Ares Management Corp. has, through a subsidiary, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of Black Creek Group’s U.S. real estate investment advisory and distribution business, a real estate investment management firm.

“We are very pleased to enter into this strategic transaction with Black Creek, which further scales our real estate business, expands us into core / core-plus strategies and provides us with a leading non-traded REIT retail distribution platform,” said Michael Arougheti, chief executive officer and president of Ares. “We believe that this highly complementary combination will add meaningful revenue synergies for our real estate business as we offer new products to our existing investor base.”

“This acquisition presents an attractive opportunity to further enhance our team’s capabilities and grow our leading global real estate equity and debt business to approximately $29 billion in assets under management with offices spanning across the U.S. and Europe,” said Bill Benjamin, partner and head of the Ares Real Estate Group. “We are very excited to partner with senior management at Black Creek to offer new strategies, expand our sourcing networks and bolster execution. We have known and respected the team at Black Creek for many years and we believe there is a strong cultural alignment, which positions us for long-term success of our combined businesses.”

“We are excited to join the Ares team and we believe this is a highly complementary combination of people, investment products and resources,” said Raj Dhanda, chief executive officer at Black Creek Group. “As a leading firm with extensive global relationships and a collaborative culture, Ares was the ideal partner for Black Creek Group and this agreement will allow the combined Ares Real Estate Group to expand our capabilities, reach and growth potential. We are excited for our leadership teams to work together and capitalize on what we believe will be a promising future.”

Eastdil Secured LLC acted as financial advisor to Ares and Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal counsel. Hodes Weill & Associates acted as financial advisor to Black Creek and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as legal counsel.