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Ressler, co-founder and CEO of the credit investment and private equity firm is looking to raise a minimum of $100 million on the planned listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Antony Ressler, co-founder and CEO of alternative asset manager Ares Management LP has instigated the initial filings that will eventually see his company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
According to industry sources if all goes according to plan Ares Management’s flotation will represent the first initial public offering made by a major alternative asset manager since Washington DC-based Carlyle Group floated their stock in 2012.
In the filing, made through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Ressler confirmed that the Ares are planning to initially raise up to $100 million, although it is generally regarded as common practice that this figure will be revised as the actual date of the IPO goes closer.
Based in Los Angeles and co-founded by Antony Ressler, and John Kissick, in 1997, Ares was initially a spin-off Apollo Global Management LLC, which Ressler and Kissick established in partnership with with Leon Black, Marc Rowan and Joshua Harris in 1990. Leon Black is also Anthony Resller’s brother in law.
Ressler and Kissick spun off Ares to become an independent in 2002, with Bennett Rosenthal, David Kaplan and Michael Arougheti joining the company as partners over the years.
Ares has earned itself a reputation in the marketplace for their ability to pull off high-profile leveraged buyouts, in particular as the $6 billion acquisition of the luxury department store group Neiman Marcus Inc.
Over the years Ares has consistently shown a preference for private investment placement. In 2007, Ressler sold a 20 percent stake in Ares to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for around $375 million, which at that time valued the company at just under $2 billion $1.9 billion at that time. In July of last year Ressler sold an additional 6.25 percent in the company to insurance giant Alleghany Corp for $250 million, which valued Ares at around at $4 billion.
A statement issued by Ares explained that the company plans to use some of the funds raised from the IPO proceeds to buy back some shares from its investors as well as providing the from of opportunities to reduce its debt levels as well as increasing its fund growth initiatives.
Last year Ares paid out to their existing shareholders the tidy sum of $347 million in dividends after taxation, up around $70 million from 2012, despite income dropping 18.5 percent to $329 million in 2013 while their distributable earnings rose by just one percent to $306 million.
Ressler is slated to remain the post of chairman and chief executive officer of Ares when it becomes a publicly listed company, with expectations being that the senior senior partners remain owners of around 70 percent of the company’s stock after the IPO.
Antony Ressler graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University later going on to earn his MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business
After graduation Ressler began his professional career at Wall Street investment banking firm Drexel Burnham Lambert where he reached the position of Senior Vice President in the High Yield Bond Department.
After the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1990, Antony Ressler established the private equity firm Apollo Global Management in partnership with Leon Black, Marc Rowan, Josh Harris and Michael Gross, who all worked worked with Black in the mergers and acquisitions department.
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