ARES

Ares Management Corporation

HARAM — METHODS DIFFERstock

Is ARES Halal?

Ares is a conventional alternative-asset manager whose Credit platform includes direct lending, leveraged loans and structured credit; the quantitative ratios do not remove the core riba-based activity concern.

What You Should Know

Ares Management's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q reports $28,394.933 million of consolidated assets, $4,386.476 million of debt obligations, $568.779 million of company cash, $1,347.645 million of due-from-affiliates and $1,396.436 million of total revenue. Those inputs produce debt/assets of 15.45%, liquidity of 2.00% and receivables plus cash/assets of 6.75%. Company interest and dividend income plus consolidated-fund interest and other income total $112.544 million as a conservative upper-bound proxy, or 8.06% of revenue. Credit, real-estate-debt and leveraged-loan strategies remain core qualitative Sharia concerns; no unsupported prohibited-revenue allocation is asserted. This is a current ZakatInvest calculation, not an index-membership claim.

⚠️ Concerns

  • Credit strategies include direct lending, leveraged loans, structured credit and asset-based finance whose economics involve interest and spreads
  • The conservative upper-bound potentially non-compliant-income proxy is 8.06% of revenue and fails the examined FTSE income threshold
  • Real Estate includes both equity and debt strategies; debt and mezzanine activity requires separate riba review
  • Consolidated-fund accounting presents fund assets and income gross, so strategy-level prohibited revenue is not cleanly allocated
  • BlueCove's February 2026 acquisition expands systematic fixed-income management and changes the business perimeter
  • Market-cap denominator methods are not calculated without a licensed historical market-cap series

Current quantitative Sharia screen

Based on 10-Q figures for the period ended 2026-03-31; calculated 2026-07-13.

USD · thousands
Interest-bearing debt / assets
15.45%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

4,386.476 / 28,394.933

Cash + interest-bearing securities / assets
2.00%Within limit
Below 33.333% under FTSE Yasaar

568.779 / 28,394.933

Receivables + cash / assets
6.75%Within limit
Below 50% under FTSE Yasaar

1,916.424 / 28,394.933

Non-compliant income / revenue (upper bound)
8.06%Above limit
No more than 5% under FTSE Yasaar

112.544 / 1,396.436

FTSE Yasaar
v4.6, February 2026
Financial
Fails
Overall
Fails

Debt is 15.45%, liquidity is 2.00% and receivables plus cash are 6.75%, but the conservative upper-bound potentially non-compliant-income proxy is 8.06%, above the examined 5% limit.

MSCI Islamic (total-assets series)
October 2024 methodology
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

Debt, liquidity and receivables plus cash pass the examined MSCI total-assets limits. Ares's strategy-level Credit and real-estate-debt activity remains qualitatively unresolved; this is not an index-membership claim.

Malaysia SAC financial ratios
single 5% activity benchmark adopted November 2025
Financial
Pass
Overall
Incomplete

Debt, liquidity and receivables plus cash pass the examined ratios. Strategy-level activity and contract allocation remain incomplete; this is a calculation against SAC ratios, not an official classification of a U.S.-listed security.

Market-cap denominator methods
MSCI M-Series, S&P and Dow Jones methods differ
Financial
Not calculated
Overall
Not calculated

A properly licensed and reproducible historical market-cap series is not stored, so these methods are not estimated from a current spot price.

Business-activity disclosure

Ares is an alternative-asset manager with Credit, Real Estate, Private Equity, Secondaries and Strategic Initiatives segments. Its Credit platform includes direct lending, leveraged loans, structured credit and other interest-bearing strategies; Private Equity, real-estate equity and secondaries activities are assessed separately.

Limitation: The filing reports management fees and consolidated-fund results but does not allocate a universal prohibited-revenue numerator by strategy, fund, contract or interest-versus-service economics. The core Credit activity therefore remains a qualitative scholar-specific business-activity determination.

Purification

A conservative upper-bound income proxy is entered, but Ares does not provide a universal prohibited-revenue allocation or scholar-approved purification percentage for Credit and real-estate-debt strategies.

Inputs, assumptions and primary sources
  • Inputs use Ares Management's March 31, 2026 Form 10-Q; amounts are USD thousands as presented in the filing.
  • Assets use consolidated total assets of $28,394.933 million, including consolidated funds. Company cash and cash equivalents were $568.779 million; consolidated-fund cash is not double-counted.
  • Debt uses total debt obligations of $4,386.476 million. Consolidated CLO obligations are included in the reported consolidated amount, while non-recourse fund obligations remain a qualitative consolidation consideration.
  • Due from affiliates of $1,347.645 million is used as the accounts-receivable input; investments and accrued carried interest are not double-counted.
  • Total revenues were $1,396.436 million. Company interest and dividend income was $7.099 million and consolidated-fund interest and other income was $105.445 million; the combined $112.544 million is a conservative upper-bound potentially non-compliant-income proxy, not a pure corporate interest-income figure.
  • Ares does not disclose a universal prohibited-revenue numerator by strategy. Credit, real-estate-debt, leveraged-loan and other interest-bearing strategies are retained as qualitative core-business concerns rather than assigned an unsupported revenue percentage.

This is a reproducible financial screen, not a fatwa. A failed total-assets screen can coexist with a pass under a market-cap methodology. ZakatInvest keeps the qualitative assessment separate so numerical thresholds do not erase material context.

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