ORGANIZATION

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

ORGANIZATION

ORGANIZATION 

Ares Management Corporation (the “Company”), a Delaware corporation, together with its subsidiaries, is a leading global alternative investment manager operating integrated businesses across Credit, Private Equity and Real Estate. Information about segments should be read together with Note 15, “Segment Reporting.” Subsidiaries of the Company serve as the general partners and/or investment managers to various investment funds and managed accounts within each investment group (the “Ares Funds”). Such subsidiaries provide investment advisory services to the Ares Funds in exchange for management fees. Ares is managed and operated by its Board of Directors and Executive Management Committee. Unless the context requires otherwise, references to “Ares” or the “Company” refer to Ares Management, L.P., together with its subsidiaries prior to November 26, 2018 and thereafter to Ares Management Corporation, together with its subsidiaries. See Note 14, "Equity," for detailed description of the Company's ownership structure and relevant changes.

The accompanying audited financial statements include the consolidated results of the Company and its subsidiaries. The Company is a holding company, and the Company’s sole assets are equity interests in Ares Holdings Inc. (“AHI”), Ares Offshore Holdings, Ltd., and Ares AI Holdings L.P. In this annual report, the following of the Company’s subsidiaries are collectively referred to as the “Ares Operating Group”: Ares Offshore Holdings L.P. (“Ares Offshore”), Ares Holdings L.P. (“Ares Holdings”), and Ares Investments L.P. (“Ares Investments”). The Company, indirectly through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is the general partner of each of the Ares Operating Group entities. The Company operates and controls all of the businesses and affairs of and conducts all of its material business activities through the Ares Operating Group.

In addition, certain Ares-affiliated funds, related co-investment entities and collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”) (collectively, the “Consolidated Funds”) managed by Ares Management LLC (“AM LLC”) and its wholly owned subsidiaries have been consolidated in the accompanying financial statements as described in Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.” Including the results of the Consolidated Funds significantly increases the reported amounts of the assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses and cash flows in the accompanying consolidated financial statements; however, the Consolidated Funds results included herein have no direct effect on the net income attributable to Ares Management Corporation or to Stockholders' Equity. Instead, economic ownership interests of the investors in the Consolidated Funds are reflected as non-controlling interests in Consolidated Funds. Further, cash flows allocable to non-controlling interest in Consolidated Funds are specifically identifiable in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

Non-Controlling Interests in Ares Operating Group Entities

The non-controlling interests in Ares Operating Group (“AOG”) entities represent a component of equity and net income attributable to the owners of the Ares Operating Group Units (“AOG Units”) that are not held directly or indirectly by the Company. These interests are adjusted for contributions to and distributions from AOG during the reporting period and are allocated income from the AOG entities based on their historical ownership percentage for the proportional number of days in the reporting period.