Ares Shifts Special Ops Team to Credit Arm

Ares Management is moving its $14.6 billion Special Opportunities strategy from its Private Equity Group to its Credit Group and will be named Opportunistic Credit.

Aaron Rosen and Craig Snyder were designated co-heads of Opportunistic Credit and co-portfolio managers of Special Opportunities.

“The aim is to fill the voice between for-control private equity and more traditional direct lending and emphasizes differentiated deal flow through direct origination,” the firm said.

The approach focuses on collaborating with “healthy companies and businesses” that require capital, and it offers debt and non-control equity options to both private and public companies.

“As industry dynamics continue to evolve, we are seeing an expanding investment opportunity for private lenders who can deliver creative and flexible debt and structured equity solutions to middle market companies,” said Kipp deVeer, head of the Ares Credit Group, which has $300 billion in assets under management.

The team calculated earlier this month that Ares’ credit program has a 2.6% share of the global private credit market, which is estimated at $10.9 trillion.