Ares Management Corp (ARES) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Please stand by, we're about to begin. Welcome to the Ares Management Corporation's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded on Monday, May 5, 2025.

請稍候，我們即將開始。歡迎參加 Ares Management Corporation 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次電話會議將於 2025 年 5 月 5 日星期一錄製。

I will now turn the call over to Greg Mason, Co-Head of Public Markets Investor Relations for Ares Management. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我將電話轉給 Ares Management 公開市場投資者關係聯席主管 Greg Mason。先生，請繼續。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for our first quarter 2025 conference call. I'm joined today by Michael Arougheti, our Chief Executive Officer; and Jarrod Phillips, our Chief Financial Officer. We also have a number of executives with us today who will be available during Q&A.

早安，感謝您今天參加我們的 2025 年第一季電話會議。今天和我一起出席的還有我們的執行長 Michael Arougheti；以及我們的財務長 Jarrod Phillips。今天我們還有幾位主管出席，他們將在問答環節中發言。

Before we begin, I want to remind you that comments made during this call contain certain forward-looking statements and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those identified in our risk factors in our SEC filings. Our actual results could differ materially, and we undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Please also note that past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and nothing on this call constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in Ares or in Ares fund.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，本次電話會議中發表的評論包含某些前瞻性陳述，並受風險和不確定性的影響，包括我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中確定的風險因素。我們的實際結果可能存在重大差異，我們不承擔更新任何此類前瞻性陳述的義務。另請注意，過去的表現並不能保證未來的結果，本次電話會議中的任何內容均不構成出售要約或購買 Ares 或 Ares 基金權益的要約邀請。

During this call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, which should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Please refer to our first quarter earnings presentation available on the Investor Resources section of our website for reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Note that we plan to file our Form 10-Q later this month.

在本次電話會議中，我們將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標，這些指標不應孤立地看待或取代依照公認會計原則編製的指標。請參閱我們網站投資者資源部分提供的第一季財報，以了解這些非 GAAP 指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標的對帳情況。請注意，我們計劃在本月稍後提交 10-Q 表。

This morning, we announced that we declared a quarterly dividend of $1.12 per share on the company's Class A and nonvoting common stock, representing an increase of 20% over our dividend for the same quarter a year ago. The dividend will be paid on June 30, 2025, to holders of record on June 16.

今天上午，我們宣布對公司 A 類無投票權普通股派發每股 1.12 美元的季度股息，比去年同期的股息增加 20%。股利將於 2025 年 6 月 30 日支付給 6 月 16 日登記在冊的股東。

Now I'll turn the call over to Mike who will start with some comments on the current market environment and our first quarter financial results.

現在我將電話轉給麥克，他將首先對當前的市場環境和我們的第一季財務業績發表一些評論。

Thank you, Greg, and good morning. We hope everybody is doing well. In the first quarter, Ares continued to generate strong financial results in spite of increased market volatility and growing uncertainty. Our results included year-over-year growth in management fees of 18%, FRE growth of 22% and after-tax realized income per share of Class A common stock growth of 36%. We also saw continued momentum in our fundraising and deployment activities as well as strong investment performance across our platform.

謝謝你，格雷格，早安。我們希望每個人都一切順利。第一季度，儘管市場波動加劇、不確定性增加，但 Ares 仍繼續取得強勁的財務表現。我們的業績包括管理費年增 18%，FRE 成長 22%，A 類普通股每股稅後實現收益成長 36%。我們也看到我們的籌款和部署活動持續保持強勁勢頭，整個平台的投資表現強勁。

On the fundraising front, we raised over $20 billion in gross new capital commitments, which was the highest level for the first quarter fundraising on record with broad contributions across all major strategies. We deployed over $31 billion in the quarter with an improving gross to net deployment ratio of 49% in our private credit strategies. In fact, capital deployment in our drawdown funds increased nearly 20% over the fourth quarter and was the highest first quarter on record.

在籌資方面，我們籌集了超過 200 億美元的新資本承諾總額，這是有史以​​來第一季籌資的最高水平，所有主要策略均有廣泛貢獻。本季度，我們的私人信貸策略已部署超過 310 億美元，總淨部署比率提高至 49%。事實上，我們的提取基金的資本配置在第四季度增加了近 20%，是有史以來最高的第一季。

The first quarter also marked a significant milestone for Ares as we crossed over $0.5 trillion and reached $546 billion of total AUM, including $45 billion of AUM added through the acquisition of GCP. Overall, both our AUM and fee-paying AUM grew by 27% and 25%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis.

第一季對 Ares 來說也是一個重要的里程碑，因為我們的總 AUM 突破了 0.5 兆美元，達到了 5,460 億美元，其中包括透過收購 GCP 增加的 450 億美元的 AUM。整體而言，我們的 AUM 和付費 AUM 分別年增 27% 和 25%。

Coming into the new year, the market was anticipating that the new administration's pro-growth regulatory and tax policies would unlock a greater amount of M&A-led transactions. At the beginning of the year, as reflected in our strong deployment, we were seeing the early signs of a growing future pipeline of transactions and pent-up activity.

進入新的一年，市場預期新政府的促進成長監管和稅收政策將釋放更多以併購為主導的交易。今年年初，正如我們強大的部署所反映的那樣，我們看到了未來交易管道和被壓抑的活動不斷增長的早期跡象。

However, anxiety and market volatility were building throughout the quarter. And following the announcement of the April 2 tariffs and subsequent geopolitical events the market entered a new phase of volatility and uncertainty over the ultimate outcome and impact of tariff policies.

然而，整個季度焦慮和市場波動不斷加劇。隨著 4 月 2 日關稅宣布以及隨後的地緣政治事件，市場進入了對關稅政策最終結果和影響的波動和不確定性的新階段。

Activity in the liquid credit and equity markets dropped off significantly as most banks and liquid market investors move to a risk-off position. Since then, the liquid markets have started to fall, but they remain less predictable and highly selective. As one would expect, when traditional capital providers and public markets retrench, the stability and certainty of the private markets becomes even more valuable.

由於大多數銀行和流動性市場投資者轉向避險，流動性信貸和股票市場的活動大幅減少。自那時起，流動性市場開始下降，但仍然難以預測且選擇性很強。正如人們所預料的那樣，當傳統資本提供者和公開市場萎縮時，私人市場的穩定性和確定性就變得更加寶貴。

Fortunately, for Ares, we have a record amount of dry powder and we operate a large array of flexible private market strategies that can take advantage and gain share during periods of retrenchment. Today, we have $142 billion of available capital, including over $99 billion in AUM not yet paying fees. This provides us with significant capital to deploy with meaningful capacity for additional management fee growth.

幸運的是，對於 Ares 來說，我們擁有創紀錄數量的乾火藥，並且我們實施了大量靈活的私人市場策略，可以在緊縮期間利用這些策略並獲得份額。今天，我們擁有 1,420 億美元的可用資本，其中包括尚未支付費用的 990 多億美元的 AUM。這為我們提供了可部署的大量資本，並具有顯著的額外管理費成長能力。

As many of you know, Ares has a history of demonstrating resilience and growth through periods of extreme market volatility and recession, such as during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. There are several reasons why we believe that we've fared well through these periods of dislocation.

眾所周知，Ares 在極端市場波動和衰退時期（例如全球金融危機和 COVID-19 疫情期間）表現出了韌性和成長能力。我們相信，我們之所以能夠順利度過這些動盪時期，有幾個原因。

We operate a management fee-centric business, which is exemplified by our direct balance sheet investments being less than 0.5% of our assets under management. We have very low balance sheet leverage and we don't carry any retail bank deposits or direct insurance liabilities on our balance sheet.

我們經營以管理費為中心的業務，具體表現為我們的直接資產負債表投資不到我們管理資產的 0.5%。我們的資產負債表槓桿率非常低，而且我們的資產負債表上沒有任何零售銀行存款或直接保險負債。

Instead, we primarily operate with long-dated, locked-up third-party capital that is match funded with our assets. This means that we can be patient when entering and exiting investments across our portfolios, and our fund structures are designed so that we are not a forced seller of assets. We maintain significant levels of available capital and operate flexible strategies so that we can be opportunistic and invest in primary and secondary markets through cycles.

相反，我們主要利用與我們的資產相符的長期、鎖定的第三方資本進行營運。這意味著我們可以耐心地進入和退出投資組合，而我們的基金結構設計使我們不會被迫出售資產。我們保持大量的可用資本並實施靈活的策略，以便我們能夠抓住機會並在周期中投資一級和二級市場。

Finally, we have large and experienced portfolio management teams that can help us protect or reposition investments in periods of stress. These attributes of our business and operating philosophy have translated into stable to accelerating growth in AUM and management fees in past market dislocations.

最後，我們擁有龐大且經驗豐富的投資組合管理團隊，可以幫助我們在壓力時期保護或重新定位投資。在過去的市場混亂中，我們的業務和經營理念的這些屬性已經轉化為AUM和管理費的穩定和加速成長。

We believe that investors have come to value our ability to invest opportunistically even in down markets, and some of our best performing funds have been in vintages covering recessions or market dislocations. We believe that our asset-light business model places our third-party clients first and foremost.

我們相信，投資人已經開始重視我們即使在低迷的市場中也能抓住機會進行投資的能力，而我們表現最好的一些基金都是在經濟衰退或市場混亂時期投資的。我們相信，我們的輕資產商業模式將第三方客戶放在首位。

Given the uncertainty over the path of economic growth, we believe that we also benefit from being overweighted in assets that are senior to equity in the capital structure. We believe that these credit assets are more defensive and insulated from changes in cash flows and market values.

鑑於經濟成長路徑的不確定性，我們認為，我們也受益於在資本結構中優先於股權的資產的增持。我們認為這些信貸資產具有更強的防禦性，不受現金流和市場價值變化的影響。

In addition, when it becomes more difficult to sell companies or assets, it can be easier to deploy capital and credit as the need for more creative financing solutions increases. Including our credit products within our real estate, infrastructure and secondary strategies, more than 72% of our total AUM is in credit-related products and over 92% of these credit assets are senior loans.

此外，當出售公司或資產變得更加困難時，隨著對更具創造性的融資解決方案的需求增加，部署資本和信貸會變得更加容易。包括我們房地產、基礎設施和二級策略中的信貸產品在內，我們總 AUM 的 72% 以上是信貸相關產品，而這些信貸資產的 92% 以上是優先貸款。

As we assess the quality of our corporate credit portfolios today, we believe that we are entering this period of uncertainty from a position of strength. The initial assessment of our portfolio reveals a limited direct exposure to changes in tariff rates.

當我們今天評估公司信貸組合的品質時，我們相信我們正以強勢地位進入這個不確定時期。我們對投資組合的初步評估表明，其受關稅稅率變化的直接影響有限。

As a firm, we're more focused on domestic middle-market service-oriented businesses that tend to have less exposure to international markets and global supply chains. While we will remain actively engaged with our portfolio companies and are carefully monitoring any primary or second order impacts from tariffs, we are optimistic about our ability to navigate any issues that arise in the portfolio.

作為一家公司，我們更專注於國內中端市場服務型企業，這些企業往往較少接觸國際市場和全球供應鏈。雖然我們將繼續積極與我們的投資組合公司合作，並密切監控關稅帶來的任何主要或次要影響，但我們對我們解決投資組合中出現的任何問題的能力持樂觀態度。

And as Jarrod will highlight later, our corporate loan portfolios are performing well and remain conservatively positioned. We continue to believe that this is an opportune time for continued growth in our real estate business. Tariffs should drive up construction costs, which might constrain supply in markets that are already supply constrained. This, coupled with a decrease in cost of capital and lower interest rates should improve values of real estate held and spur transaction activity.

正如賈羅德稍後將強調的那樣，我們的企業貸款組合表現良好，並且保持保守的立場。我們仍然相信，這是我們房地產業務持續成長的絕佳時機。關稅應該會推高建築成本，這可能會限制供應已經受限的市場的供應。再加上資本成本的下降和利率的降低，應該會提高持有的房地產價值並刺激交易活動。

Now let me turn to some quarterly operating highlights to give you more details on our recent performance and key trends driving the business. We experienced the highest first quarter of fundraising activity in our firm's history as we benefited from a wide product set of funds currently in the market.

現在，讓我介紹一些季度營運亮點，以便向您詳細介紹我們最近的業績和推動業務發展的關鍵趨勢。由於我們受益於目前市場上廣泛的基金產品，我們經歷了公司歷史上最高的第一季融資活動。

Over 45% of our quarterly fundraising came from outside the credit group as we experienced improving inflows across real estate, infrastructure debt, secondaries and private equity. Within credit, our third opportunistic credit fund completed its first close this quarter, now having raised approximately $4.6 billion from a group of new and existing investors. This is a great start for the next vintage in this fund series, which is particularly well positioned to take advantage of market volatility in both the public and private markets.

由於房地產、基礎設施債務、二級市場和私募股權等領域的資金流入不斷增加，我們季度籌資的 45% 以上來自信貸集團之外。在信貸領域，我們的第三個機會信貸基金本季完成了首次關閉，目前已從一群新舊投資者籌集了約 46 億美元。這是該基金系列下一階段的良好開端，它特別適合利用公開市場和私人市場的市場波動。

Our public and private BDCs combined raised over $4 billion of AUM in the quarter and our semi-liquid European direct lending product raised over $630 million and now stands at over $3 billion in AUM after only 15 months. We believe it's the largest fund of its kind in the market. Our open-end core alternative credit fund raised approximately $400 million and surpassed $6 billion in AUM. And we also issued two new CLOs in the quarter, raising $1 billion in the aggregate.

我們的公共和私人 BDC 在本季共籌集了超過 40 億美元的 AUM，我們的半流動性歐洲直接貸款產品籌集了超過 6.3 億美元，僅 15 個月後，AUM 就已超過 30 億美元。我們相信這是市場上同類基金中規模最大的基金。我們的開放式核心另類信貸基金籌集了約 4 億美元，資產管理規模超過 60 億美元。本季我們也發行了兩筆新的 CLO，總計募集了 10 億美元。

Within real estate, we raised over $3.1 billion of commitments across our 11th value-add real estate equity fund, our real estate debt funds and our open-ended logistics real estate funds in the US and Japan. Our first Japan data center development fund raised approximately $1.5 billion in a first closing, and we anticipate holding a final close for this fund in the near term. In infrastructure debt, we raised an additional $1 billion across our sixth infrastructure debt fund and related vehicles. We also saw a pickup in flows to our non-traded REITs, which raised $400 million.

在房地產領域，我們透過第 11 個增值房地產股票基金、房地產債務基金以及美國和日本的開放式物流房地產基金籌集了超過 31 億美元的承諾資金。我們的第一個日本資料中心發展基金在首次募集時籌集了約 15 億美元，我們預計將在短期內完成該基金的最終募集。在基礎設施債務方面，我們透過第六個基礎設施債務基金和相關工具額外籌集了 10 億美元。我們也看到非交易房地產投資信託基金的資金流入有所回升，籌集了 4 億美元。

Our secondaries group continues to generate significant investor interest with $2.3 billion of new commitments across PE, credit, infrastructure and real estate funds. Our third infrastructure secondaries fund just crossed $2 billion in total commitments, more than double the previous vintage, and we expect to hold the final close this summer.

我們的二級市場集團繼續吸引大量投資者的興趣，在私募股權、信貸、基礎設施和房地產基金方面已承諾注資 23 億美元。我們的第三期基礎設施二級市場基金總承諾金額剛超過 20 億美元，是上一期的兩倍多，我們預計將於今年夏天完成最終募集。

In private equity secondaries, APMF now has exceeded $3 billion in AUM, and we're also seeing good momentum across our institutional products. Finally, in credit secondaries, we raised $475 million in the quarter and another $700 million in April, exceeding the fund's target and bringing total equity commitments in the strategy to $3 billion. And within private equity, we raised an additional approximately $1 billion in our seventh corporate private equity fund, and we expect the whole final close this summer.

在私募股權二級市場，APMF 的資產管理規模現已超過 30 億美元，而且我們的機構產品也呈現良好勢頭。最後，在信貸二級市場，我們在本季籌集了 4.75 億美元，並在 4 月籌集了 7 億美元，超過了基金的目標，使該策略的總股權承諾達到 30 億美元。在私募股權領域，我們在第七家企業私募股權基金中額外籌集了約 10 億美元，預計今年夏天將完成全部募集。

So as we think about fundraising for 2025 and how it could be impacted by the current market uncertainty, we believe that we're well positioned due to the strength in the institutional channel and the global diversity of our investor base. We have deep relationships with our LPs who tend to be repeat investors across our funds and strategies as they seek to consolidate with key relationships.

因此，當我們考慮 2025 年的融資情況以及當前市場不確定性對其產生的影響時，我們相信，憑藉機構管道的實力和投資者群體的全球多樣性，我們處於有利地位。我們與 LP 保持著深厚的關係，他們往往會重複投資我們的基金和策略，因為他們尋求鞏固關鍵關係。

During the first quarter, nearly 63% of our fundraising came from institutional investors across more than 30 funds and numerous SMAs, of which over 85% was from existing investors. Our fundraising is becoming increasingly diverse across our fund strategies, and almost all of it is derived from third-party investors. Importantly, we've historically experienced more consistent capital allocations from institutional investors through periods of volatility as they systematically invest across vintages and asset classes with less reaction to immediate trends in the public markets.

第一季度，我們籌集的資金近 63% 來自 30 多個基金和眾多 SMA 的機構投資者，其中超過 85% 來自現有投資者。我們的基金策略的融資方式越來越多樣化，幾乎所有資金都來自第三方投資者。重要的是，從歷史上看，我們在波動時期經歷了機構投資者更一致的資本配置，因為他們系統地投資於不同年份和資產類別，對公開市場的即時趨​​勢反應較小。

Within the wealth channel, we believe the largely underpenetrated opportunity to offer institutional quality alternative products to private wealth investors remains one of the best strategic growth avenues for Ares. Our team continues to expand into new regions and add new distribution partners across the globe. With the addition of two new products, our open-end infrastructure fund, which began taking monthly subscriptions in the first quarter and now has over $500 million in AUM and our open-ended sports media and entertainment product, which is now open for monthly subscriptions, our lineup covering the market opportunity is extensive across durable income, real assets and diversified growth products.

在財富管道中，我們認為，向私人財富投資者提供機構品質替代產品這一尚未充分滲透的機會仍然是 Ares 最好的策略成長途徑之一。我們的團隊繼續向新的地區擴展並在全球範圍內增加新的分銷合作夥伴。隨著兩款新產品的加入，我們的開放式基礎設施基金（於第一季開始接受月度認購，目前資產管理規模超過 5 億美元）和開放式體育媒體和娛樂產品（現已開放月度認購），我們涵蓋的市場機會範圍廣泛，涵蓋持久收入、實體資產和多元化增長產品。

During the first quarter, our strong momentum in the wealth channel continued as we raised a record $3.7 billion in quarterly equity commitments and $5 billion in total commitments across our eight perpetual semi-liquid products. These products accounted for approximately 25% of our gross inflows during the quarter.

第一季度，我們財富管道的強勁勢頭持續，季度股權承諾融資額達到創紀錄的 37 億美元，八種永久性半流動性產品的總承諾融資額達到 50 億美元。這些產品約占我們本季總流入量的 25%。

While it's early and the path ahead is uncertain, we're encouraged by the private wealth inflows that we saw in the month of April, which totaled $1.2 billion in equity commitments. Our expectation is that our differentiated fund performance coupled with the less volatile nature of alternative assets and the ability to buy and sell at NAV should demonstrate the relative advantages of private market investing over time.

雖然現在還為時過早，未來的道路也充滿不確定性，但我們對 4 月私人財富流入感到鼓舞，其股權承諾總額達到 12 億美元。我們的預期是，我們差異化的基金業績，加上另類資產的波動性較小以及以資產淨值買賣的能力，應該能夠隨著時間的推移展現出私募市場投資的相對優勢。

As we look forward to the remainder of the year, new M&A transactions and activity levels are likely to be slower until there is more certainty on tariffs and the impact of the economy. That said, there's great excitement and energy from our deal teams as they sense less competition from traditional capital providers and potentially enhanced investment opportunities due to the change in market conditions.

展望今年剩餘時間，新的併購交易和活動水準可能會放緩，直到關稅和經濟影響更加確定為止。儘管如此，我們的交易團隊仍然充滿活力和熱情，因為他們感覺到來自傳統資本提供者的競爭減少了，而且由於市場條件的變化，投資機會可能會增加。

While the full impact from the tariffs will take time to be absorbed across the markets, we're encouraged that the size of our firm-wide investment pipeline across our investment groups is relatively unchanged compared to where it was three months ago. Our investment teams are continuing to see significant opportunities with some strategies such as opportunistic credit, alternative credit and secondaries expecting to see an acceleration in deal flow.

雖然關稅的全部影響需要一段時間才能被市場吸收，但我們很高興看到，與三個月前相比，我們整個投資集團的投資規模相對沒有變化。我們的投資團隊繼續透過機會信貸、另類信貸和二級市場等一些策略看到重大機遇，預計交易流量將加速成長。

In direct lending, we're seeing interest from larger companies and sponsors as the broadly syndicated market is less attractive. And in real assets, we're continuing to see meaningful opportunities associated with the demand for data center capacity and the need for power generation.

在直接貸款方面，我們看到了大型公司和贊助商的興趣，因為廣泛的銀團市場吸引力較小。在實體資產方面，我們繼續看到與資料中心容量需求和發電需求相關的有意義的機會。

We're also seeing positive momentum in our private equity and secondaries businesses. Our corporate private equity team recently signed three new growth buyout transactions and our secondaries group is originating a growing number of opportunities as traditional off-ramps for capital are becoming less available.

我們也看到私募股權和二級市場業務呈現正面動能。我們的企業私募股權團隊最近簽署了三項新的成長收購交易，而隨著傳統的資本管道變得越來越少，我們的二級市場集團正在創造越來越多的機會。

Aspida is well positioned following the completion of its equity raise last year and currently has over $20 billion of new investment capacity. Benefiting from its tech-enabled platform and growing scale, Aspida continues to have strong momentum in primary annuity originations. And on the reinsurance front, we're actively engaged with new partners across both the US and the APAC regions. So overall, we expect to remain active and opportunistic during this volatile period.

Aspida 在去年完成股權融資後處於有利地位，目前擁有超過 200 億美元的新投資能力。受益於其技術支援的平台和不斷增長的規模，Aspida 在初級年金發起方面繼續保持強勁勢頭。在再保險方面，我們積極與美國和亞太地區的新合作夥伴合作。因此，總體而言，我們希望在這段動盪時期保持活躍和把握機會。

And before I turn the call over to Jarrod, I do want to mention that the integration with GCP International is going very well, and we are just beginning to execute on the many synergy opportunities that we identified. The business is performing well. Early fundraising momentum is encouraging, and we're excited for the growth opportunities ahead.

在我將電話轉給賈羅德之前，我想提一下，與 GCP International 的整合進展非常順利，我們才剛開始執行我們發現的許多協同機會。業務表現良好。早期的籌款勢頭令人鼓舞，我們對未來的成長機會感到興奮。

And now, Jarrod, will you walk us through additional details on our financial results?

現在，賈羅德，您能向我們詳細介紹一下我們的財務表現嗎？

Absolutely, Mike. Good morning, everyone. As Mike stated, we had a strong start to 2025 in the first quarter. We surpassed $0.5 trillion in AUM for the first time in our history, and we continue to build our future management fee and performance fee potential. We experienced meaningful year-over-year growth in management fees, FRE and after-tax realized income per share of Class A common stock, largely driven by organic growth.

當然，麥克。大家早安。正如麥克所說，我們在第一季為 2025 年取得了強勁開局。我們的資產管理規模 (AUM) 首次超過 0.5 兆美元，我們將繼續挖掘未來的管理費和績效費潛力。我們的管理費、FRE 和 A 類普通股每股稅後實現收益均實現了同比顯著增長，這主要得益於有機增長。

We have a growing amount of accrued net performance income in our European style funds and saw strong fund performance across many of our key products during the quarter. Looking forward, given the combination of our large and experienced investment teams, long-duration capital with flexible investment mandates, a stable asset-light business model and one of the highest ratios of dry powder to AUM in the industry, we believe we are well prepared to navigate the current economic and market uncertainty.

我們的歐洲風格基金累積淨業績收入不斷成長，本季我們的許多主要產品均表現強勁。展望未來，鑑於我們擁有龐大且經驗豐富的投資團隊、長期資本和靈活的投資授權、穩定的輕資產業務模式以及業內最高的干火藥與資產管理規模比率之一，我們相信我們已做好充分準備應對當前的經濟和市場不確定性。

Let me walk through a high-level summary of our quarterly results. Management fees were a record $818 million, representing an 18% year-over-year increase. Other fees nearly doubled year-over-year as development fees from several GCP funds were additive in the quarter. GCP enhances our vertically integrated capabilities in real estate, which enables us to generate additional leasing, development and property management fees. All these fees are recorded in our other fee revenue line, which we expect will be more significant, while also a little more lumpy over time.

讓我來簡要概述一下我們的季度業績。管理費用達到創紀錄的 8.18 億美元，年增 18%。由於本季來自幾隻 GCP 基金的開發費用增加，其他費用比去年同期幾乎翻了一番。GCP 增強了我們在房地產領域的垂直整合能力，使我們能夠產生額外的租賃、開發和物業管理費用。所有這些費用都記錄在我們的其他費用收入項目中，我們預計這些費用將會更加可觀，但隨著時間的推移也會變得更加不穩定。

First quarter fee-related performance revenues totaled $28 million, a significant increase from the $4 million in Q1 '24. APMS as contributed to the FRPR in Q1, and we also benefited from a European direct lending SMA that crystallized the deferred payment. We continue to expect the majority of our credit group FRPR for the year will be realized in the fourth quarter. In real estate, we are seeing improved performance from both of our nontraded REITs as they're getting closer to their respective high water mark performance levels, but we're still not expecting to realize any FRPR this year.

第一季費用相關績效收入總計 2,800 萬美元，較 24 年第一季的 400 萬美元大幅成長。APMS 為第一季的 FRPR 做出了貢獻，我們也受惠於歐洲直接貸款 SMA，這使得延期付款得以實現。我們繼續預計，今年信貸集團 FRPR 的大部分將在第四季度實現。在房地產領域，我們看到兩個非交易房地產投資信託基金的業績都有所改善，它們越來越接近各自的高水位業績水平，但我們仍然預計今年不會實現任何 FRPR。

Fee-related earnings of $367 million for the quarter increased 22% year-over-year. FRE margins totaled 41.5% in the first quarter and as expected, the integration of GCP was a modest drag on the margin. Currently, GCP's FRE margins are modestly below our margins, but we believe this is temporary for two reasons. First, over the next 12 to 24 months, we expect to realize a significant amount of synergies from the business. And second, as we raise new funds, we expect to see improved operating margins, particularly in the data center business, which is currently operating at a loss.

本季費用相關收益為 3.67 億美元，年增 22%。第一季 FRE 利潤率總計 41.5%，正如預期的那樣，GCP 的整合對利潤率產生了輕微的拖累。目前，GCP 的 FRE 利潤率略低於我們的利潤率，但我們認為這只是暫時的，原因有二。首先，在未來 12 到 24 個月內，我們預計將實現業務的顯著綜效。其次，隨著我們籌集新的資金，我們預期營業利潤率將會提高，特別是目前處於虧損狀態的資料中心業務。

Our net realized performance income for the quarter totaled over $40 million and was driven primarily by a European waterfall tax distributions from several funds, which were recognized in the first quarter. We anticipate that more than 80% of the European waterfall payments for the year will come in the fourth quarter.

本季我們的淨實現業績收入總計超過 4,000 萬美元，主要得益於第一季確認的來自幾隻基金的歐洲瀑布稅收分配。我們預計，今年歐洲瀑布付款的 80% 以上將在第四季到帳。

At this point, we do not see any reason to change our 2025 target range of $225 million to $275 million for our net realized performance income from our European style funds. There is a possibility that a prolonged pause in the credit markets could extend the duration of our assets and delay the timing of payments.

目前，我們認為沒有理由改變我們歐洲風格基金 2025 年淨實現業績收入的目標範圍（2.25 億美元至 2.75 億美元）。信貸市場的長期停頓可能會延長我們的資產期限並延遲付款時間。

However, with over 75% of our European style AUM and credit-like funds, where the underlying assets are mainly loans, the interest income from these loans continues to compound. Therefore, while it is possible that the timing of certain repayments could be delayed, the ultimate amount of the performance income could potentially increase due to additional coupon payments, assuming all else equal.

然而，我們超過 75% 的歐式 AUM 和信貸類基金，其基礎資產主要為貸款，這些貸款的利息收入持續複合成長。因此，雖然某些還款時間可能會被推遲，但在其他條件相同的情況下，業績收入的最終金額可能會因額外的票面支付而增加。

Based on the dollar amount of funds in carry that are nearing the end of their fund lives, we expect materially higher European-style waterfall net realized performance income in 2026 as well. Given these dynamics, we continue to believe that European style performance income offers greater visibility and consistency versus American style performance income that relies primarily on the sale of the assets at a gain. Our net accrued performance income on an unconsolidated basis rose modestly to just over $1 billion at quarter end, of which over $850 million is in European style funds.

根據即將結束基金壽命的持有基金的美元金額，我們預計 2026 年歐式瀑布淨實現業績收入也將大幅增加。鑑於這些動態，我們仍然認為，與主要依靠資產出售獲利的美式業績收入相比，歐式業績收入具有更高的可見度和一致性。截至本季末，我們的非合併淨應計業績收入小幅上漲至 10 億美元多一點，其中 8.5 億美元以上為歐式基金。

Overall, realized income totaled $406 million for the quarter, a 40% year-over-year increase. During the quarter, our effective tax rate on realized income was 8.1%. We now expect the lower range of 8% to 12% for the remainder of the year due to additional tax benefits related to the GCP transaction and the equity vesting that occurred at the end of January.

總體而言，本季實現營收總計 4.06 億美元，年增 40%。本季度，我們實現收入的有效稅率為 8.1%。由於與 GCP 交易相關的額外稅收優惠以及 1 月底發生的股權歸屬，我們現在預計今年剩餘時間的利率將在 8% 至 12% 的較低範圍內。

As you can see in the earnings presentation, our portfolios are performing very well. Each of our credit strategy composites generated positive returns in the quarter, including a gross return of 2.4% for European direct lending 2.9% for alternative credit, which is our asset-based finance strategy, 3.2% for US senior direct lending and 4.4% for our APAC credit strategy.

正如您在收益報告中看到的，我們的投資組合表現非常好。我們的每項信貸策略組合在本季度均產生了正回報，其中歐洲直接貸款的總回報率為 2.4%，另類信貸（即我們的資產融資策略）的總回報率為 2.9%，美國高級直接貸款的總回報率為 3.2%，亞太信貸策略的總回報率為 4.4%。

Over the last 12 months, five out of six of these strategies generated double-digit returns. Credit quality underlying our US and European direct lending portfolios remains strong and stable. In our US direct lending portfolio, our companies generated year-over-year EBITDA growth of over 11%. LTVs remained low at an average of 42% and interest coverage is now at 2 times. ARCC reported a decline in its nonaccruals to 1.5%, which remains well below our long-term average of 2.8% since the GFC.

在過去的 12 個月中，六種策略中有五種產生了兩位數的回報。我們在美國和歐洲直接貸款組合中的信用品質依然強勁而穩定。在我們的美國直接貸款組合中，我們公司的 EBITDA 年成長超過 11%。LTV 仍維持在平均 42% 的低位，利息覆蓋率目前為 2 倍。ARCC 報告稱其不計提比率下降至 1.5%，但仍遠低於全球金融危機以來 2.8% 的長期平均值。

In real estate, we continue to see improvements in property values. Our diversified nontraded REIT and our industrial nontraded REIT, both generated net returns of 2.4% in the first quarter. I also wanted to highlight the since-inception return of GLP J-REIT, our newly acquired Japanese REIT that trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which has generated a net annual return of 13.6% over the past 12 years since its inception in 2012. We're impressed with the long-term performance of the entire investment team in Japan and are very excited to welcome the GLP Japanese franchise, along with the rest of the global GCPT.

在房地產領域，我們繼續看到房地產價值的提高。我們的多元化非交易房地產投資信託基金和工業非交易房地產投資信託基金在第一季均實現了 2.4% 的淨回報。我還想強調我們新收購的日本房地產投資信託基金 GLP J-REIT 自成立以來的回報，該基金在東京證券交易所交易，自 2012 年成立以來的 12 年裡，其年淨回報率為 13.6%。我們對日本整個投資團隊的長期表現印象深刻，並非常高興地歡迎 GLP 日本特許經營權以及全球其他 GCPT 的加盟。

I'll now turn the call back over to Mike for his concluding remarks.

現在我將把電話轉回給麥克，請他作總結發言。

Thanks, Jarrod. We believe a significant advantage for Ares is that we operate very broad and diversified investment strategies with wide-ranging mandates across large global investable markets. Our global investment teams operate with flexible capital solutions, which enables us to invest in attractive relative value investments and to pivot between public and private and primary and secondary markets depending on where we see the most attractive risk return profiles.

謝謝，賈羅德。我們認為 Ares 的一個顯著優勢是，我們在全球大型可投資市場中擁有廣泛的授權，並採用非常廣泛且多樣化的投資策略。我們的全球投資團隊採用靈活的資本解決方案，使我們能夠投資於有吸引力的相對價值投資，並根據我們看到的最具吸引力的風險回報狀況在公共和私人市場、一級和二級市場之間轉換。

Our ability to provide certainty of execution in volatile markets is highly valued by our clients. And we're already seeing enhanced opportunities across corporate credit, asset-backed finance, real estate, private equity, infrastructure and secondaries as borrowers and equity partners see our consistent capital as a welcome partner, particularly when the public markets become less reliable.

我們能夠在動盪的市場中提供確定性的執行能力，受到客戶的高度重視。而且，我們已經看到企業信貸、資產支持融資、房地產、私募股權、基礎設施和二級市場等領域的機會增多，因為借款人和股權合作夥伴將我們持續的資本視為受歡迎的合作夥伴，尤其是在公開市場變得不那麼可靠的時候。

This also puts us in a position to generate consistent deployment and to support the long-term growth of our business throughout market cycles. So despite the economic uncertainty, we remain optimistic about 2025 and beyond. In the past, our business has proven to be very resilient in more challenging markets, and we have no reason to believe that this time will be any different.

這也使我們能夠在整個市場週期中實現一致的部署並支援我們業務的長期成長。因此，儘管存在經濟不確定性，我們仍然對 2025 年及以後保持樂觀。過去，事實證明我們的業務在更具挑戰性的市場中具有很強的韌性，我們沒有理由相信這次會有所不同。

Our business is even stronger and more diversified. Our portfolios are positioned defensively, and we have a record amount of available capital to continue to drive growth in our AUM and earnings metrics. As always, I'm just so proud and grateful for the hard work and dedication of our employees around the globe, and I'm also deeply appreciative of our investors' continuing support for our company.

我們的業務更加強大、更加多元。我們的投資組合具有防禦性，我們擁有創紀錄的可用資本，可以繼續推動我們的 AUM 和獲利指標的成長。一如既往，我為我們全球員工的辛勤工作和奉獻精神感到非常自豪和感激，我也非常感謝我們的投資者對我們公司的持續支持。

And now, operator, could you please open the line for questions?

接線員，現在您可以打開熱線來回答問題嗎？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Craig Siegenthaler, Bank of America.

克雷格·西根塔勒，美國銀行。

Hey, good morning, Mike. Hope you and the team are doing well. We have a question on private credit, credit quality. So defaults, nonaccruals realized losses. And I heard Jarrod's prepared remarks on ARCC. But my question is, what do you expect for the remainder of 2025, just given we might have a few quarters of negative GDP growth.

嘿，早上好，麥克。希望您和團隊一切順利。我們對私人信貸、信貸品質有疑問。因此違約，不提列的損失就實現了。我還聽到了賈羅德關於 ARCC 的準備好的演講。但我的問題是，考慮到我們可能有幾季的 GDP 出現負成長，您對 2025 年剩餘時間的預期是什麼。

Sure. Thanks, Craig. We're doing well, hope the same for you guys. Let me reiterate some of the stats that Jarrod put out there in the prepared remarks and give a couple more to think about, and then I can give you a general forward-looking view and some context about what we've seen in past markets to just give people comfort on the trajectory forward here.

當然。謝謝，克雷格。我們做得很好，希望你們也一樣。讓我重申一下賈羅德在準備好的發言中提出的一些統計數據，並提供一些可供思考的數據，然後我可以為您提供一個總體前瞻性的觀點和一些關於我們在過去市場中看到的背景信息，讓人們對未來的發展軌跡感到安心。

Number one, if you look at where the portfolios in the global credit business are positioned about 96% of our exposure in our global credit business is senior loans. If you look at where they are positioned in the leverage standpoint in the US private credit book, we're sitting in about a loan to value of 42% in the European direct lending business, we're about 48% which means we just have significant amount of equity subordination and support from our institutional equity partners, which I'm going to come back to.

首先，如果你看一下全球信貸業務的投資組合情況，我們全球信貸業務中約 96% 的風險敞口都是優先貸款。如果你看看他們在美國私人信貸帳簿中的槓桿率，我們在歐洲直接貸款業務中的貸款價值比約為 42%，約為 48%，這意味著我們擁有大量的股權從屬地位，並得到了機構股權合作夥伴的支持，我稍後會再次談到這一點。

The nonaccruals at 1.5% that's at cost I think people also need to appreciate if you were to look at the fair value using ARCC is approximately below 1% that 90 basis points at fair value. So we are sitting at close to half of the historical average since the GFC on a cost basis. And so even to the extent that we see continued earnings regression, I just don't think that there's a setup here where we're going to see a spike in nonaccruals and defaults.

我認為，如果使用 ARCC 來查看公允價值，人們還需要認識到成本為 1.5% 的非應計費用大約低於 1%，即公允價值的 90 個基點。因此，從成本角度來看，我們現在的成本水準接近全球金融危機以來歷史平均值的一半。因此，即使我們看到獲利持續下降，我也不認為會出現不提列和違約激增的情況。

One thing that we have the benefit of, given the size of our platform and the fact that we're the agent on most of these loans is typically when you are dealing with companies that are either leading into distress or worried about the future, we start to see irregular borrowings under revolving credit facilities.

考慮到我們平台的規模以及我們是大多數此類貸款的代理這一事實，我們擁有的一個優勢是，通常當您與陷入困境或擔心未來的公司打交道時，我們開始看到循環信貸安排下的不規則借款。

We saw that spike, for example, in March and April of 2020. We are not seeing any irregular behavior within the portfolio in terms of CEOs and CFOs drawing on their lines, which I think is a real-time data point in terms of how people are feeling within the portfolio.

例如，我們在 2020 年 3 月和 4 月看到了這種激增。就執行長和財務長繪製投資線而言，我們沒有看到投資組合中出現任何不規則行為，我認為這是人們對投資組合的感受的即時數據點。

And I want to come back to the loan to value because I think this is probably the most misunderstood piece of identifying risk and opportunity within the private credit market. If you were to look at that 42% to 48% LTV, what that basically says is you have private equity firms, institutional real estate equity owners, institutional infrastructure owners that have put cash dollars below our loan.

我想回到貸款價值比的話題，因為我認為這可能是私人信貸市場中識別風險和機會最容易被誤解的部分。如果你看一下 42% 到 48% 的 LTV，這基本上說明你有私募股權公司、機構房地產股權所有者、機構基礎設施所有者將現金投入到我們的貸款中。

So if we begin to talk about widespread losses in the private credit market, it follows significant losses within the private and likely public equity markets. And so to isolate private credit, I think, is a little bit of a mistake and maybe a misunderstanding of how these businesses work.

因此，如果我們開始談論私人信貸市場的普遍損失，那麼私人和可能的公共股票市場也會出現重大損失。因此，我認為，孤立私人信貸有點錯誤，也許是對這些企業運作方式的誤解。

What's unique about the market set up today, unlike past cycles, like if you look at the GFC, for example, that LTV was probably 60% to 70%. So there was less incentive for the private equity community to support the portfolio companies. If you look at the private equity business today, there's about $3 trillion plus of invested equity in the market versus about $1 trillion plus of dry powder able to be invested in prior cycles, that ratio is more 1:1.

當今市場的獨特之處在於，與過去的周期不同，例如，如果你看看全球金融危機 (GFC)，那時的 LTV 大概是 60% 到 70%。因此，私募股權界支持投資組合公司的動力較小。如果你看看今天的私募股權業務，你會發現市場上的投資股權大約有 3 兆美元以上，而前幾個週期中可投資的資金大約有 1 兆美元以上，這一比例接近 1:1。

So again, in prior cycles at a higher LTV, there was more incentive for the private equity firms in the institutional equity not to support their existing exposures. We have kind of the exact opposite now. And so the behavior that we saw through COVID with a very similar setup and the behavior we're seeing now, is that we would expect that the equity owners just given the amount of cash invested below us, we'll do everything they can to protect the portfolio and any pocket of distress. So again, there is uncertainty going forward. We may see a quarter or two of negative growth, but I don't think that, that's going to roll through the nonaccrual and default numbers.

因此，在先前的周期中，當 LTV 較高時，機構股權中的私募股權公司有更多的動機不支持其現有的風險敞口。我們現在的情況恰恰相反。因此，我們在 COVID 期間看到的行為與我們現在看到的行為非常相似，那就是我們預計，只要股東在我們之下投資了一定數量的現金，我們就會盡一切努力保護投資組合和任何困境。因此，未來仍存在不確定性。我們可能會看到一兩個季度的負增長，但我不認為這會波及不提和違約數字。

Thank you, Mike.

謝謝你，麥克。

Sure thanks.

當然謝謝。

Bill Katz, TD Cowen.

比爾·卡茨（Bill Katz），TD Cowen。

Great, thank you very much for taking the questions this morning. So maybe coming back to wealth management, where it seems like you have a tremendous amount of momentum. I was wondering if you could just maybe talk a little bit about where you see the incremental growth either from a product perspective or I think you mentioned more distribution partners coming along. And then to the extent you're willing to provide it, how did the hold up through the turbulence of April post Liberation Day. Thank you.

太好了，非常感謝您今天早上回答這些問題。因此，也許回到財富管理，看起來你擁有巨大的動力。我想知道您是否可以從產品角度稍微談談您看到的增量增長，或者我認為您提到了更多的分銷合作夥伴的加入。然後，就您願意提供的程度而言，您如何度過解放日後的四月動盪時期。謝謝。

Sure. Wealth continues to be a real bright spot for the company as we talked about record capital gathering in the first quarter, $5 billion of AUM. And we are seeing a broadening out of the distribution in terms of our distribution partners and geographies. As we've talked about on past calls, we were early in expanding our franchise outside of the US and continue to see 30%-plus of demand coming from our European and Asia business, which we think is a real bright spot and differentiator.

當然。正如我們談到第一季創紀錄的資本籌集，即 50 億美元的資產管理規模，財富繼續成為公司的真正亮點。就我們的分銷合作夥伴和地理而言，我們的分銷範圍正在不斷擴大。正如我們在過去的電話會議上所討論的那樣，我們很早就開始在美國以外擴展我們的特許經營權，並且繼續看到 30% 以上的需求來自我們的歐洲和亞洲業務，我們認為這是一個真正的亮點和差異化因素。

As we talked about in the prepared remarks, we are adding or have added two new products to the product set, one being what we believe to be a really interesting tax-advantaged infrastructure fund in a BDC form, and that has some early momentum, and we have begun to take subscriptions for what we think is a very highly differentiated offering in the sports media and entertainment world.

正如我們在準備好的發言中談到的，我們正在或已經向產品系列中添加了兩種新產品，一種是我們認為非常有趣的 BDC 形式的稅收優惠基礎設施基金，並且具有一些早期發展勢頭，我們已經開始接受認購，我們認為這是體育媒體和娛樂領域非常差異化的產品。

So we will be broadening out the product set and broadening out the geography. It's still early to tell, Bill, but I think we're encouraged by what we saw through the turbulence in April. And I'll give you a couple of things to just think about it to contextualize how we're feeling. April inflows of equity were about $1.2 billion, which were squarely in line with the recent pace of flows. So we did not see any meaningful change in behavior in April.

因此，我們將擴大產品範圍並擴大地理範圍。比爾，現在下結論還為時過早，但我認為，四月份動盪時期的所見所聞令我們感到鼓舞。我會給你一些事情讓你思考一下，以便了解我們的感受。4月股票流入量約12億美元，與近期的流入速度完全一致。因此，我們在四月沒有看到任何有意義的行為變化。

When we look at redemptions, again, a lot of these funds, I think, as you know, have monthly or quarterly redemptions. So the redemption picture can be a little bit lumpier. But one of our larger funds, which is CADC, our diversified credit interval fund did go through a redemption period and that was on April 10. And we actually did not see any increase in redemptions in that fund in the middle of April relative to what we've seen in prior redemption period. So the early returns are that the wealth investor is holding steady and the demand for the product is still there.

當我們再次查看贖回情況時，我認為，正如您所知，許多此類基金都是按月或按季度贖回的。因此，救贖的前景可能會稍微不平坦一些。但是我們的一個較大的基金，即 CADC，我們的多元化信貸間隔基金確實經歷了贖回期，那是在 4 月 10 日。實際上，與先前的贖回期相比，我們在 4 月中旬並沒有看到該基金的贖回量有任何增加。因此，早期的回報是財富投資者保持穩定並且對產品的需求仍然存在。

As we talked about in the prepared remarks, I do think that the lack of volatility that some of these portfolios offer into the market may actually prove to be a meaningful bright spot in this market and could lead to an increase in flows over time as people really begin to appreciate what these private market portfolios can do for their overall asset allocation. But so far, so good.

正如我們在準備好的評論中所討論的那樣，我確實認為，其中一些投資組合為市場帶來的波動性缺乏實際上可能被證明是這個市場的一個有意義的亮點，並且隨著人們真正開始意識到這些私人市場投資組合對他們的整體資產配置的作用，隨著時間的推移，可能導致資金流動增加。但到目前為止，一切都很好。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Steven Chubak, Wolfe Research.

史蒂文‧丘巴克，沃爾夫研究中心。

Hi, good morning, Mike, and good morning, Jarrod. Hope you're both well. So wanted to ask on the FRE margin outlook. Just given recent market dislocation, the drag you cited from GCP, which is burdened by their lower margin whether you still believe that 0 bps to 150 bps of margin expansion is achievable in the coming year. I was hoping you could just speak to some of the moving pieces, just underpinning your FRE margin outlook.

嗨，早上好，麥克，早上好，賈羅德。希望你們都一切安好。所以想問一下 FRE 保證金的前景。鑑於最近的市場混亂，您提到的 GCP 的拖累，其利潤率較低，您是否仍然相信明年可以實現 0 基點至 150 基點的利潤率擴張。我希望您能談談一些動態因素，以支持您的 FRE 利潤前景。

Sure. Thanks. Good morning, Stephen. Great to hear from you. We do think that the 0 basis points to 150 basis points is still current and strong in this environment. The moving parts that you saw this quarter were really the addition of GCP and two extra months of Wall Street, Mexico, which we acquired at the end of last year.

當然。謝謝。早安，史蒂芬。很高興收到你的來信。我們確實認為，在這種環境下，0 基點至 150 基點的利率水準仍然適用且強勁。您在本季看到的變動部分實際上是 GCP 的加入以及我們在去年年底收購的華爾街墨西哥的額外兩個月。

If you remove for those factors, our G&A expenses were actually slightly down, and our comp expenses were essentially flat for the quarter. So just looking at core, you were actually seeing an expansion in our FRE margin. Once you step away from that and we have those additions, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, GCP is a little bit of a drag on our margins.

如果排除這些因素，我們的一般及行政費用實際上略有下降，而本季度我們的公司費用基本持平。因此，僅從核心來看，您實際上會看到我們的 FRE 利潤率擴大。一旦你擺脫了這一點，我們有了這些補充，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，GCP 會對我們的利潤率造成一點拖累。

However, as we have further integration and we have more synergies on the expense side. I do expect that we'll be able to offset that drag in the long term. So it's something where I'm pretty excited by the progress that we showed here in the first quarter. I expect us to continue to show that progress, but still be within that 0 basis points to 150 basis points range.

然而，隨著我們進一步整合，我們在費用方面有了更多的綜效。我確實希望我們能夠長期抵消這種拖累。因此，我對我們在第一季取得的進展感到非常興奮。我預計我們將繼續取得進展，但仍在 0 個基點到 150 個基點的範圍內。

And I'll remind you, like I always do that when we see opportunities to invest in our team, in our platform that will ultimately lead to other originations. We won't just go for FRE margin, we'll always look at how we can grow the firm first and then FRE margins with deployment and growth are a natural expansion point after that.

我要提醒你們，當我們看到投資我們的團隊、我們的平台的機會並最終帶來其他的起源時，我總是會這樣做。我們不會只追求 FRE 利潤率，我們總是會先考慮如何發展公司，然後隨著部署和成長，FRE 利潤率會成為自然的擴展點。

That's right.

這是正確的。

Alex Blostein, Goldman Sachs.

高盛的亞歷克斯‧布洛斯坦 (Alex Blostein)。

Hey, good morning, everybody. Thanks for the question as well. I was hoping we can build a little bit on your commentary around the forward pipeline when it comes to M&A. Obviously, still lots of uncertainty in the marketplace despite the fact that market conditions have gotten a little bit easier. But can you maybe talk a little bit about if the M&A backdrop remains subdued for the next several quarters, what are the more likely areas of deployment where the firm could stay active? And how much dry powder do you guys have in those pockets within your credit franchise?

嘿，大家早安。也感謝您的提問。我希望我們可以就您對併購方面的前瞻性管道的評論進行一些探討。顯然，儘管市場條件已經有所改善，但市場上仍存在許多不確定性。但是，您能否談談，如果未來幾季的併購背景仍然低迷，公司更有可能在哪些領域保持活躍？那麼，你們的信貸特許經營權中到底有多少資金呢？

Sure. Look, I think over time, we have demonstrated that by continued diversification in the capability set and what I would think is rigorous kind of capital management of dry powder relative to the investable market that we've demonstrated our ability to invest in any market environment. And we've done that pretty consistently in the past. As an example, if you look at 2022, just to take a trip down memory lane, M&A activity was down 25%, and we grew our FP AUM 23%.

當然。你看，我認為隨著時間的推移，我們已經證明，透過持續多樣化能力組合，以及我認為相對於可投資市場嚴格的干火藥資本管理，我們已經證明了我們在任何市場環境中進行投資的能力。我們過去一直都是這麼做的。舉個例子，回顧 2022 年，併購活動下降了 25%，而我們的 FP AUM 成長了 23%。

Subsequently in 2023, M&A activity was down 24%. We grew our FP AUM 14%. And if you look at the current deployment numbers, we grew our deployment roughly 60% period-over-period in an environment where M&A volumes were down both volume and value in the 15% range.

隨後在 2023 年，併購活動下降了 24%。我們的 FP AUM 成長了 14%。如果你看一下目前的部署數字，你會發現在併購量和價值均下降 15% 左右的環境下，我們的部署量比去年同期增加了約 60%。

So we're already now consistently demonstrating the ability to invest across the platform when M&A is slow. And importantly, I think that people should understand, when M&A picks up, if we see volume in those primary lending strategies that generally benefit. We tend to have to defend the in-place portfolio from more aggressive refinancings. And so as we demonstrated this quarter, we saw a meaningful uptick in the gross to net because the net deployment tends to be much stronger when M&A is slow.

因此，當併購進展緩慢時，我們已經不斷展現出跨平台投資的能力。重要的是，我認為人們應該明白，當併購活動回升時，我們是否會看到那些普遍受益的主要貸款策略的交易量。我們往往必須保護現有投資組合免受更積極的再融資的影響。正如我們本季所展示的，我們看到總額與淨額出現了顯著的上升，因為當併購速度緩慢時，淨部署往往會更加強勁。

So not surprisingly, the places where we begin to see volumes pick up when M&A is slow are things like opportunistic credit which is our [ASF] franchise. And as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we are having a significant amount of momentum in the current vintage fund raise, having just had a first close in excess of $4.5 billion and that is perfectly well positioned for this type of market opportunity. Secondaries across the board, both GP and LP led are significant beneficiaries of a slowdown in primary market activity.

因此，毫不奇怪，當併購速度緩慢時，我們開始看到交易量回升的地方就是機會信貸，這是我們的 [ASF] 特許經營權。正如我們在準備好的演講中提到的那樣，我們在當前的老式基金籌集中擁有巨大的發展勢頭，首次募集資金剛剛超過 45 億美元，這對於這種類型的市場機會來說是一個完美的定位。總體而言，由 GP 和 LP 主導的二級市場都是一級市場活動放緩的顯著受益者。

And again, not surprisingly, you saw an uptick in deployment there. Other places where we have significant opportunistic capacity is within our alternative credit and asset-backed and asset-based strategies where we can be a partner to other asset managers, banks as they deal with general liquidity.

毫不奇怪，你再次看到那裡的部署增加。我們擁有巨大機會能力的其他地方是我們的替代信貸和資產支持和資產為基礎的策略，在這些策略中，我們可以成為其他資產管理公司和銀行的合作夥伴，幫助他們處理一般流動性。

I think it's also important that people appreciate that even in some of what the market perceives to be our primary market strategies like ARCC or US direct lending, they do have the capacity to pivot to the more opportunistic parts of the investment spectrum when the markets get choppy. And so you begin to see some of those regular way performing credit strategies turn on as a good capital partner for some of the other opportunistic strategies across the Board.

我認為，同樣重要的是，人們要認識到，即使在市場認為是我們的主要市場策略（如 ARCC 或美國直接貸款）中，當市場波動時，他們確實有能力轉向投資領域中更具機會的部分。因此，您開始看到一些常規的信貸策略成為董事會中其他一些機會主義策略的良好資本合作夥伴。

So I don't want to say every strategy has capacity to invest opportunistically into this market, but it's pretty close to every strategy, gets to take advantage of the market volatility when some of the other traditional forms of capital are exiting the market. So as you know, record dry powder today about $143 billion. The bulk of that is, in my opinion, available for more opportunistic type investing in this market.

因此，我不想說每種策略都有能力投機性地投資這個市場，但幾乎每種策略都能利用市場波動，當其他一些傳統形式的資本退出市場時。如你所知，今天的乾火藥記錄約為 1430 億美元。在我看來，其中的大部分可用於在這個市場上進行更多機會型投資。

Great, very helpful. Thanks, Mike.

非常好，很有幫助。謝謝，麥克。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Kyle Voigt, KBW.

凱爾·沃伊特（Kyle Voigt），KBW。

Hi, good morning. Maybe just a question or a follow-up on GCP. I think the fee-paying AUM that came over was about $30.5 billion. I think at the time of the deal announcement is $32 billion, just assuming that's primarily on FX, but wondering if you could update us on the trajectory of fee-paying AUM growth at GCP in 2025. And then also just wondering if you could comment on the $245 million of 2026 FRE, which I think was synergized. Is that still the right number for a 2026 FRE run rate when considering the current FX rates and then the state of the macro environment we're in.

嗨，早安。也許只是一個問題或有關 GCP 的後續問題。我認為收費管理的資產管理規模約為 305 億美元。我認為在交易宣佈時該金額為 320 億美元，只是假設這主要用於外匯，但想知道您是否可以向我們介紹一下 2025 年 GCP 付費 AUM 增長的軌跡。然後我還想知道您是否可以評論一下 2026 年 2.45 億美元的 FRE，我認為這是具有協同效應的。考慮到目前的外匯匯率以及我們所處的宏觀環境狀況，這仍然是 2026 年 FRE 運行率的正確數字嗎？

Sure. So I'll kind of hit those in order. I think you got it exactly right on the FP AUM was really more FX driven than anything. Ultimately, in taking a look at what's in the market for GCP, I would expect that you'll see somewhere in the neighborhood of about $7 billion of fundraising to happen over the next let's say, maybe two, three quarters, that will ultimately all flow through to FP AUM.

當然。所以我會按順序進行這些。我認為您說得完全正確，FP AUM 實際上更多是由外匯驅動的。最終，在觀察 GCP 市場狀況時，我預計你會看到在接下來的兩個或三個季度內，大約會有 70 億美元的融資，這些資金最終都會流入 FP AUM。

Most of their funds are paying on some version of committed capital with step-ups on invested or the ability to earn fees on things like leasing, property management or development. So we would see that pretty immediately upon fundraise go into our FP AUM.

他們的大部分資金都以某種形式支付承諾資本，並增加投資金額或透過租賃、物業管理或開發等方式賺取費用。因此，我們會看到，籌集到的資金會立即進入我們的 FP AUM。

The numbers that we laid out previously are still very much in line with what we saw for the one month right now. There are some expenses that we have as we integrate that will fall off and certainly improved performance, and we've talked about that on prior calls that, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million as part of that. And then there's obviously the run rate of having a full 12 months under your belt.

我們之前列出的數字與我們目前一個月看到的數字仍然非常一致。隨著我們整合，我們的一些開支將會減少，這肯定會提高業績，我們在之前的電話會議上已經討論過這一點，其中大約有 2000 萬美元。然後顯然還有整整 12 個月的營運率。

So overall, we've been very pleased with our first month. We've seen great momentum in the data centers, as Mike talked about in his prepared remarks. And I don't think that the macro climate has really changed our view on the need for the product set that they have whether it's in logistics or data centers, and we continue to be really excited about the acquisition as we get to know the team better and we spend more time together.

總的來說，我們對第一個月的表現非常滿意。正如麥克在準備好的發言中談到的那樣，我們已經看到資料中心的巨大發展勢頭。而且我認為宏觀環境並沒有真正改變我們對他們產品組合需求的看法，無論是在物流還是資料中心，隨著我們對團隊的了解越來越多，我們在一起度過了更多的時間，我們仍然對此次收購感到非常興奮。

Yeah. I would add maybe -- and it's still too early to tell, we're really pleased with the early returns on the fundraising momentum in the product set. In the world that we're living in today, there is a modest shift of investor interest and appetite away from the US markets. And so I could envision that if we continue to be in that type of environment that the opportunity to offer non-US product in Japan and in our European distribution business could actually catch a stronger bid here and be a net beneficiary of that.

是的。我想補充一點——現在說還為時過早，我們對產品集的籌款勢頭的早期回報感到非常滿意。在我們今天生活的世界裡，投資者的興趣和胃口正在從美國市場轉移。因此我可以想像，如果我們繼續處於這種環境中，那麼在日本和我們的歐洲分銷業務中提供非美國產品的機會實際上可以獲得更強勁的出價，並成為其中的淨受益者。

Ken Worthington, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的肯‧沃辛頓。

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. We've seen a number of articles mentioned that Europe is looking to be increasingly attractive as an investment market with private credit being called out specifically given Ares just recently completed the largest direct lending fund, I think ever, what are you guys seeing in terms of the pipeline and the opportunity set in Europe? And how does that compare to what you're seeing in the US?

嗨，早安。感謝您回答這個問題。我們已經看到許多文章提到，歐洲作為一個投資市場變得越來越有吸引力，私人信貸尤其受到關注，因為 Ares 最近剛完成了有史以來最大的直接貸款基金，你們對歐洲的通路和機會有何看法？這與您在美國看到的情況相比如何？

Sure. Thanks for the question, Ken. It is interesting. There has been some similar to the comment I just made about Japan and European distribution. I do think that we came into the year with modest investor concern about some of the long-term structural growth challenges in Europe and fast forward four or five months.

當然。謝謝你的提問，肯。這很有趣。關於日本和歐洲的分銷，已經出現了一些與我剛才所作的評論類似的評論。我確實認為，進入今年以來，投資者對歐洲的一些長期結構性成長挑戰感到有些擔憂，而快進四到五個月後，情況就改變了。

And I think that investor appetite for European product is probably marginally increased. The liquidity challenges that I articulated earlier just about the mismatch of capital invested versus capital available is true in Europe as well. And so the pipelines in Europe in terms of the complexion of direct lending versus opportunistic strategies is true in Europe as it is in the US.

我認為投資者對歐洲產品的興趣可能會略有增加。我之前提到的有關投資資本與可用資本不符的流動性挑戰在歐洲也同樣存在。因此，就直接貸款與機會主義策略的結合而言，歐洲的管道與美國一樣。

As we've talked about before, though, the European market from a competitive set is probably a little bit more fragmented. And while the US business is larger, I do believe that our competitive positioning in the European market is probably better just given our scale and the longevity of the track record and relationship network there. And so I think we will be kind of a net beneficiary and pick up share as this market continues to develop.

不過，正如我們之前談到的，從競爭角度來看，歐洲市場可能會更加分散。雖然美國業務規模較大，但我相信，考慮到我們的規模以及在歐洲的長期業績記錄和關係網絡，我們在歐洲市場的競爭地位可能會更好。因此我認為，隨著這個市場的不斷發展，我們將成為淨受益者並獲得更大的份額。

If you look at the European direct lending business as kind of a proxy first quarter '25 versus first quarter of '21. We saw an increase of about 5% period-over-period. And if you looked at the LTM numbers, Q1 to Q1, it was up about 20%. So we are seeing a modest acceleration in deployment in Europe. And again, I think we feel like that trend is well in hand, and then we'll continue to see good deployment out of that market.

如果您將歐洲直接貸款業務視為 25 年第一季與 21 年第一季的代理商。我們發現年增幅約為 5%。如果你看一下 LTM 數字，從第一季到第一季度，它上漲了約 20%。因此，我們看到歐洲的部署正在適度加速。而且，我認為我們感覺這種趨勢已經得到很好的控制，然後我們將繼續看到該市場的良好部署。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

Mike Brown, Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的麥克布朗。

Great, thanks for taking my question. Mike, you touched on the opportunity in the secondaries market clearly a hotspot in private markets. So for the industry in Ares, can you just maybe expand on the potential in '25 versus '24? And what are your thoughts on some of the large plant exits from a few of the endowments out there that kind of a unique one-off? Or do you think that's a strong read across to some of the other LP cohorts? Thank you.

太好了，感謝您回答我的問題。麥克，你談到了二級市場的機會，這顯然是私人市場的熱點。那麼對於 Ares 的產業來說，您能否擴大 25 年與 24 年相比的潛力？您對一些大型工廠從一些捐贈基金中退出，這種獨特的性行為有何看法？或者您認為這對其他一些 LP 群體來說是一個強有力的解讀？謝謝。

Sure. Look, we came into this environment, and we've been talking about this now for five-plus years on the heels of the Landmark acquisition that the secondaries business was going through a period of transformation largely driven by a shift from what was an LP-led market to a more healthy balance between LP-led and GP-led. And we've been enjoying the benefit of that shift as we've been building out the product set and growing the secondaries franchise over the last five years post acquisition.

當然。你看，我們進入了這種環境，在 Landmark 收購之後我們已經談論這個問題五年多了，二級市場業務正在經歷一個轉型期，這主要是由從 LP 主導的市場轉向 LP 主導和 GP 主導之間更健康的平衡所驅動。在收購後的五年裡，我們一直在建立產品系列並擴大二級特許經營權，因此我們一直在享受這種轉變的好處。

The second trend, which we talked a lot about, which we're now beginning to see come through in spades is just the move away from what was largely a private equity-dominated business to now represent a broader set of the alternative asset space, including real estate, infrastructure and credit. So not surprisingly, we've been building out that fund family as well, and we're seeing good fundraising and deployment across each of those asset classes.

第二個趨勢，我們討論過很多次，現在我們開始看到它大量出現，那就是從主要由私募股權主導的業務轉向更廣泛的另類資產領域，包括房地產、基礎設施和信貸。因此毫不奇怪，我們也一直在建立該基金家族，我們看到每個資產類別的融資和部署都表現良好。

The theme that I keep hitting on of more capital in the ground than available to invest is a big catalyst for secondary as it is for alternative credit and other strategies, whether you're a bank, an endowment, a GP in a market where liquidity is scarce any creative liquidity solution available to you is something that you're going to look at and you're going to be weighing these different solutions against each other in terms of accretion dilution and how much runway it gives you to invest in growth, et cetera, et cetera.

我一直在強調的一個主題是，地下資本多於可供投資的資本，這是二級市場的一大催化劑，因為它是替代信貸和其他策略的催化劑，無論您是銀行、捐贈基金還是流動性稀缺市場中的 GP，任何可用的創造性流動性解決方案都是您要考慮的，並且您將在增值稀釋和它為您提供多少投資增長的跑道等方面權衡這些不同的解決方案。

So secondaries is a big part of that. And obviously, we have one of the longest standing largest businesses in secondaries. We came into this moment, I'll get to the endowments in a second with a market that particularly on the private equity side was challenged for DPI or challenge for the return of capital to the LP. So we saw a pretty significant amount of volume last year and had an expectation that, that volume would continue into this year.

因此，次要部分是其中很重要的一部分。顯然，我們的業務是二級市場中歷史最悠久、規模最大的業務之一。我們進入了這一時刻，我馬上就會談到捐贈基金，特別是在私募股權方面，市場面臨 DPI 的挑戰，或者說是向 LP 返還資本的挑戰。因此，我們看到去年的交易量相當可觀，並且預計今年的交易量將持續成長。

The endowment thing is real. I think that most university endowments right now are grappling with a significant reduction in research funding from the government as well as certain level of anxiety around potential increases in the endowment tax. And so moving to a position where you have increased liquidity or at least understand what solutions are available to you exactly what they're supposed to be doing.

捐贈的事物是真實存在的。我認為，目前大多數大學捐贈基金都在努力應對政府大幅削減研究經費，以及對捐贈稅可能增加的某種程度的擔憂。因此，轉移到一個流動性更強的位置，或至少了解有哪些解決方案可供您使用，以及它們到底應該做什麼。

And so there's been a number of public situations that people are talking about, but I think that it's pretty broad-based within the university endowment community now to be thinking about liquidity options within the portfolio. And again, those are relationships that we have, and we think that we have a really interesting product set to be a good partner to them.

因此，人們正在談論許多公共情況，但我認為，現在大學捐贈基金界普遍都在考慮投資組合中的流動性選擇。再說一次，這些都是我們擁有的關係，我們認為我們擁有一個非常有趣的產品，可以成為他們的好夥伴。

Patrick Davitt, Autonomous Research

Patrick Davitt，Autonomous Research

Hey, good morning, everyone. Going back to direct lending, you mentioned pipelines have been steady. It seems like we're still seeing some bigger sponsor-backed deals get announced despite the volatility, and I think you guys have been on some of those. So could you also give us an idea of how the spreads have been tracking for these newer commitments? Any widening as a result of the BSL market closing? Or is there enough competition from other direct lenders to keep those spreads tight? Thank you.

嘿，大家早安。回到直接貸款問題，您提到通路一直很穩定。儘管市場波動很大，但我們似乎仍然看到一些更大的贊助商支持的交易宣布，我想你們已經參與了其中的一些交易。那麼，您能否向我們介紹一下這些新承諾的利差走勢如何？BSL 市場關閉後，市場規模是否會擴大？或者是否存在其他直接貸款機構的足夠競爭來保持利差較小？謝謝。

Yeah. It's a good question. Obviously, we talked about it in the prepared remarks, and we always talk about this even when you're in a healthier market in terms of the value that private markets bring to the market in terms of consistency of capital, reliability, flexibility and all of those things. And obviously, they become more important when you get into a difficult market.

是的。這是個好問題。顯然，我們在準備好的發言中談到了這一點，即使在更健康的市場中，我們也會談論這一點，就私人市場在資本一致性、可靠性、靈活性和所有這些方面為市場帶來的價值而言。顯然，當你進入一個困難的市場時，它們變得更加重要。

So as we've seen in other periods of dislocation when the liquid markets go risk off or become significantly more selective private credit captures a greater share of a smaller pie of new issue volume, and we're seeing that now. As we talked about in the prepared remarks, when we look aggregated across the platform, the size of the pipeline hasn't changed. We've seen a little bit of a change in the complexion of the pipeline, but the size hasn't changed, and that's very encouraging to us.

因此，正如我們在其他混亂時期所看到的那樣，當流動性市場規避風險或變得更加有選擇性時，私人信貸在較小的新發行量中佔據了更大的份額，我們現在就看到了這種情況。正如我們在準備好的演講中談到的那樣，當我們縱觀整個平台時，管道的規模並沒有改變。我們看到管道狀況發生了一些變化，但規模沒有變化，這對我們來說非常令人鼓舞。

In terms of the spreads, when we were in early April, and we were in the phase of price discovery, we were pushing pretty hard to understand where a lot of these deals would clear and we're pushing pretty hard to clear the existing pipeline, kind of 100 basis points wide on fee and 100 basis points wide on spread. And that number is frankly come in now as the markets have normalized a little bit, and I think people are beginning to get their arms around the competitive set.

就利差而言，在 4 月初，我們處於價格發現階段，我們非常努力地了解這些交易的清算情況，我們正在努力清理現有的管道，費用差距約為 100 個基點，利差差距為 100 個基點。坦白說，隨著市場逐漸正常化，這個數字現在已經出現，我認為人們開始了解競爭情況。

So if you were to look at ARCC as a proxy, we've probably seen spread widening of 50 basis points to 75 basis points from the pre-April levels, which is a healthy amount of widening relative to the return opportunity there, but not quite as high as we've seen in prior periods of dislocation as the markets have normalized a little bit.

因此，如果你將 ARCC 視為一個代理，我們可能已經看到利差從 4 月前的水平擴大了 50 個基點到 75 個基點，相對於那裡的回報機會，這是一個健康的擴大幅度，但並不像我們在之前的混亂時期看到的那麼高，因為市場已經稍微正常化了。

Benjamin Budish, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的班傑明‧布迪什 (Benjamin Budish)。

Hi, good morning and thanks for taking the question. Just thinking about some of the fundraising themes, DPI, it wasn't that long ago we were hearing about the denominator effect. Just curious where would you say currently institutional allocations to private credit are, and do you think there's some resiliency there if things were to, steer in a more negative direction.

大家好，早安，謝謝您回答這個問題。想想一些募款主題，DPI，不久前我們還聽過分母效應。我只是好奇，您認為目前機構對私人信貸的配置在哪裡，如果情況朝著更負面的方向發展，您是否認為那裡有一定的彈性。

And then I'm also curious, last year you guys started talking a little bit more about opportunities outside of the traditional alternatives bucket. It's a thing we've heard about from one of your competitors on the investment grade side, but it sounds like you guys are doing some stuff there on the high yield side as well. I'm curious how you see the opportunity in that bucket as well to approach fixing commanders rather than the alternative that's kind of unfolding.

然後我也很好奇，去年你們開始多談論傳統替代品以外的機會。這是我們從你們在投資等級領域的一位競爭對手那裡聽說的事情，但聽起來你們在高收益領域也在做一些事情。我很好奇，您如何看待這個桶子裡的機會，以及如何解決指揮官問題，而不是採取正在展開的替代方案。

Sure. I think certain media pundits and others would love to talk about the maturation of the private credit market. And increased risk there. But as we already talked about, we're not seeing increased risk, and we're not seeing any flagging investor appetite for the asset. And if you look at what we were able to do last year and into this year, there is still a very significant appetite for private credit exposure across the globe by geography and across strategies, I think we're still in the very early innings.

當然。我認為某些媒體評論員和其他人會喜歡談論私人信貸市場的成熟。並且增加了那裡的風險。但正如我們已經討論過的，我們並沒有看到風險增加，也沒有看到投資者對該資產的興趣減弱。如果你回顧我們去年和今年所取得的成就，你會發現全球各地對私人信貸敞口的需求仍然非常大，無論是從地域還是從策略來看，我認為我們仍處於非常早期的階段。

There have been some very significant public institutions that have put out targets that have a near doubling of private credit exposure. When we look at the appetite that we're seeing in wealth, I think that most of the large gatekeepers on the wealth platforms would tell you that they would expect to see private credit exposures broadly within their portfolio double. And it's pretty easy to understand why.

一些非常重要的公共機構已經制定了私人信貸敞口幾乎翻倍的目標。當我們看到人們對財富的興趣時，我認為財富平台上的大多數大型守門人都會告訴你，他們預計其投資組合中的私人信貸風險敞口將翻倍。原因很容易理解。

And if you look at our performance, our alternative credit business generated a 12.5% LTM return, our US senior direct lending business, 15% return. Our Asia Pacific credit composite 25% return, European direct lending, 12% and so on and so forth.

如果你看看我們的業績，我們的另類信貸業務產生了 12.5% 的 LTM 回報率，我們的美國高級直接貸款業務產生了 15% 的回報率。我們的亞太信貸綜合回報率為 25%，歐洲直接貸款回報率為 12%，等等。

So when you could get exposures at the top half of an asset's enterprise value and make double-digit returns without taking a significant amount of interest rate risk. That's a really good place to be. And when you look at where those assets are delivering return relative to the equity markets, I think it really stands out from a relative value standpoint. So not surprisingly, people are allocating to it. And I think if you believe what I said earlier, which is that we don't expect to see massive deterioration in credit performance relative to equity performance, I don't see any reason why that would slow down.

因此，當你能夠獲得資產企業價值上半部的風險敞口並獲得兩位數的回報，而無需承擔大量的利率風險。那真是一個好地方。當你觀察這些資產相對於股票市場的回報時，我認為從相對價值的角度來看，它確實很突出。因此人們紛紛向其投資也就不足為奇了。我認為，如果你相信我之前所說的，即我們預期信貸表現相對於股票表現不會大幅惡化，我看不出有任何理由認為這種趨勢會放緩。

With regard to the increasingly loud narrative around private investment grade, the themes are the same. Any time in institutional or individual investor can generate excess return on a ratings equivalent basis, whether that rating is investment-grade or sub-investment grade to the extent that they can, they're going to allocate to it.

對於私人投資等級債券日益激烈的討論，主題是相同的。任何時候，機構或個人投資者都可以在同等評級的基礎上獲得超額回報，無論該評級是投資級還是低於投資級，只要他們能夠做到，他們就會對其進行分配。

And I think part of this big transformational shift into the private markets as people have gotten much better at understanding what their liquidity needs are. They have a willingness to increasingly allocate to less liquid, not illiquid, but less liquid markets to capture that return. And I think they see a significant benefit in the higher spreads that they're getting as a mitigant to whatever liquidity they think they may be giving up. And I also think that most sophisticated investors have seen with each passing crisis, that liquidity is rarely there at the price that you wanted when the markets are in dislocation.

我認為，私人市場發生巨大轉變的部分原因是人們對自己的流動性需求有了更好的了解。他們願意將越來越多的資金配置到流動性較差的市場（不是缺乏流動性的市場，而是流動性較差的市場）以獲得回報。我認為，他們從更高的利差中獲得了顯著的好處，這可以緩解他們可能放棄的流動性。我還認為，大多數經驗豐富的投資者在每次危機中都看到，當市場混亂時，流動性很少能達到你想要的價格。

And so people have tended over time to overpay for liquidity only to find that it's not there at the price that they want it and so are getting more emboldened to be in the private markets and look for excess return. We are obviously very large participants in the asset-based finance market, both on the investment-grade rated side and the sub-investment-grade-rated side. We don't talk about it maybe as much as some of our peers do. But roughly 50% of our business is high grade and 50% is sub-investment grade. Obviously, there are different outcomes for investors.

因此，隨著時間的推移，人們傾向於為流動性支付過高的費用，結果卻發現流動性的價格不符合他們的要求，因此人們更大膽地進入私人市場尋求超額回報。我們顯然是資產融資市場中非常大的參與者，無論是投資等級或次級投資等級。我們談論這個問題的次數可能不如我們的一些同行那麼多。但我們的業務中大約有 50% 是高等級的，50% 是低於投資等級的。顯然，對於投資者來說，結果會有所不同。

And so we are not necessarily seeing the same investors coming to us for high-grade exposure as those that are coming to us for sub-investment grade, but we think it's important to have both. We think it enhances the value proposition to the client base, but we also think it actually enhances our origination capability in markets like this. So we'll continue to grow both of them. Alternative credit is one of our fastest-growing businesses at Ares. I would expect that to continue because of the continued kind of transition of assets out of banks and this secular shift of private markets, both high-grade and sub.

因此，我們不一定會見到相同的投資者來向我們尋求高水準投資，就像那些來向我們尋求次級投資的投資者一樣，但我們認為兩者兼而有之很重要。我們認為它不僅增強了對客戶群的價值主張，而且我們也認為它實際上增強了我們在這樣的市場中的發起能力。因此，我們將繼續發展它們。替代信貸是 Ares 發展最快的業務之一。我預計這種情況將會持續下去，因為資產正在持續從銀行轉移出去，而且私人市場（包括高級和次級市場）也長期轉變。

Okay, great. Thanks for that, Mike.

好的，太好了。謝謝你，麥克。

Brian McKenna, Citizens.

布萊恩·麥肯納，公民。

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. So a follow-up on private wealth, Mike, you noted that institutional fundraising is more consistent during periods of volatility. On the other hand, while the historical look back is shorter, private wealth flows have typically been more cyclical, and it takes time for allocations to reaccelerate after market volatility.

謝謝。大家早安。那麼關於私人財富的後續問題，麥克，你注意到在波動時期機構籌款更加穩定。另一方面，雖然歷史回顧較短，但私人財富流動通常更具週期性，市場波動後配置需要時間才能重新加速。

It does seem like retail flows to date have held up better for you. But do you think private wealth behavior and their mindset around allocating capital during periods of volatility ultimately changes over time to something more similar to institutional investors. And then if it does, is it really just a function of more education and then these investors having a better understanding of how the private markets work and ultimately, what areas can deliver for them through the cycle.

看起來迄今為止的零售流量對您來說確實表現得更好。但是，您是否認為私人財富行為及其在波動時期配置資本的心態最終會隨著時間的推移而變得更類似於機構投資者？如果確實如此，這是否真的只是更多教育的作用，然後這些投資者可以更好地了解私人市場如何運作，並最終了解哪些領域可以在整個週期中為他們帶來收益。

It's a great question. I'm glad you asked it. Maybe just to go back in time a little bit, we were late to the wealth business in some respects. But we've obviously now made significant investments and are probably one of the top three or four distributors into the channel. And to your point -- and this is probably informed by our 20-year history at ARCC, at least historically, the retail investor has tended to be more pro-cyclical than the institutional investor, meaning they're putting money into the market when the market is going up, and they tend to get a little scared when the markets are going down and our experience is when the markets are going down, that's the best time to be in the market, taking advantage of the dislocation.

這是一個很好的問題。我很高興你問了這個問題。也許只是稍微回顧一下過去，在某些方面我們進入財富產業已經太晚了。但現在我們顯然已經進行了大量投資，並且可能是該通路排名前三或四的經銷商之一。至於您的觀點——這可能源於我們在 ARCC 的 20 年歷史，至少從歷史上看，散戶投資者往往比機構投資者更具順週期性，這意味著他們在市場上漲時將資金投入市場，而當市場下跌時，他們往往會有些害怕，而我們的經驗是，當市場下跌時，正是進入市場、利用錯位機會的最佳時機。

And so we probably came into the wealth business informed by our prior experience with the retail investors that they are less consistent and more procyclical institutions. And it was critical for us as we thought about building wealth that we did not over-index to the growth in wealth, but that we understood that the growth in the wealth business would be a diversifier to our institutional business and that continues to be how we run it.

因此，我們進入財富管理行業可能是基於我們先前與散戶投資者打交道的經驗，他們認為散戶投資者的一致性較低，而且更傾向於順週期。當我們考慮累積財富時，至關重要的一點是，我們不要過度關注財富的成長，而是要明白財富業務的成長將使我們的機構業務多元化，而這將繼續成為我們的經營方式。

I think the challenge is, if you are over-indexed to growth in wealth, you're procyclical when the market is going up, because when someone gives you dollar, you have to put it in the market. And one of the ways that good alternative investment managers generate excess return, frankly, is sometimes not to invest and to wait for a better investment environment.

我認為挑戰在於，如果你過度關注財富成長，那麼當市場上漲時你就會順週期，因為當有人給你美元時，你必須把它投入市場。而優秀的另類投資經理獲得超額回報的方法之一，坦白說，有時就是不投資，等待更好的投資環境。

And then obviously, to the extent that flows slow, you can't take advantage of the best vintages and it actually has a really meaningful impact on long-term performance. So we've always been mindful of getting the right blend of institutional and retail for that reason.

顯然，如果資金流動緩慢，你就無法利用最好的年份，這實際上會對長期表現產生非常重大的影響。因此，我們始終注重機構和零售之間的正確組合。

Now to your point, the fact that we are not seeing that type of behavior now is encouraging. And it could be that we and our peers are having the desired effect of educating this market to understand the value of privates in terms of the lower volatility in NAV and mark-to-market, the lower volatility in cash flow and the price durability. And so I do think a lot of energy has been put forward by us and the peer set to educate the adviser community and the investor community about what private can do in these types of markets.

現在回到你的觀點，我們現在沒有看到這種行為，這是令人鼓舞的。我們和我們的同行可能正在取得預期的效果，即教育這個市場了解私人資產的價值，包括資產淨值和市價波動性較低、現金流波動性較低以及價格持久性。因此，我確實認為，我們和同業已經投入了大量精力來教育顧問界和投資者界私人在這些類型的市場中可以做什麼。

So it is possible that retail investor behavior changes. We hope it does because we think it's good for the investor. But we have to be open to a world where it's not true. And that if the retail flows slow, we don't want to be in a position where it affects our ability to invest and continue to grow the business. So early signs are encouraging. It is possible that the paradigm has shifted. It's too early to tell. But if you look at the 20 or 30 years prior to this, it would tell you that the retail investor tends to act in opposition to the institutional investor, and we hope that changes, but I can tell you for sure that it has, yet.

因此散戶的行為有可能會改變。我們希望如此，因為我們認為這對投資者有利。但我們必須對這個不真實的世界保持開放。如果零售流量放緩，我們不希望它影響我們的投資能力和繼續發展業務的能力。因此早期跡象令人鼓舞。範式可能已經發生了轉變。現在下結論還為時過早。但如果你回顧一下之前的二三十年，你會發現散戶投資者的行為往往與機構投資者相反，我們希望這種情況能夠改變，但我可以肯定地告訴你，情況已經改變了。

Okay, that's great. Super helpful. Appreciate it.

好的，太好了。超有幫助。非常感謝。

Michael Cyprys, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的麥可‧賽普里斯 (Michael Cyprys)。

Hey, good morning. Thanks for squeezing me in here. Just a question on asset-based finance. I was hoping you could elaborate a bit on the opportunity set that you see in today's marketplace for ABF, how you expect that to evolve over the next 12 to 24 months? And talk about some of the steps you're taking to expand your origination access, including progress on bank partnerships. Thank you.

嘿，早安。謝謝你把我擠到這裡。這只是一個關於資產融資的問題。我希望您能詳細說明您在當今市場上看到的 ABF 機遇，以及您預計這些機會在未來 12 到 24 個月內將如何發展？並談談您為擴大發起管道所採取的一些措施，包括銀行合作的進展。謝謝。

Sure. Thanks, Mike. Look, we were early to asset-based finance. And as we've talked about it before, we believe that in order to win in asset-based finance, you need a couple of things. One, you need large experienced teams across the waterfront of different asset types. Two, you need meaningful scale because a lot of these transactions are multiple hundreds of million dollar type or $1 billion type transactions, and you need a very significant relationship network within the -- with your bank counter parties.

當然。謝謝，麥克。瞧，我們很早就開始進行資產融資。正如我們之前所討論的，我們認為，為了在資產融資中取得成功，你需要做幾件事。首先，你需要一支擁有豐富經驗、涵蓋不同資產類型跨領域的大型團隊。第二，你需要有意義的規模，因為很多交易都是數億美元或 10 億美元的交易，而且你需要與銀行交易對手建立非常重要的關係網。

And so not surprisingly, Ares and others like us that have been able to accumulate scale of talent and scale of capital are taking significant share. We probably don't talk about enough just how scarce the talent is in this market is a very specialized capability set in terms of how you originate and how you structure a lot of these transactions.

因此毫不奇怪，Ares 和其他像我們這樣能夠累積人才和資本規模的公司正在佔據相當大的份額。我們可能沒有充分討論這個市場中人才的稀缺程度，人才是一套非常專業的能力，涉及如何發起以及如何建立這些交易。

And so unlike some of the other parts of the alternative asset business. I think that those that have already accumulated large teams like ours. I think we now have 80-plus people in our alternative credit business, I think, already have a meaningful competitive advantage that's going to be tough to catch up with. In terms of bank partnerships, that is a big opportunity. It's not the only opportunity. As I said earlier, I think the combination changes in bank -- regulation.

因此與另類資產業務的其他部分不同。我認為那些已經累積了像我們這樣的大型團隊。我認為我們現在在另類信貸業務方面有 80 多名員工，我認為，他們已經擁有了難以趕上的顯著競爭優勢。就銀行合作而言，這是一個巨大的機會。這不是唯一的機會。正如我之前所說，我認為銀行監管的組合發生了變化。

And some of what's going on just generally in the capital markets, we're seeing significant volumes coming from the banks, but we're also seeing significant volumes come from other managers who are doing various things around their portfolios to increase the longevity of their capital base. We have been, and I expect we'll continue to be one of the larger participants in the bank market. We obviously have very significant relationships. We're a large counterparty. We're a trusted partner.

資本市場普遍存在的一些情況是，我們看到大量資金來自銀行，但我們也看到大量資金來自其他管理者，他們圍繞其投資組合採取各種措施，以延長其資本基礎的壽命。我們一直是，我預計我們將繼續成為銀行市場中較大的參與者之一。我們的關係顯然非常重要。我們是一家大型交易對手。我們是值得信賴的合作夥伴。

As an example, I think we talked about this maybe on the last earnings call in January, we announced publicly that we had purchased a $1.3 billion loan portfolio from a European bank that had been active around digital infrastructure, and they were looking to free up balance sheet capital. And I raised that only because a lot of these trades are not just capital relief or risk management, but it's an effort on the part of some of these banks just to extend the capital runway and find a way to monetize what's a very strong customer franchise as they're grappling with less liquidity.

舉個例子，我想我們可能在一月份的上次財報電話會議上討論過這個問題，我們公開宣布，我們已經從一家活躍於數位基礎設施領域的歐洲銀行購買了 13 億美元的貸款組合，他們正在尋求釋放資產負債表資本。我之所以提出這一點，只是因為許多此類交易不僅僅是資本減免或風險管理，而是一些銀行在努力延長資本跑道並找到一種方法將非常強大的客戶特許經營權貨幣化，因為他們正在努力應對流動性減少的問題。

And so -- but the nature of these deals is pretty widespread. Some of them are portfolio purchases, some of them are forward flow agreements. Some are SRTs. We've been very active on SRTs in places like BDC revolvers and subscription lines. So there is not a one size fits all, but you have to be able to understand each of these submarkets and come in with a flexible creative solution to the banks.

但這些交易的性質相當廣泛。其中一些是投資組合購買，一些是遠期流量協議。有些是 SRT。我們在 BDC 循環信貸和訂閱線等 SRT 領域非常活躍。因此，沒有萬能的解決方案，但你必須能夠了解每個子市場，並為銀行提供靈活的創意解決方案。

And again, I think there's a very small handful of people in the market ourselves are in that group that can actually execute on these things. And I think that we'll continue to see a lot of those as the year progresses.

而且，我認為市場上只有極少數人（包括我們自己）能夠真正實現這些目標。我認為隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續看到很多這樣的情況。

Great, thanks so much.

太好了，非常感謝。

Thank you. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Arougheti for any closing remarks.

謝謝。現在我將把電話轉回給 Arougheti 先生，請他做最後發言。

Great. We don't have any other event to reiterate just how grateful we are for the continued support and for spending time with us today, and we'll talk to you all next quarter. Thank you.

偉大的。我們沒有其他活動來重申我們對持續支持和今天與我們共度時光的感激之情，我們將在下個季度與大家交談。謝謝。

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our conference call for today. If you missed any part of today's call, an archived replay of this conference call will be available through June 5, 2025 to domestic callers by dialing 1(800) 723-0394 and two, international callers by dialing 1 (402) 220-2649. An archived replay will also be available on a webcast link located on the homepage of the Investor Resources section of our website. Thank you. You may now disconnect.

謝謝。女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。如果您錯過了今天電話會議的任何部分，可透過撥打 1(800) 723-0394 和撥打 1(402) 220-2649 的電話會議存檔重播，直至 2025 年 6 月 5 日。我們網站投資者資源部分主頁上的網路廣播連結也將提供存檔重播。謝謝。您現在可以斷開連線。