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Sentiment · FY2026 Q1
What companies say about each other on earnings calls — extracted verbatim from public transcripts. Mentions from the newest quarter are a Pro feature.
“an approximately $200 million minority investment alongside a majority investment from Ares' Private Equity Funds to acquire Elara Caring.”
Ares' private equity funds are taking the majority position in the Elara Caring acquisition alongside DaVita's minority stake, a new PE-backed platform in home health.
“I know you have the Aspida partnership with Ares, but that -- I don't know if that can be expanded to 401(k)s or not.”
T. Rowe Price has an existing Aspida insurance/retirement partnership with Ares Management; the analyst asks whether that relationship could extend into the 401(k) channel.
“we're really excited to partner with the Aspida team and with Ares. As you said, we just announced this.”
T. Rowe Price announces a new strategic partnership involving Ares alongside insurer Aspida, with T. Rowe expecting to work together with Ares on fixed income and private-market offerings.
“We ended the year with our secondaries business having nearly doubled in size since we acquired Landmark in mid-2021.”
Ares' 2021 acquisition of Landmark has anchored a secondaries business that has nearly doubled in size.
“The acquisition of GCP expanded our real estate and digital infrastructure offerings and vaulted our real estate business into a global top 3 owner and operator of industrial real estate.”
Ares' acquisition of GCP expanded its real estate and digital infrastructure platform, making it a global top-3 industrial real estate owner/operator.
“Ares started our partnership with BlueCove in 2023.”
Ares is moving from a 2023 minority stake to full acquisition of systematic-IG credit manager BlueCove (AUM grew ~$1.8B to $5.5B), closing expected Q1.
“GCP is going very, very well, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks.”
Ares's GCP acquisition is integrating well, expanding its real estate platform and data-center land bank (~$6B in the ground) while temporarily compressing FRE margins.
“Since our acquisition of Landmark in June of 2021, our secondaries segment FRE has nearly doubled.”
Ares credits its 2021 acquisition of secondaries specialist Landmark with nearly doubling fee-related earnings in its secondaries segment.
“Now with our acquisition of GCP, we can source and develop new projects from the ground up, provide equity and debt financing throughout the investment life cycle and potentially develop power sources alongside our data center projects.”
Ares's Q1 2025 acquisition of GCP International is expanding its ability to originate and develop data-center and infrastructure projects in-house rather than only financing them.
“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.”
Ares' acquisition of GCP International added $45 billion of AUM and helped push Ares' total AUM past the $500 billion milestone, with management separately noting GCP's real estate/data-center platform is performing well and integration synergies are still to come.
“last week, we announced that we purchased a $1.3 billion loan portfolio from ABN AMRO. It was predominantly a, you know, digital assets, digital infrastructure portfolio.”
Ares purchased a $1.3 billion digital-infrastructure loan portfolio from ABN AMRO, helping the bank optimize its balance sheet, part of a broader trend of increased bank-portfolio activity.
“I know when the KKR and the Capital Group initiative came out, there was a lot of skepticism about what the economics might look like.”
An analyst references the KKR/Capital Group alternatives partnership as a comparison point when asking about the economics of Ares' own wealth-channel partnerships.
“T. Rowe is just one of the great financial services companies in the market, and we're thrilled to be their partner.”
Ares describes its new strategic partnership with T. Rowe Price (including T. Rowe's Oak Hill Advisors credit platform) around Aspida and broader insurance/private-market product development.
“Aspida has over $20 billion in total assets, and we believe that it has the capital required to reach $50 billion in assets by the end of 2028, which is the target that we outlined at our Investor Day.”
Ares' insurance affiliate Aspida is growing rapidly, with over $20 billion in assets and fixed annuity volumes nearly doubling in 2024, well above industry growth rates.
“Adding new strategies in new markets, as evidenced by the GCP International acquisition, will only further expand and enhance our capabilities.”
Ares' pending acquisition of GCP International is expected to expand its real assets, digital infrastructure and Asia-Pacific fundraising capabilities.
Ares capped a record year with $113 billion in fundraising, $146 billion in deployment, and AUM reaching $622 billion. Management fees grew 27%, FRE rose 30-33%, and margins improved despite the GCP integration drag. The firm earned S&P 500 inclusion and announced a 20% dividend increase, while introducing 2026 guidance for the first time with FRE margins at the high end of expansion, fundraising expected as good or better than the record, and realized income growth of 20%+. Operating income surged 85.9% confirming strong core execution.
Demand | Competitive Dynamics | Credit | Revenue Growth | Capital Allocation | Subscriber Growth | M&A | Margin | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024Q4 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 2025Q1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025Q2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2025Q3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 2025Q4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2026Q1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| '24Q4 | '25Q1 | '25Q2 | '25Q3 | '25Q4 | '26Q1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demand | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Competitive Dynamics | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 5 |
| Credit | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Revenue Growth | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Capital Allocation | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Subscriber Growth | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| M&A | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Margin | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Analyst | Firm | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Blostein | Goldman Sachs | 7 (0%) |
| Ben Budish | Barclays | 7 (0%) |
| Will Katz | TD Cowen |
| Craig Siegenthaler | Bank of America | 6 (0%) |
| Ken Worthington | JPMorgan | 6 (0%) |
| Mike Cyprys | Morgan Stanley | 6 (0%) |
| Brian McKenna | Citizens JMP Securities | 5 (0%) |
| Mike Brown | UBS | 5 (20%) |
| Steve Chubak | Wolfe Research | 5 (20%) |
| Brennan Hawken | BMO Capital Markets | 4 (0%) |
| Firm | Analysts | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Goldman Sachs | 1 | 7 (0%) |
| Barclays | 1 | 7 (0%) |
| TD Cowen | 1 | 7 (0%) |
| JPMorgan | 1 | 6 (0%) |
| Bank of America | 1 | 6 (0%) |
| Morgan Stanley | 1 | 6 (0%) |
| Wolfe Research | 1 | 5 (20%) |
| Citizens JMP Securities | 1 | 5 (0%) |
| Company | Score | Trend | Rev YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
ARES Ares Management Corporation | 9 | +40.8% | |
| AMP Ameriprise Financial | 8 | +9.0% | |
| BEN Franklin Resources | 8 | +8.7% | |
| BLK BlackRock | 9 | +26.9% | |
| BNY BNY Mellon | 9 | +2.2% | |
| BX Blackstone Inc. | 8 | +39.3% | |
| IVZ Invesco | 8 | +14.1% | |
| KKR KKR | 7 | +31.0% | |
| NTRS Northern Trust | 9 | +7.8% | |
| STT State Street Corporation | 9 | +2.2% | |
| TROW T. Rowe Price | 6 | +5.3% |