Coller EQT leads Ares's €3.3 billion credit continuation fund

Ares Management raised €3.3 billion, about $3.6 billion, for a credit continuation fund seeded with 24 loans from its 2018 European direct lending fund, Bloomberg News reported. Coller EQT led the investment and Evercore advised. It is Ares's largest credit continuation fund and closed in early November.

The loans came from Ares Capital Europe Fund IV, which closed at €6.5 billion in 2018, making the new vehicle roughly half the size of the fund that originated them. Investors in the older fund received roughly 150% of their original capital as the loans moved across, according to the report.

For limited partners weighing whether to roll, the key terms are the transfer price on the 24 loans and the new vehicle's fees. Because the manager sits on both sides of the transfer, the price rests on its own marks rather than a competitive auction, making independent pricing support and the lead buyer's diligence important. Fee terms for the new vehicle were not disclosed.

Continuation funds are a standard exit in private equity and a newer one in private credit. The structure lets a manager keep running a seasoned loan book with fresh capital while original limited partners can take liquidity rather than wait for loans to be repaid or sold into a soft market.

Ares reported $458.8 billion in regulatory assets across 715 accounts in a Form ADV filed with the SEC on Aug. 26, 2026. The credit fund lands alongside another large Ares credit raise this autumn: the firm held an $8 billion first close for its senior direct lending Fund IV in late October, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported.

Bloomberg described the transaction as one of the biggest to date in the market for secondhand private credit stakes.