Ares expands Australian presence with private infrastructure fund

Australian institutional and wholesale investors now have a greater selection of private markets offerings to choose from, with the addition of a new private infrastructure solution from global alternatives specialist, Ares Management Corporation.

The Australian unit trust, Ares Core Infrastructure Fund (AUT), will allow Australian investors to gain access to Ares’ flagship private infrastructure strategy, the Ares Core Infrastructure Fund (ACI), and takes the total number of investment opportunities offered in Australia by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-listed manager to four.

Underpinned by Ares’ proprietary Infrastructure platform, the fund will harness the research capabilities and deep sector experience backing ACI and its portfolio of infrastructure assets as it seeks to “generate attractive, tax-advantaged current yield in a perpetual, semi-liquid structure”.

According to Ares, ACI’s assets under mangement now amount to AUD$1.8 billion since its inception in 2024.

“As private markets continue to demonstrate resilience through dynamic environments, we are seeing growing interest from wealth investors in Australia and New Zealand for deeper access and greater diversification across asset classes,” Teiki Benveniste, Managing Director and Head of Ares Wealth Management Solutions Australia and New Zealand, said.

“Ares is excited to further expand our offering of institutional-grade solutions for individuals and capitalize on the accelerating opportunity in private infrastructure. We look forward to supporting investors’ long-term financial goals and unlocking sustainable value.”

The launch of the Ares Core Infrastructure Fund (AUT) marks the fund manager’s fourth offering, after its Ares Private Markets Fund (AUT) entered the market in December last year alongside its two credit strategies – Ares Global Credit Income Fund and Ares Diversified Credit Fund.

“We believe the exponential rise in global demand for data and the corresponding need for energy has created an unprecedented market opportunity across the digital and power infrastructure sectors,” Keith Derman, Co-CEO of ACI and Co-Head of Ares’ Infrastructure Opportunities strategy, said.

“With stable, cash-flow-generating assets that have typically demonstrated cyclical resilience, private infrastructure can provide investors uncorrelated and inflation-hedged risk-adjusted returns. We believe Ares is well-positioned to leverage our Infrastructure platform’s differentiated origination, asset selection and transaction structuring capabilities to deliver an attractive offering for investors to further enhance their portfolios.”