Ares Management turns private credit into Wall Street’s sexiest business 

Megadeals and private equity titans may dominate the headlines. Still, Los Angeles’ Ares Management has quietly amassed US$352 billion in assets by offering steady returns regardless of what happens in the stock market.

As an enterprising 13-year-old New York Yankees fan in 1986, Michael Arougheti ran a baseball card trading business, setting up tables at collectibles shows on weekends in suburban New York City. He made thousands but learned that flipping hundreds of cards for tiny gains was a better strategy than obsessively pursuing a rare Hank Aaron rookie card—which might be worth tens of thousands but was almost impossible to find.  

Since 2018, Arougheti has been the CEO of credit-focused alternative asset firm Ares Management. It has quietly become one of the most successful firms on Wall Street, but unlike its more famous private equity peers, Ares is beating the odds with a steady diet of thousands of singles.