June 25 (Reuters) - Ares Management again capped withdrawals at its flagship private credit fund after redemption requests rose in the second quarter, according to a filing released Thursday.
Investors sought to pull 14.4% of shares from the $22.6 billion Ares Strategic Income Fund (ASIF) in the second quarter, up from 11.6% in the previous quarter. The fund limited withdrawals to 5% of shares, the customary threshold for such vehicles.
Wealthy individuals have pulled money from non-traded private
credit funds in recent months over concerns about lending standards and how software companies that borrowed heavily from direct lenders will navigate AI disruption.
Investors pulled a combined $12.9 billion from private credit funds for wealthy individuals in the first five months of 2026, according to investment bank Robert A. Stanger.
Most requests were concentrated among a small number of non-U.S. institutions and family offices, representing less than 1% of ASIF's more than 20,000 shareholders, the fund said. They accounted for nearly half of second-quarter requests.
Peer Apollo has also recently flagged that withdrawal requests at its $26 billion private credit fund moderated from U.S. and increased from offshore.
Nearly two-thirds of repurchase requests at ASIF were submitted by investors who had tendered in the prior quarter.
"Optically, not a great update; however, the devil is in the details, and we are quite encouraged by the finer disclosure," TD Cowen analyst Bill Katz said, noting that the pattern of repurchase requests does not suggest widespread angst, while repeat requesters indicate redemption pressures are not building.
US PRIVATE WEALTH CHANNEL
Withdrawal requests from U.S. private wealth investors, ASIF's largest shareholder segment, represented only 2.4% of shares and declined 35% from the prior quarter.
The segment also accounted for nearly half of second-quarter inflows, ASIF said.
CEO Michael Arougheti said earlier this month that U.S. high-net-worth individuals were growing their alternatives exposure and not redeeming at the rate markets expected.
ASIF, launched in 2022, said its Class I shares had generated an annualized total return of 10.27% since inception, representing a 187-basis-point premium to broadly syndicated bank loans.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
