Ares Management Corp. (NYSE: ARES) sees opportunities to grow through acquisitions in Asia, which is about 20 years behind the U.S. in terms of market development, Chief Financial Officer Jarrod Phillips said.
“We’re starting to see sponsors use the banks maybe a little bit less and come to alternative providers,” he said at the Barclays (NYSE: BCS) Global Financial Services Conference. “When we look at what the options are in Asia, if we want it to grow like Europe, we know that it’s going to be a combination of organic growth and acquisitive growth.”
Ares doesn’t have a significant infrastructure equity business, which it sees as a global opportunity, Phillips said. Bloomberg previously reported that Ares was in discussions to acquire Asian real estate firm GLP Capital Partners.
The firm also lacks a private equity strategy in Europe, Phillips said.
Ares highlighted Asia-Pacific real estate equity, global infrastructure equity and digital infrastructure equity at its investor day earlier this year as high-priority areas of growth.
The firm, which oversees $447 billion, anticipates a potential slowdown in liquid markets in the weeks before the U.S. election, as traders become more cautious and look for an “orderly” process, Phillips said.
“I’ve heard people are cautious about maybe the last two weeks of October, that first week of November,” he said.
