Ares PE Interview (2021 Summer)

Depends what you’re looking for. ASOF is a newer fund that as a previous poster pointed out, is growing quickly. However, the same can be said of the flagship buyout fund (they’re currently in the market for ACOF VI). The main advantage to ACOF is that you get to do both distressed and traditional vanilla buyouts (etc.) as the firm has a flex-cap mandate (hence the name) which differs from other PE firms in that within their buyout fund they’re allowed to invest across the capital structure (i.e. convertibles, other structured equity products, etc.). You can pull up one of their investor presentations to see how that mix (distressed vs. traditional) has moved through time, but it is one of the paramount advantages at the firm (within ACOF specifically) and is reason they performed so well with their 2008 vintage (ACOF III). Additionally I can’t speak from experience, but would assume it’s probably an amazing place to learn as a junior as you are able to gain exposure across the cap structure/in different situations. Just my two cents