What Ares Management (ARES)'s Sabey Data Center Stake Means For Shareholders

• Ares Management Corporation recently announced that its Secondaries funds have taken a minority equity stake in Sabey Data Center Properties, adding institutional capital to support Sabey’s expansion across existing campuses and entry into additional data center markets.
• This move highlights Ares’ growing focus on data center and digital infrastructure exposure, aligning with its broader push into specialized real assets through its alternatives platform.
• Next, we’ll examine how this data center investment shapes Ares Management’s investment narrative, particularly around diversification and fee-based growth.

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Ares Management Investment Narrative Recap

To own Ares Management, you generally have to believe in the long term growth of fee based alternative assets, particularly private credit and diversified real assets. The Sabey Data Centers minority stake fits Ares’ push into specialized infrastructure and supports the diversification and data center scaling catalyst, but it does not materially change the nearer term risk that expanding into new platforms, including data centers, could pressure margins if integration and execution fall short.

The most relevant recent announcement here is Ares’ Q1 2026 earnings, with revenue of US$1,396.44 million and net income of US$142.59 million, which provides a financial backdrop for this Sabey investment. As Ares commits more capital and resources to data centers and other real assets, investors may watch how these projects contribute to fee related earnings and whether they offset any integration related drag from newer platforms like data centers and GCP.

Yet behind Ares’ push into data centers, investors should also be aware of the risk that rising operating and integration costs could...

Read the full narrative on Ares Management (it's free!)

Ares Management's narrative projects $6.9 billion revenue and $1.9 billion earnings by 2029. This requires 5.2% yearly revenue growth and about a $1.3 billion earnings increase from $561.7 million today.

Uncover how Ares Management's forecasts yield a $145.24 fair value, a 19% upside to its current price.

Exploring Other Perspectives

While the Sabey deal highlights growth ambitions, the most pessimistic analysts were already warning about higher G&A and data center costs, even as they projected earnings reaching about US$1.5 billion by 2029, so you should expect that some of these views may shift as this new information settles in.

Explore 4 other fair value estimates on Ares Management - why the stock might be worth 12% less than the current price!

The Verdict Is Yours

Disagree with existing narratives? Extraordinary investment returns rarely come from following the herd, so go with your instincts.

• A great starting point for your Ares Management research is our analysis highlighting 2 key rewards and 3 important warning signs that could impact your investment decision.
• Our free Ares Management research report provides a comprehensive fundamental analysis summarized in a single visual - the Snowflake - making it easy to evaluate Ares Management's overall financial health at a glance.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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