The head office of Ares Management Corp. is located at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City.
Photo by Ringo Chiu.
Century City-based alternative asset manager Ares Management Corp. has completed the purchase of the real estate investment advisory and distribution business of Black Creek Group in the United States.
The addition of the real estate assets of Denver-based Black Creek gives Ares a combined business with approximately $ 29 billion in real estate assets under management,
“The integration with Black Creek marks a crucial expansion of our group’s capabilities and products and significantly expands our footprint in the United States,” said Bill Benjamin, partner and director of the Ares real estate group.
The key leaders of Black Creek’s management team will remain in place and will be part of the Ares real estate group, led by Benjamin.
The transaction follows a series of Ares expansion efforts, including an unsuccessful attempt to take over the private markets business of AMP Ltd. and the successful acquisition of aftermarket specialist Landmark Partners.
In April, Australian wealth manager AMP ended talks to sell its private markets business to Ares, announcing instead that it would part ways with the unit and rename it. In October, AMP revealed that it had been approached by Ares with an offer to buy the entire company.
Since the end of 2020, Ares has increased its assets under management by 21.3% and increased its workforce by 38% to 2,000 employees.
Ares had approximately $ 197 billion in assets under management with more than 1,450 employees as of Dec. 31.
In early June, Ares completed the acquisition of Landmark Partners from Boston-based BrightSphere Investment Group Inc. in a $ 1.1 billion deal.
The deal increased Ares’ assets under management by 9.4% to $ 215.7 billion and the total number of employees by 10% to 1,600.
Landmark is one of the largest investors in secondary private equity funds with a stake in the alternative asset management industry.
Black Group’s latest real estate purchase agreement brings Ares’ assets under management to $ 239 billion as of March 31 and adds 300 more employees.
Black Creek operates eight offices across the United States and had $ 11.6. billion in assets under management.
Ares plans to release its second quarter financial report on July 29.
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