U.S. direct lending teams include our publicly-traded business development company (“BDC”), ARCC, our non-traded BDC, Ares Strategic Income Fund (“ASIF”) and a number of U.S.

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commingled funds and SMAs which focus on: (i) first lien senior secured loans to middle market companies; (ii) junior debt investments in upper middle market companies; (iii) flexible capital to sports leagues and teams, sports industry related companies and entertainment companies; (iv) flexible capital to commercial-stage specialty healthcare companies; and (v) asset-based loans to middle market and specialty finance companies.

European Direct Lending: Our European direct lending team is comprised of over 100 investment professionals, with the ability to invest across the capital structure and across several geographies in Europe. The team covers over 435 financial sponsors, offers self-originated, flexible and scaled debt capital predominantly to companies with EBITDA typically ranging from €10 million to over €250 million. As of December 31, 2025, our European direct lending team managed $84.7 billion of AUM in over 35 funds, including commingled funds, SMAs and perpetual wealth vehicles.

APAC Credit: Our APAC credit team manages credit, private equity and special situations investments in the APAC region. Our APAC credit strategy focuses on credit opportunities with strong downside protection and equity-like returns and high-quality privately sourced loans in high-quality businesses across the region. APAC credit primarily employs a direct origination model and aims to provide flexible capital solutions to its investee companies and compelling risk-reward investment opportunities to our investors. As of December 31, 2025, our APAC credit team of over 60 investment professionals managed $11.5 billion of AUM in over 20 funds and related co-investment vehicles.

The following charts present the Credit Group’s AUM and FPAUM as of December 31, 2025 by investment strategy ($ in billions):

Real Assets Group

Our Real Assets Group capitalizes on opportunities in equity and debt investing across real estate and infrastructure investment strategies. As of December 31, 2025, our team manages $139.1 billion of AUM in over 110 investment vehicles.

Real Estate: Our real estate strategy encompasses equity and debt across core, value-add and opportunistic investments in predominantly the Americas, Europe and APAC. We provide investors access to our real estate investment capabilities through private commingled vehicles, SMAs, publicly-traded funds and perpetual wealth vehicles. Leveraging deep local expertise, our regional teams gain insights into market dynamics and tenant industries, enhancing our ability to source and underwrite opportunities. Our real estate portfolio is primarily allocated to industrial, multifamily and adjacent sectors aligned with long-term demand drivers. As we manage strategies across the return spectrum, capital stack and across geographies, we provide our investors with a full range of solutions and access to the widest set of opportunities sourced by our team. Our real estate platform has achieved significant scale over time through both organic fundraising efforts as well as through various

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acquisitions. As of December 31, 2025, our real estate team of over 740 investment professionals managed $113.8 billion of AUM in over 85 investment vehicles.

•Real Estate Equity: Primary areas of focus for our real estate equity team include:

•Logistics: Our logistics real estate platform is focused on investment in strategically located, institutional quality properties through market cycles. We focus on logistics markets that have historically exhibited stable occupancy levels and rent growth over cycles. Our vertically-integrated operating teams are strategically located across the Americas, Europe and APAC in our key target markets, to invest in core, value-add, and development opportunities that are accretive to our portfolios and drive returns for our investors. Marq Logistics represents the brand of our vertically-integrated global logistics real estate platform that we use to manage our portfolio of logistics properties.

•Diversified: Our diversified real estate platform is dedicated to investing across sectors and property types in the U.S. and Europe. Our platform seeks investments in cash flowing, de-risked development and scalable portfolio investments, with the opportunity to create value through repositioning, lease-up, re-tenanting, redevelopment and/or complex recapitalizations.

•Real Estate Debt: Our real estate debt team primarily focuses on directly originating a wide range of financing opportunities in the U.S. and Europe. By investing through multiple investment vehicles, our real estate debt team has the ability to provide flexible financing across the capital structure and risk-return spectrum, including core/core-plus, value-add, and opportunistic debt. While our real estate debt team focuses predominantly on directly originated transactions, we also have the ability to selectively pursue secondary market acquisitions and syndicated transactions.

Infrastructure: Our long-tenured global infrastructure team, with over 130 investment professionals, seeks to utilize its strong local sourcing capabilities and extensive sector experience to originate and manage diverse, high-quality infrastructure investments across the globe and, as of December 31, 2025, managed $25.3 billion of AUM in more than 25 investment vehicles.

•Infrastructure Opportunities: Our infrastructure opportunities team seeks to utilize a broad origination strategy, flexible investment approach, and leverage industry relationships and the Ares platform to build a portfolio of high-quality infrastructure investments and deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns. We believe our experience as core and value-add investors, our flexible approach, and broad infrastructure experience position us well to take advantage of the growing opportunity set in the middle market across both the energy transition and the broader infrastructure market.

•Infrastructure Debt: Our infrastructure debt team sources assets and businesses across regions with defensive characteristics across the digital, transport, energy and utility sectors. We aim to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns focused on cash yield by targeting infrastructure debt investments with defensive characteristics that have the potential to perform across different market cycles. Our structuring experience helps enhance cash yield and reduce downside risks in a core asset class.

•Digital Infrastructure: Our digital infrastructure team manages a fully vertically-integrated global business, combining competitive investment management with in-house data center development and operational expertise. Ada Infrastructure, our dedicated data center operating platform, includes professionals from established hyperscalers and operators. We aim to maximize value and deliver enhanced risk-adjusted returns at scale for investors by leveraging our fully integrated approach, offering differentiated sourcing, underwriting, technical insights and operational expertise.

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The following charts present the Real Assets Group’s AUM and FPAUM as of December 31, 2025 by investment strategy ($ in billions):

Secondaries Group

Our Secondaries Group invests in secondary markets primarily in North America and across a range of alternative asset class strategies, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and credit. As of December 31, 2025, our team manages $42.1 billion of AUM in over 90 funds. Our team has a track record of innovation through customized transaction solutions tailored to meet the needs of limited partners and general partners. We have established ourselves among the most active secondary investors engaged in recapitalizing and restructuring existing limited partnership interests in funds with a focus on transactions that can address pending fund maturity, strategy change or the need for additional equity capital.

Private Equity Secondaries: The private equity secondaries strategy seeks to achieve attractive secondary cash flow and diversification characteristics by investing across the spectrum of private equity secondaries transactions. As of December 31, 2025, our private equity secondaries team of more than 40 investment professionals managed $22.1 billion of AUM in over 40 funds and related co-investment vehicles. We continue to maintain a differentiated investment strategy that utilizes our skills in fundamental manager and portfolio analysis, our quantitative research capabilities and the support and insights from the wider Ares platform with the aim to generate strong risk-adjusted returns.

Real Estate Secondaries: As of December 31, 2025, our real estate secondaries team of more than 20 investment professionals managed $8.2 billion of AUM in over 25 funds and related co-investment vehicles. Our real estate secondaries team acquires interests and provides secondary solutions across a range of partnership vehicles, including private real estate funds, multi-asset portfolios and single property joint ventures. Our team seeks broad diversification by property sector and geography and to drive investment results through underwriting, transaction structuring and portfolio construction.

Infrastructure Secondaries: The infrastructure secondaries strategy seeks to accelerate the benefits of traditional infrastructure by providing diversified low risk exposure through preferred structure, traditional limited partnership and general partner led continuation vehicle transactions. As of December 31, 2025, our infrastructure secondaries team of more than 10 investment professionals managed $6.9 billion of AUM in more than 15 funds and related co-investment vehicles. Our team focuses on achieving diversification through building a portfolio that provides inflation protection and exposure to uncorrelated assets.

Credit Secondaries: Our credit secondaries strategy seeks to construct a highly diversified portfolio of leading secondary credit interests, with a focus on first-lien, senior secured portfolios across North America and Western Europe, acquired directly or indirectly through secondary market transactions. As of December 31, 2025, our credit secondaries team of more than 10 investment professionals managed $4.9 billion of AUM in five funds and related co-investment vehicles. Our team represents a combination of both our credit and secondaries capabilities, leveraging extensive industry experience and a rigorous and cycle-tested investment approach.

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The following charts present the Secondaries Group’s AUM and FPAUM as of December 31, 2025 by investment strategy ($ in billions):

Private Equity Group

Our Private Equity Group has achieved compelling investment returns for limited partners and, as of December 31, 2025, managed $25.3 billion of AUM in over 60 funds. The group broadly categorizes its investment strategies into corporate private equity, which focuses on investments in North America and Europe, and APAC private equity, which focuses on investments in the APAC region.

Corporate Private Equity: Our team consists of over 45 investment professionals based primarily in Los Angeles and London. Our private equity funds are leaders in the Americas and European middle market, where they focus on growth buyout transactions. We seek to bring large capital resources to high-quality, services-oriented middle market companies where we can utilize the team’s thematic approach, extensive growth-oriented investing experience and dedicated value creation system to target attractive returns across market environments. This differentiated strategy, together with the broad resources of the Ares platform and the team’s collaborative partnership approach, positions us as a partner of choice.

APAC Private Equity: Our APAC private equity team of over 35 investment professionals as of December 31, 2025 focuses on primarily pursuing structured growth equity investments in control, joint control and minority ownership formats. We seek to invest in high-quality middle market companies in our core industries, namely consumer, healthcare and services, that give us exposure to rising consumer and business activity in the APAC region. In times of economic dislocation, we also seek to invest opportunistically where the focus is on dislocations and catalysts that lead to high-quality assets becoming available for purchase at deeply discounted prices. While we look for deep value opportunities in consumer-driven companies, our deep value approach can develop into asset-oriented opportunities.

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The following charts present the Private Equity Group’s AUM and FPAUM as of December 31, 2025 by investment strategy ($ in billions):

Other Businesses

Certain operating segments and growth opportunities have not reached the scale and magnitude to be presented individually; therefore, we present the results for these businesses collectively. These strategies seek to expand our reach in new global markets and include AIS, our SPAC business and our venture capital business that invests in growth-stage companies. Other businesses also includes other initiatives, such as activities for our investments into certain structured financing vehicles that support capital raising efforts across our platform.

Ares Insurance Solutions: AIS is Ares’ dedicated, in-house team that provides solutions to insurance clients including asset management, capital solutions and corporate development. AIS strives to provide insurers with attractive risk and capital adjusted return profiles that fit within regulatory, rating agency and other counterparty guidelines. Leveraging over 1,650 investment professionals across our investment groups, AIS creates tailored investment solutions that meet the unique objectives of our insurance clients. AIS is overseen by an experienced management team with direct insurance industry experience in many areas directly applicable to AIS and our insurance company clients. Members of the Ares team have previously held senior positions at leading insurers. AIS acts as the dedicated investment manager, capital solutions and corporate development partner to Aspida Life Insurance Company (“Aspida Life”) and Aspida Life Re Limited (“Aspida Re,” collectively with Aspida Life, Aspida Holdings Ltd. and its subsidiaries, “Aspida”), which are insurance companies that focus on the U.S. life and annuity insurance and reinsurance markets, respectively. AIS manages $25.9 billion of AUM as of December 31, 2025, of which $16.9 billion is sub-advised by Ares vehicles and included within other strategies.

Ares Acquisition Corporation II: Ares Acquisition Corporation II (NYSE: AACT) (“AAC II”) was a SPAC sponsored by Ares and formed in 2021 for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination. In September 2025, AAC II was renamed Kodiak AI, Inc. (Nasdaq: KDK) and completed a business combination with Kodiak Robotics, Inc. Our investments in AAC II were converted into various non-controlling financial interests in KDK.

Venture Capital: Our venture capital business is focused on fund strategies that seek to advance proprietary artificial intelligence solutions and to partner with industry leading vendors to help drive efficiencies for our portfolio companies, assets and certain investment and business processes.

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The following charts present Other Businesses AUM and FPAUM as of December 31, 2025 by investment strategy ($ in billions):

Product Offering

To meet investors’ growing demand for alternative investments, we manage investments in an increasingly comprehensive range of funds across a spectrum of compelling and complementary strategies. We have demonstrated an ability to consistently generate attractive and differentiated investment returns across these investment strategies and through various market environments. We believe the breadth of our product offering, our expertise in various investment strategies and our proficiency in attracting and satisfying our growing institutional and wealth client base has enabled and will continue to enable us to increase our AUM across each of our investment groups.

Investor Base and Fundraising

Our diverse investor base includes direct institutional relationships and a significant number of wealth investors. Our high-quality institutional investor base includes corporate and public pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, banks, investment managers, endowments and foundations. We have grown the number of these relationships from over 1,090 in 2020 to over 2,850 in 2025.

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As of December 31, 2025, $470.1 billion, or 76% of our $622.5 billion of AUM, was attributable to our direct institutional relationships. As of December 31, 2025, our total AUM was divided by channel, and further our institutional direct AUM by client type and geographic origin as follows ($ in billions):

The following chart presents the AUM of investors committed to more than one of our funds as of December 31, 2025 compared to December 31, 2020 ($ in billions):

We believe that the AUM of multi-fund investors demonstrates our investors’ satisfaction with our performance, disciplined management of their capital and diverse product offering. Their loyalty has facilitated the growth of our existing businesses and we believe improves our ability to raise new funds and successor funds in existing strategies in the future.

Institutional investors continue to demonstrate interest in SMAs, which include contractual arrangements and single investor vehicles and funds, because these accounts can provide investors with greater levels of transparency, liquidity and control over their investments as compared to more traditional commingled funds. As of December 31, 2025, $139.6 billion, or 30%, of our direct institutional AUM was managed through SMAs.

We believe that client relationships are fundamental to our business and that our performance across our investment groups coupled with our focus on client service has resulted in strong relationships with our investors. Our dedicated and extensive in-house relationship management team, comprised of over 200 professionals located in North America, Europe, APAC and the Middle East, is dedicated to raising capital globally across all of our funds, servicing existing fund investors and

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tailoring offerings to meet their needs, developing products to complement our existing offerings, and deepening existing relationships to expand them across our platform. We also have strategic initiatives focused on expanding our presence in Latin America and Australia. Our senior relationship management team maintains an active and transparent dialogue with an expansive list of investors. This team is supported by product managers and investor relations professionals with deep experience in each of our complementary investment groups that are dedicated to servicing our existing and prospective investors.

In addition to our expansive relationships with institutional investors, we have further diversified our investor base through our publicly-traded vehicles and through our wealth distribution platform, AWMS. AWMS facilitates the product development, distribution, marketing and client management activities for investment offerings in the global wealth management channel with over 175 professionals. As of December 31, 2025, our publicly-traded funds and our perpetual wealth vehicles account for $108.4 billion, or 17%, of our AUM.

Operations Management Group

The OMG consists of shared resource groups to support our operating segments by providing infrastructure and administrative support in the areas of accounting/finance, operations, information technology, legal, compliance, human resources, strategy and relationship management, and distribution, including AWMS. In 2025, we restructured and expanded our capital markets professionals and formalized and expanded our Capital Solutions Group in order to improve execution on financing and capital markets activities. Our clients seek to partner with investment management firms that not only have compelling investment track records across multiple investment products but also possess seasoned operational support functions. As such, significant investments have been made to develop the OMG. We have successfully launched new business lines, integrated acquired businesses into our operations and created scale within the OMG to support a much larger platform.

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Organizational Structure

The simplified diagram below (which omits certain intermediate holding companies) depicts our legal organizational structure. Ownership information in the diagram below is presented as of December 31, 2025. Ares Management Corporation (“AMC”) is a holding company and through subsidiaries is the general partner of the Ares Operating Group entity and operates and controls the business and affairs of the Ares Operating Group. AMC consolidates the financial results of the Ares Operating Group, its consolidated subsidiaries and certain consolidated funds.

(1)Assuming the full exchange of AOG Units and conversion of Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock for shares of our Class A common stock, as of December 31, 2025, Ares Owners Holdings L.P. would hold 32.54%, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (“SMBC”) would hold 5.02% and the public would hold 62.44% of AMC. Inclusive of Class A common stock held directly by Ares employees and assuming the full exchange of AOG Units and conversion of Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock for shares of our Class A common stock, Ares employee ownership would represent 37.13% of all outstanding shares. Economic interests of AMC are calculated based on 227,459,008 outstanding shares of Class A common stock and 3,489,911 outstanding shares of non-voting common stock.

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Holding Company Structure

Our common stockholders are entitled to vote on all matters on which stockholders of a corporation are generally entitled to vote under the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”), including the election of our board of directors. Holders of shares of our Class A common stock are entitled to one vote per share of our Class A common stock. On any date on which the Ares Ownership Condition (as defined in the Certificate of Incorporation) is satisfied, the holder of shares of our Class B common stock is, in the aggregate, entitled to a number of votes equal to (x) four times the aggregate number of votes attributable to our Class A common stock minus (y) the aggregate number of votes attributable to our Class C common stock. On any date on which the Ares Ownership Condition is not satisfied, the holder of shares of our Class B common stock is not entitled to vote on any matter submitted to a vote of our stockholders. The holder of shares of our Class C common stock is generally entitled to a number of votes equal to the number of AOG Units (as defined in the Certificate of Incorporation) held of record by each Ares Operating Group Limited Partner (as defined in the Certificate of Incorporation) other than the Company and its subsidiaries. Ares Management GP LLC is the sole holder of shares of our Class B common stock and Ares Voting LLC is the sole holder of shares of our Class C common stock. Our Class B common stock and our Class C common stock are non-economic and holders thereof shall not be entitled to: (i) dividends from the Company or (ii) receive any assets of the Company in the event of any dissolution, liquidation or winding up of the Company. Ares Management GP LLC and Ares Voting LLC are both wholly owned by Ares Partners Holdco LLC. As a result, the Company is a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and qualifies for exceptions from certain corporate governance rules of the NYSE. The Company also has non-voting common stock solely held by SMBC, which has the same economic rights as the Class A common stock. Our Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock has voting rights with respect to certain amendments to our Certificate of Incorporation or the Certificate of Designations, certain business combination transactions and certain other matters, subject to certain exceptions. However, holders of our Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock are not entitled to vote on an as-converted basis with common stockholders on matters on which holders of common stock are entitled to vote.

Accordingly, AMC and any direct subsidiaries of AMC that are treated as corporations for U.S. federal income tax purposes and that are the holders of AOG Units are subject to U.S. federal, state and local income taxes in respect of their interests in the Ares Operating Group. The Ares Operating Group entity is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes. An entity that is treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes generally incurs no U.S. federal income tax liability at the entity level. Instead, each partner is required to take into account its allocable share of items of income, gain, loss, deduction and credit of the partnership in computing its U.S. federal, state and local income tax liability each taxable year, whether or not cash distributions are made.

AMC holds through subsidiaries a number of AOG Units equal to the number of shares of Class A common stock that AMC has issued. The AOG Units held by AMC and its subsidiaries are economically identical in all respects to the AOG Units that are not held by AMC and its subsidiaries. In connection with the issuance of the Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock, the Ares Operating Group entity also issued preferred “mirror units” with economic terms designed to mirror those of our Series B mandatory convertible preferred stock. Accordingly, AMC receives the distributive share of income of the Ares Operating Group from its equity interest in the Ares Operating Group.

Structure and Operation of our Funds

We conduct the management of our funds and other similar private vehicles primarily through organizing a limited partnership or other limited liability structure in which entities organized by us accept commitments and/or funds for investment from institutional investors and other investors. Such commitments are generally drawn down from investors on an as needed basis to fund investments over a specified term. Our Credit Group funds also include structured funds in which the investor’s capital is fully funded upon or soon after the subscription for interests in the fund. The CLOs that we manage are structured financing vehicles that are generally private limited liability companies. Our drawdown funds are generally organized as limited partnerships or limited liability companies. However, there are non-U.S. funds that are structured as corporate or non-partnership entities under applicable law. We also advise a number of investors through SMA relationships structured as contractual arrangements or single investor vehicles. In the case of our SMAs that are not structured as single investor vehicles, the investor, rather than us, generally controls custody of the investments with respect to which we advise. We also manage several publicly-traded funds and perpetual wealth vehicles with varying redemption criteria.

Our funds are generally advised by Ares Management LLC, which is registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Advisers Act”), a wholly owned subsidiary thereof or subsidiary controlled by AMC. Responsibility for the day-to-day operations of each investment vehicle is typically delegated to the Ares entity serving as investment adviser pursuant to an investment advisory, management or similar agreement. Generally, the material terms of our investment advisory agreements relate to the scope of services to be rendered by the investment adviser to the applicable

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vehicle, the calculation of management fees to be borne by investors in our investment vehicles and certain rights of termination with respect to our investment advisory agreements. With the exception of certain of the publicly-traded funds and perpetual wealth vehicles, the investment vehicles themselves do not generally register as investment companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), in reliance on applicable exemptions thereunder.

The governing agreements of many of our funds provide that, subject to certain conditions, third-party investors in those funds have the right to terminate the investment period or the fund without cause. The governing agreements of some of our funds provide that, subject to certain conditions, third-party investors have the right to remove the general partner. In addition, the governing agreements of certain of our funds provide that upon the occurrence of certain events, the investment period will be suspended or the investors have the right to vote to terminate the investment period in accordance with specified procedures. Such events may include certain “key persons” in our funds that engage in bad acts or depart the firm.

Fee Structure

See “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Components of Consolidated Results of Operations” for an overview of our fee structure, including management fee, administrative, transaction and other fees, incentive fee and carried interest arrangements with our funds.

Capital Invested In and Through Our Funds

To further align our interests with those of investors in our funds, we have invested the firm’s capital and that of our professionals in the funds we sponsor and manage. General partner capital commitments to our funds are determined separately with respect to our funds and, generally, do not exceed 5% of the total commitments of any particular fund. We determine the general partner capital commitments based on a variety of factors, including regulatory requirements, investor requirements, estimates regarding liquidity over the estimated time period during which commitments will be funded, estimates regarding the amounts of capital that may be appropriate for other opportunities or other funds we may be in the process of raising or are considering raising, prevailing industry standards with respect to sponsor commitments and our general working capital requirements. Our general partner capital commitments are typically funded with cash and not with carried interest or deferring management fees. We offer a portion of the general partner commitments to our eligible professionals in many of our funds. As of December 31, 2025, we and our employees had more than $7.2 billion invested in or committed to Ares-managed vehicles, including $3.4 billion of capital commitments from Ares, $3.6 billion of capital commitments from our employee co-investment vehicles and $0.2 billion of employee investments in our publicly-traded funds and our perpetual wealth vehicles.

Regulatory and Compliance Matters

Our businesses, as well as the financial services industry, generally are subject to extensive regulation, including periodic examinations and potential investigations by governmental agencies and self-regulatory organizations or exchanges in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions in which we operate relating to, among other things, the management of our funds, antitrust laws, foreign investment review regimes, anti-money laundering laws, anti-bribery laws relating to foreign officials, tax laws and data privacy laws with respect to client and other information. In addition, some of our funds invest in businesses that operate in highly regulated industries. Each of the regulatory bodies with jurisdiction over us has regulatory powers dealing with many aspects of financial services, including the authority to grant, and in specific circumstances to cancel, permissions to carry on particular activities. Any failure to comply with these rules and regulations could expose us to liability and/or reputational damage. Additional legislation, increasing global regulatory oversight of fundraising activities, changes in rules promulgated by self-regulatory organizations or exchanges or changes in the laws or rules, or interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules, either in the U.S. or elsewhere, may directly affect our mode of operation and profitability. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation.”

Rigorous legal and compliance analysis of our businesses and investments is important to our culture. We strive to maintain a culture of compliance through the use of policies and procedures such as oversight compliance, codes of ethics, compliance systems, communication of compliance guidance and employee education and training. All employees must annually certify their understanding of, compliance with and adherence to key global Ares policies, procedures and code of ethics. We maintain a compliance group, supervised by our Chief Compliance Officer, that is responsible for monitoring our compliance with the regulatory and legal requirements to which we are subject and managing our compliance policies and procedures, which seek to address a variety of regulatory and compliance risks.

Many jurisdictions in which we operate have laws and regulations relating to data privacy, cybersecurity and protection of personal information, including the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), a European Union (“EU”) regulation designed to protect privacy rights of individuals residing in the European Economic Area (the “EEA”), the GDPR as

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it forms part of the laws of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by virtue of Section 3 of the European Union Withdrawal Act 2018 (as amended) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively, “U.K. GDPR”) with respect to individuals residing in the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”), and numerous state and federal privacy laws applicable to individuals residing in the U.S. Various global privacy laws also apply to our business. These privacy laws and related regulations are regularly evolving and may conflict with one another. Any failure to comply with such laws or regulations could result in substantial fines, penalties and/or sanctions, litigation and reputational harm. Moreover, to the extent that these laws and regulations or the enforcement of the same become more stringent or change, or if new laws or regulations are enacted, our financial performance or plans for growth may be adversely impacted.

U.S. Regulations

The SEC oversees the activities of our subsidiaries that are registered investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and the SEC oversee the activities of our wholly owned subsidiary, AMCM, as a registered broker-dealer. In addition, we regularly rely on exemptions from various requirements of the Securities Act, the Exchange Act, the Investment Company Act, the Commodity Exchange Act and the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”). These exemptions are sometimes highly complex and may in certain circumstances depend on compliance by third parties who we do not control.

Additionally, the SEC and various self-regulatory organizations have in recent years increased their regulatory activities in respect of investment management firms. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation—Extensive regulation affects our activities, increases the cost of doing business and creates the potential for significant liabilities and penalties that could adversely affect our businesses and results of operations.” The SEC requires broker-dealers, or natural persons who are associated persons of broker-dealers, to act in the best interest of a retail customer when making a recommendation of any securities transaction or investment strategy involving securities, without placing the financial or other interest of the broker, dealer or natural person who is an associated person of a broker-dealer making the recommendation ahead of the interest of the retail customer (“Regulation Best Interest”). Regulation Best Interest requires broker-dealers to evaluate available alternatives, including those that may have lower expenses and/or lower investment risk than our investment funds. The term “retail customer” is defined as a natural person who uses such a recommendation primarily for personal, family or household purposes, without reference to investor sophistication or net worth. The “best interest” standard is satisfied through compliance with certain disclosure, duty of care, conflict of interest mitigation and compliance obligations. Under Regulation Best Interest, high cost, high risk and complex products may be subject to greater scrutiny by broker-dealers and their salespersons. Regulation Best Interest may negatively impact whether broker-dealers and their associated persons are willing to recommend investment products, including our funds, to retail customers, which may adversely impact our ability to distribute our products to certain investors. As such, Regulation Best Interest may reduce the ability of our funds to raise capital, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations. In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor as well as several states have proposed regulations or taken other actions pertaining to conduct standards for investment advisers and broker-dealers that may result in additional regulatory requirements related to our business.

Funds and Portfolio Companies of our Funds

All of our funds are advised by SEC registered investment advisers (or wholly owned subsidiaries thereof). Registered investment advisers are subject to more stringent requirements and regulations under the Investment Advisers Act than unregistered investment advisers. Such requirements relate to, among other things, fiduciary duties to clients, maintaining an effective compliance program, managing conflicts of interest and general anti-fraud prohibitions. In addition, the SEC requires investment advisers registered or required to register with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act that advise one or more private funds and have at least $150 million in private fund assets under management to periodically file reports on Form PF. We have filed, and will continue to file, quarterly reports on Form PF, which has resulted in increased administrative costs and a significant amount of attention and time to be spent by our personnel. The SEC adopted changes to Form PF in 2023, which, among other requirements, requires current reporting upon the occurrence of certain fund-level events. In 2024, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) adopted joint amendments to Form PF that will require additional basic information about advisers and the private funds they advise, although the SEC and CFTC recently extended the compliance date for such amendments to October 2026 and noted that the agencies were engaging in a substantive review of Form PF. To the extent that we are required to report additional (or different) information on Form PF, such reporting will likely increase related administrative costs and burdens.

ARCC, ASIF and our open-ended core infrastructure fund have each elected to be treated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act. Ares Private Markets Fund (“APMF”), Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund, Inc. (NYSE: ARDC) (“ARDC”) and CION Ares Diversified Credit Fund (“CADC”) are diversified, closed-ended management investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act. With the exception of our open-ended core infrastructure fund, which has elected to be treated as a corporation for U.S. federal tax purposes, each of the other five companies has

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elected, for U.S. federal tax purposes, to be treated as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) under Subchapter M of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE) (“ACRE”), in addition to our diversified non-traded REIT and industrial non-traded REIT, have each elected and qualified to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, under the Code.

We operate our wealth distribution platform, AWMS, through our wholly owned subsidiary AMCM. AMCM is registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC, maintains licenses in many states and is a member of FINRA. As a broker-dealer, AMCM is subject to regulation and oversight by the SEC and state securities regulators. In addition, FINRA promulgates and enforces rules governing the conduct of, and examines the activities of, its member firms. Due to the limited authority granted to AMCM in its capacity as a broker-dealer, it is not required to comply with certain regulations covering trade practices among broker-dealers and the use and safekeeping of customers’ funds and securities. As a registered broker-dealer and member of a self-regulatory organization, AMCM is, however, subject to the SEC’s uniform net capital rule, Rule 15c3-1 of the Exchange Act, which specifies the minimum level of net capital a broker-dealer must maintain and also requires that a significant part of a broker-dealer’s assets be kept in relatively liquid form. In January 2026, our wholly owned subsidiary, Ares Wealth Management Solutions, LLC, was consolidated with and into AMCM.

See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation—The publicly-traded and perpetual wealth investment vehicles that we manage are subject to regulatory complexities that limit the way in which they do business and may subject them to a higher level of regulatory scrutiny.”

Other Jurisdictions

Certain of our subsidiaries operate outside the U.S. In Luxembourg, Ares Management Luxembourg (“AM Lux”) is subject to authorization and regulation by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (“CSSF”). In the U.K., Ares Management Limited (“AML”) and Ares Management U.K. Limited (“AMUKL”) are subject to regulation and authorization by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”). Ares European Loan Management LLP (“AELM”), which is not a subsidiary, but in which we are indirectly invested and which procures certain services from AML, is also subject to regulation by the FCA. In some circumstances, AML, AMUKL, AELM (the “U.K. Regulated Entities”) and other Ares entities are or may become subject to U.K. or EU laws, for instance in relation to marketing our funds to investors in the EEA.

The U.K. exited the EU on January 31, 2020. Various EU laws were “on-shored” into domestic U.K. legislation and certain transitional regimes and deficiency-correction powers exist to ease the transition. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the “TCA”) between the U.K. and the EU formally came into force on May 1, 2021 and since its effectiveness, the TCA has governed certain matters between the U.K. and the EU. There remains considerable uncertainty as to the nature of the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU and the full extent to which the businesses of the U.K. Regulated Entities and our businesses generally could be adversely affected by Brexit. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Regulation—The U.K.’s divergence from the EU (“Brexit”) could adversely affect our business and our operations.” Despite Brexit, new and existing EU legislation is expected to continue to impact our business in the U.K. (whether because its effect is preserved in the U.K. as a matter of domestic policy or because compliance with such legislation (whether in whole or part) is a necessary condition for market access into the EEA) and other EEA member states where we have operations.

AM Lux operates under the EU legislative frameworks. Notwithstanding Brexit, the U.K. Regulated Entities generally continue to be regulated under these frameworks to the extent they were preserved in U.K. law. In some circumstances other Ares entities are or may become subject to EU laws or the law of EEA member states, including with respect to marketing our funds to investors in the EEA.

AM Lux and AMUKL are both AIFMs. Their operations are primarily governed by Directive 2011/61/EU on Alternative Investment Fund Managers and other associated legislation, rules and guidance (“AIFMD”). The U.K. implemented AIFMD while it was still a member of the EU and similar requirements therefore continue to apply in the U.K. notwithstanding Brexit. The AIFMD imposes significant regulatory requirements on AIFMs established in the EEA. AIFMD regulates fund managers by, amongst other things, prescribing authorization conditions for an AIFM, restricting the activities that can be undertaken by an AIFM and prescribing the organizational requirements, operating conditions, and regulatory standards relating to such things as initial capital, remuneration, conflicts, risk management, leverage, liquidity management, delegation of duties, transparency and reporting requirements.

In the EU, an amending directive to AIFMD, commonly referred to as “AIFMD II”, was published on March 26, 2024 and will become effective April 16, 2026, subject to the grandfathering period for certain of the loan origination provisions and certain Annex IV disclosure requirements which will become effective a year later (see “—Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive” for further detail).

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In addition, the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (“DORA”), which became applicable in January 2025, imposes requirements on a wide range of EU financial entities (including certain alternative investment fund managers) relating to information and communications technology (“ICT”) risk management, incident reporting, operational resilience testing and oversight of third-party ICT service providers. Compliance with DORA may require enhancements to our technology, risk management and vendor oversight practices.

The EU has also adopted the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which applies on a phased basis beginning in 2025 and is intended to regulate certain artificial intelligence systems based on their level of risk. Depending on our and our portfolio companies’ use of artificial intelligence technologies, we may be required to implement additional governance, risk management, documentation and compliance measures to comply with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.

AML and AELM are both investment firms within the meaning of Directive 2014/65/EU on Markets in Financial Instruments (“MiFID II”). Notwithstanding Brexit, the U.K.’s rules implementing MiFID II continue to have effect and the accompanying Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation 600/2014/EU (“MiFIR”) has been on-shored into U.K. law in connection with this withdrawal. The operations of AML and AELM are primarily governed by U.K. laws and regulatory rules implementing MiFID II, MiFIR and other associated legislation, rules and guidance. AMUKL is subject to certain provisions of U.K.-retained MiFID II because it has top-up permissions to provide certain U.K.-retained MiFID investment services. AM Lux is subject to certain provisions of EU MiFID II because it has top-up permissions to provide certain MIFID investment services. Certain aspects of MIFID II and MiFIR are subject to review and change in both the EU and the U.K.

In addition to Europe, our operations and our investment activities are subject to a variety of other regulatory regimes that vary by country. These include operating subsidiaries of Ares Management Asia (Holdings) Limited, which are subject to regulation by various regulatory authorities, including the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong and Monetary Authority of Singapore, as well as the expansion of our investment activities in Japan, Brazil, Vietnam and Australia in connection with recent strategic acquisitions, which are subject to the applicable regulatory authorities and regimes. In addition, the Bermuda Monetary Authority (the “BMA”) considers us to be the “shareholder controller” (as defined in the Bermuda Insurance Act) of Aspida Re, a Bermuda Class E insurance company.

Competition

The investment management industry is intensely competitive, and we expect it to remain so. We compete globally and on a regional, industry and asset basis.

We face competition both in the pursuit of fund investors and investment opportunities. Generally, our competition varies across business lines, geographies and financial markets. We compete for outside investors based on a variety of factors, including investment performance, investor perception of investment managers’ drive, focus and alignment of interest, quality of service provided to and duration of relationship with investors, breadth of our product offering, business reputation and the level of fees and expenses charged for services. We compete for investment opportunities both at our funds and for strategic acquisitions by us based on a variety of factors, including breadth of market coverage and relationships, access to capital, transaction execution skills, the range of products and services offered, innovation and price.

We face competition in our direct lending, trading, acquisitions and other investment activities primarily from traditional asset managers, business development companies, specialized funds, investment managers and other financial institutions, and we expect that competition will continue to increase. Many of these competitors in some of our businesses are substantially larger and have considerably greater financial, technical and marketing resources than are available to us. Many of these competitors have similar investment objectives to us, which may create additional competition for investment opportunities. Some of these competitors may also have a lower cost of capital and access to funding sources that are not available to us, which may create competitive disadvantages for us with respect to investment opportunities. In addition, some of these competitors may have higher risk tolerances, different risk assessments or lower return thresholds, which could allow them to consider a wider variety of investments and to bid more aggressively than us for investments that we want to make. Corporate buyers may be able to achieve synergistic cost savings with regard to an investment that may provide them with a competitive advantage in bidding for an investment. Additionally, institutional and individual investors are allocating increasing amounts of capital to alternative investment strategies. Several large institutional investors have announced a desire to consolidate their investments in a more limited number of managers. We expect that this will cause competition in our industry to intensify and could lead to a reduction in the size and duration of pricing inefficiencies that many of our funds seek to exploit.

Additionally, technological innovation, including the use of artificial intelligence and data science, has the potential to disrupt the financial industry and change the way financial institutions, including asset managers, do business. Some of our competitors may be more successful than us in the development and implementation of new technologies, including services

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and platforms based on artificial intelligence, to address various matters including investor demand, operations or investment activity. We are advancing our capabilities in these areas as their application to our industry continues to evolve, but if we are unable to adequately do so, or do so at a slower pace than others in our industry, we may be at a competitive disadvantage. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—General Risk Factors—Technological developments in artificial intelligence could disrupt the markets in which we operate and subject us to increased competition, legal and regulatory risks and compliance costs.”

Competition is also intense for the attraction and retention of qualified employees. Our ability to continue to compete effectively in our businesses will depend upon our ability to attract new employees and retain and motivate our existing employees.

For additional information concerning the competitive risks that we face, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Businesses—The investment management business is intensely competitive.”

Available Information

Ares Management Corporation is a Delaware corporation. Our telephone number is (310) 201-4100 and our website address is http://www.aresmgmt.com. Information on our website is not a part of this report and is not incorporated by reference herein. We make available free of charge on our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after those reports are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. To access these filings, go to the “Investor Resources” section of our website and then click on “SEC Filings.” In addition, these reports and the other documents we file with the SEC are available at a website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov.