Ares Management imposed a limit on withdrawals at its flagship private credit fund after a jump in redemption requests during the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing released on Thursday. Investors sought to redeem 14.4% of shares in the $22.6 billion Ares Strategic Income Fund (ASIF) in the quarter, up from 11.6% in the prior quarter.
The fund employed its standard policy and restricted repurchases to 5% of shares. That 5% threshold is described as the customary cap for these kinds of non-traded private credit vehicles.
ASIF said most of the repurchase requests were concentrated among a relatively small number of non-U.S. institutions and family offices. Together those investors accounted for nearly half of the second-quarter tenders, yet they represent less than 1% of ASIF’s more than 20,000 shareholders.
The filing also noted that nearly two-thirds of the repurchase requests in the second quarter were submitted by investors who had tendered redemptions in the prior quarter as well.
Concerns driving outflows from some private credit funds geared to high-net-worth investors have included questions about lending standards and how certain borrowers - particularly software companies that borrowed significantly from direct lenders - may fare as artificial intelligence adoption reshapes their industries. In the first five months of 2026, investors pulled a combined $12.9 billion from private credit funds catering to wealthy individuals, according to investment bank Robert A. Stanger.
ASIF's filing said that withdrawal requests from U.S. private wealth investors - the fund’s largest shareholder segment - accounted for only 2.4% of shares and that this cohort’s requests declined 35% from the prior quarter. That U.S. private wealth segment was also responsible for nearly half of second-quarter inflows, the fund added.
Separately, another large private credit manager, Apollo, has reported a change in the geographic composition of redemption demand at its roughly $26 billion private credit fund, saying requests moderated from U.S. investors and increased from offshore investors.
TD Cowen analyst Bill Katz offered perspective on the ASIF disclosure, saying: "Optically, not a great update; however, the devil is in the details, and we are quite encouraged by the finer disclosure." Katz noted that the pattern of repurchase requests does not point to widespread investor panic, and that the fact many tenders were repeat requests suggests redemption pressures are not broadly building across the shareholder base.
ASIF was launched in 2022. The fund said its Class I shares have produced an annualized total return of 10.27% since inception, which it said represents a 187-basis-point premium relative to broadly syndicated bank loans.
Context and takeaway
The filing paints a picture of concentrated redemption activity within a small subset of investors while the broader U.S. private wealth base has remained relatively stable and has contributed meaningful inflows. Ares moved to the 5% cap in keeping with the fund’s redemption policy, a step that limits the immediate liquidity impact on the vehicle’s portfolio.