Ares Management Corporation (NYSE:ARES) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So it’s going to take us a while to build that. And we’re going to obviously need to see the markets mature and evolve from a capital formation and regulatory standpoint, but that’s the vision. I think from a growth standpoint the good news is that they have been growing at a similar pace to the rest of the platform obviously off of a smaller base, but enjoying good growth and we’d expect that to continue.

Benjamin Budish: Hey, great. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you. The next question today comes from the line of Michael Cyprys from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Michael Cyprys: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to circle back to some of the comments you made earlier about investments that you’ve been making in the platform over the past couple of years. I was hoping you could maybe elaborate on kind of where we are at this point. What’s left in terms of the build-out? And then how we should think about that translating in terms of G&A and comp growth compared to the double-digit growth you guys put up here in 2022? How we should be thinking about that into 2023? Thank you.

Jarrod Phillips : Thanks, Mike. That one is…

Michael Arougheti: Jarrod, you want to speak to that one?

Jarrod Phillips : Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Thanks, Mike. The first thing, I’d say is that, as we went into 2022, we did talk a little bit about how that was really a year of growth of the platform and integration across the platform. That resulted in about 450 net new hires on the platform through the year. Now as that happens throughout the year, you do have that headwind coming into 2023 of those 450 hires being paid for the full year. We still certainly expect to be hiring a little bit throughout this year, but likely not at the same pace that we’ve seen in the prior year, as we’ve integrated those folks brought them in and really need to assess and evaluate the capabilities and get our fundraising off the ground. So once that fundraising then is completed and we deploy it as you look into the back half of 2023, and into 2024 and 2025, what you’ll start to see is that’s when you’ll see more significant margin expansion.

So as we kind of guided at the beginning of last year, we thought that we would have a very moderate margin expansion in 2022. I’d say that, it still won’t be at the pacing that maybe we had stated back in 2019, 2020 and 2023 because of the headwinds that we received from that full year of hiring. And then as we deploy, capital from this fundraising cycle into 2024 and 2025 that’s when you’ll see that margin expansion really accelerate towards that 45% plus that we talked about.

Michael Cyprys: Great. Thanks for that. And just €“ I’m sorry.

Jarrod Phillips: Yeah, I was saying, because you asked about G&A as well. So, about half of our G&A is headcount-related. So you see a very close correlation to G&A growth, as headcount grows. The other half is a little bit more episodic in terms of what events are occurring at what times, or where capital is needed across the platform in terms of investment. So when you’re thinking about G&A, there is a pretty strong tie to our comp levels.