Michael Arougheti on private credit
From Ares CEO Mike Arougheti on Private Capital, Market Stability and the New Economy · · Forbes
“There's nothing that we see in the private credit market that looks risky relative to prior vintages. In fact, I think the quality of the companies that are accessing the private markets are significantly larger, higher quality, and more institutional than in prior cycles. The market is deeper, it's more liquid, there are more avenues for capital to move around. And what's so interesting about the market is it is not leveraged.”
On , Michael Arougheti, Co-Founder, CEO & Director at Ares Management Corporation, spoke about private credit during Ares CEO Mike Arougheti on Private Capital, Market Stability and the New Economy on Forbes.
About Michael Arougheti
Michael Arougheti, co-founder and CEO of Ares Management, has been active in media appearances and earnings calls in recent months, discussing private credit, sports investing, and the firm's performance. In June 2026, he appeared at the Forbes Iconoclast Summit and Bloomberg Invest, where he described concerns about stress in the private credit market as "noise" and argued that the underlying performance of private credit funds is delivering the outcomes investors signed up for. He stated that the recent redemption requests in certain funds are an "education" issue and that investors will begin to differentiate between liquidity requests and actual performance. Arougheti also said that private equity is "not broken" but "going through a transition" from a zero-interest-rate environment, and that the system needs to "unclog" through secondary solutions and refinancing. On Ares Management's Q1 2026 earnings call, Arougheti reported that the firm raised $30 billion in gross capital in the first quarter, a record for that period, and that assets under management increased 18% year-over-year to $644 billion. He highlighted the firm's sports investing platform, stating that Ares is focused on bringing its capabilities in real estate, equity, and credit to the sports market, including investments in "challenger leagues" such as women's leagues and the Snow League. Arougheti also addressed the impact of AI on the firm's software portfolio, citing an internal study that found 86% of the portfolio had low risk of AI disruption. He emphasized that Ares invests with a long-term, multi-year horizon and that the firm is focused on secular themes such as supply chain realignment and digital infrastructure.