ORGANIZATION

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

ORGANIZATION

1. ORGANIZATION

Ares Management Corporation (the “Company”), a Delaware corporation, together with its subsidiaries, is a leading global alternative investment manager operating integrated groups across Credit, Private Equity, Real Estate and Strategic Initiatives. Beginning in the third quarter of 2020, the Company began reflecting a new Strategic Initiatives category, which represents operating segments and strategic investments that are seeking to broaden the Company's distribution channels or expand its access to global markets. 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”). These 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 and Redeemable Interest", 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 assets include equity interests in Ares Holdings Inc., 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” or “AOG”: 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 funds, 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.

Redeemable Interest and Non-Controlling Interests in Ares Operating Group Entities

The non-controlling interests in AOG entities represents 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 owners consist predominantly of Ares Owners Holdings L.P. but also include other strategic distribution partnerships with whom the Company has established joint ventures. Non-controlling interests in AOG entities 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.

On February 21, 2020, the Company completed its acquisition (“Crestline Acquisition”) of the Class A membership interests (the “Class A membership interests”) in Crestline Denali Capital LLC (“Crestline Denali”). The Class A membership interests entitle the Company to the fees associated with managing seven collateral management contracts. The Class B membership interests of Crestline Denali (the “Class B membership interests”) were retained by the former owners of Crestline Denali and represent the financial interests in the subordinated notes of the collateralized loan obligations. In connection with the Company's control over Crestline Denali, the Company also consolidates investments and financial results that are attributable to the Class B membership interests to which the Company has no economic rights or obligations. Equity and income (loss) attributable to the Class B membership interests is included within non-controlling interests in AOG entities.

On July 1, 2020, the Company completed its acquisition of a majority interest in SSG Capital Holdings Limited and its operating subsidiaries (“SSG”) in accordance with the purchase agreement entered into on January 21, 2020 (“SSG Acquisition”). Following the acquisition, SSG began operating under the Ares SSG brand. Ares SSG is an alternative investment manager in the Asia Pacific that is focused on leveraging its broad Pan-Asian presence, extensive infrastructure and local origination network to make credit, private equity and special situation investments across Asia and Australia.

In connection with the SSG Acquisition, the former owners of SSG retained an ownership interest in the operations acquired by the Company. In certain circumstances, the Company may acquire full ownership of SSG pursuant to a contractual arrangement that may be initiated by the Company or by the former owners of SSG. Since the acquisition of the remaining interest in SSG is not within the Company's sole discretion, the ownership interest held by the former owners of SSG is classified as a redeemable interest and represents mezzanine equity.