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Ares Management (ARES) FY2025 results: revenue $5.6 billion, up 44.2% on the year

Ares Management Corp. (ARES) reported revenue of $5.6 billion for fiscal 2025, the year ended 31 December 2025, up 44.2% on the year before. Net income was $527 million, up 13.7%, and diluted earnings per share $1.71. The figures are the company's own, from the 10-K it filed with the SEC on 25 February 2026.

Revenue
$5.6 billion
+44.2% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Operating margin
15.9%
24.4% a year earlier
FY2018FY2025
Net income
$527 million
+13.7% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Diluted EPS
$1.71
-16.2% on the year
FY2018FY2025

this yearthe year beforeHover a bar for its figure.

The year in brief

What management said about the year

Guidance figures: 1 raised, 1 kept.

  • After-tax realized income of $529.1 million: After-tax realized income was $529.1 million, or $1.45 per Class A share, compared with $425.8 million, or $1.19 per share, in the third quarter.
  • Fee related earnings of $527.7 million: Fee related earnings were $527.7 million for the quarter, compared with $471.2 million in the third quarter.
  • AUM crossed $600 billion: Management said the platform crossed $600 billion of assets under management, up from over $596 billion at September 30, 2025.
  • Annual AUM, FPAUM and fee growth: For the year, AUM rose 29%, fee-paying AUM 32% and management fees 25%, which the CFO linked to fundraising and investing activity in the fourth quarter.
  • Record annual fundraising and investing: The company reported new annual records for fundraising and for investing, each over $100 billion in 2025.
Read the Q4 FY2025 earnings call summary

From this 10-K

Ares is a global alternative investment manager with $622.5 billion of assets under management, over 4,250 employees and over 55 offices in more than 25 countries. Those are client assets rather than the firm's own. The investor base includes over 2,850 direct institutional relationships along with retail investors reached through publicly-traded funds, sub-advised accounts and perpetual wealth vehicles. The firm was founded in 1997, and its assets under management have grown from $94.0 billion a decade earlier to $622.5 billion at 31 December 2025, a compound annual growth rate the filing puts at 26% over five years and 21% over ten.

Ares Management Corp., the 10-K for 2025

Ares is a global alternative investment manager with $622.5 billion of assets under management, over 4,250 employees and over 55 offices in more than 25 countries. Those are client assets rather than the firm's own. The investor base includes over 2,850 direct institutional relationships along with retail investors reached through publicly-traded funds, sub-advised accounts and perpetual wealth vehicles. The firm was founded in 1997, and its assets under management have grown from $94.0 billion a decade earlier to $622.5 billion at 31 December 2025, a compound annual growth rate the filing puts at 26% over five years and 21% over ten.

The work is organised into four investment groups, Credit, Real Assets, Secondaries and Private Equity, plus other businesses. There is no centralised investment committee; each group has its own, generally with overlapping membership from other groups.

Credit

The Credit Group held $406.9 billion of assets under management across over 305 funds at 31 December 2025, covering liquid credit, alternative credit and direct lending. The company describes it as 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 to small and medium sized companies and counterparties it says are increasingly underserved by traditional bank lenders. The approach combines structuring and origination to deliver directly originated fixed and floating rate credit assets.

Real Assets

The Real Assets Group held $139.1 billion of assets under management in over 110 investment vehicles at 31 December 2025, investing in both equity and debt across real estate and infrastructure. The real estate strategy runs core, value-add and opportunistic investments predominantly in the Americas, Europe and APAC, reached by investors through private commingled vehicles, separately managed accounts, publicly-traded funds and perpetual wealth vehicles. The real estate portfolio is primarily allocated to industrial, multifamily and adjacent sectors.

Secondaries

The Secondaries Group held $42.1 billion of assets under management in over 90 funds at 31 December 2025, investing in secondary markets primarily in North America across private equity, real estate, infrastructure and credit strategies. It recapitalises and restructures existing limited partnership interests in funds, with a focus on transactions that address a pending fund maturity or a strategy change.

Private Equity

The Private Equity Group held $25.3 billion of assets under management in over 60 funds at 31 December 2025. It splits into corporate private equity, focused on North America and Europe, and APAC private equity, focused on the APAC region. The corporate private equity team is over 45 investment professionals based primarily in Los Angeles and London, working on growth buyout transactions in the Americas and European middle market, aimed at services-oriented middle market companies.

What sits underneath the numbers

The research base covers over 55 industries, with insights drawn 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. The assets under management figures include vehicles managed by Ivy Hill Asset Management, a wholly owned portfolio company of ARCC and an SEC-registered investment adviser.

A further $86.5 billion of the total represents investments by insurance companies across various Ares funds, separately managed accounts and co-investments rather than one discrete insurance platform. Those assets are counted within each investment strategy and are also presented within other businesses, which the filing says is to show the scale of the aggregated insurance platform.

From Ares Management's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 25 February 2026: read the full 10-K.

The four quarters: Q1 FY2025 · Q2 FY2025 · Q3 FY2025 · Q4 FY2025

Income statement (profit and loss)

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Revenue5,6013,8853,632+44.2%
Selling, general and administrative996737660+35.2%
Operating income893946834-5.6%
Operating margin15.9%24.4%23.0%
Pre-tax income1,2871,2751,333+0.9%
Income tax199165173+20.6%
Effective tax rate15.4%12.9%13.0%
Net income527464474+13.7%
Net margin9.4%11.9%13.1%
Diluted EPS$1.71$2.04$2.42-16.2%
$ million except per share.
Read moreFree cash flow is operating cash flow less capital expenditure; the effective tax rate is income tax over pre-tax income; margins are the line over revenue. Gross profit is revenue less cost of revenue, and operating income is revenue less the company's own total costs, where the statement does not print those lines. Those four are arithmetic on the filed numbers; everything else is as filed. Money is in $ million as the company files it, or in $ billion by the switch above the tables; per share figures and share counts are as they are.

Cash flow

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Operating cash flow3,2672,791-233+17.0%
Cash from investing-1,804-159-111
Cash from financing-2,427-1,432292
Depreciation and amortisation239148157+60.7%
Share-based compensation741353256+109.9%
Diluted shares, weightedn/an/a196m
Shares outstanding at period endn/a313m308m

Balance sheet

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Shareholders' equity4,2753,5441,893+20.7%
Non-controlling interest4,4013,2812,581+34.1%
Debt6,1932,834n/a+118.5%
Other liabilities13,76415,22620,256-9.6%
Total liabilities and equity28,63324,88424,730+15.1%
Goodwill3,4541,1631,124+197.1%
Intangible assets798408491+95.7%
Cash and equivalents4891,508348-67.6%
Other assets23,89221,80622,768+9.6%
Total assets28,63324,88424,730+15.1%

10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025, filed 25 February 2026: the filing.