Thoughts on Ares
What are people's thoughts on Ares, esp Direct Lending team? Any insight into comp at Assoc level + culture?
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Have a few good friends there and it’s basically a hunking machine and an unbelievable fund raiser
Market leader for direct lending with tons of sponsor relationships, which means they almost always get the look on any situation. Translates into unbelievable “flow” and an incredible business model for LPs and partners, but at the junior level equates to churning through CIM and CIM even if the VP/Principal knows they’ll ultimately get priced out/won’t get it through IC. Deal teams need to look through tons of deals and volumes so it’s sort of become the BX of direct lending, ie banking 2.0. The team also exploded in size since Covid to try and maximise the deployment of all the capital they’ve raised, meaning they’ve had to hire a lot more junior talent making the path to promotion more challenging.
Still probably the best platform and training ground if you want to do private credit, and incredible economics if you can make it to MD level. But the work life balance part has become more challenged in the recent years to justify the moderate haircut on comp to other credit strategies.
Hey, thanks alot for this insight, it is super helpful!
Quite suprised by the comp as I was under the impression that they were paid pretty much in line with MF PE up till the senior VP+ level, would you say that is not the case?
Also, are your friends content with the work/exposure they are getting or are they hoping to leave soon?- Just trying to get a sense of what the feeling is at the junior level. Cheers!
How is the comp haircut to SS/distressed?
This is really helpful! Any more color on the career path (ie, is it basically an associate program and then expect to have to move on after you get through senior associate)? Or are VP promotions more available?
What is CIM?
What is their source of capital? Particularly interested in their real estate business. Raising from HNW/ insurance/ pension plans??
What’s their NYC office culture?
If you have the data points, what’s their comp structure for VP/Principal for a role in CRE? Originations,acquisitions, and capital markets
I can add colour here - work directly with/across their SS team, which is now being rehoused under Credit. It's a great fund, deploy a lot of capital and likely in fundraising for their third one. Ares 2020 vintage (ASOF )was $2 billion target with a $3.5 billion hard cap (which they reached) - 2022 was the same, vintage was $4 billion target and they reached $7.1bn... no clue on numbers for third one but will most likely the biggest fund across the street (vs APO HV, Sixth Street & Oaktree). Despite the DL tilt, they aren't afraid to go aggressive (ran by industry legends with gold-plated careers at Oaktree/GSO) and benefit a lot from seeing every situation they want which means they really pick/choose their investments - and both public/private
For a different team, college buddy cleared ~$220k all-in at An1, and is on track for 350+ as Assoc (with a good A2A)
Anyone have feedback on the PE group?
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