Investors in one of Ares Management's largest private-credit funds tried to withdraw about $1.5 billion of their money in the second quarter, representing 14.4% of the fund's net asset value.

Ares decided to limit redemptions to 5% of shares outstanding, the same cap the firm applied in the first quarter when investors asked to redeem 11.6%. The rise in withdrawal requests came from foreign investors; U.S. investors asked to redeem fewer shares in the second quarter compared with the first, Ares said in a letter to shareholders.

The fund-called Ares Strategic Income Fund-is one of dozens of private-credit offerings that investment firms marketed in recent years to individual investors, who have now grown increasingly nervous about potential losses. The funds make direct loans to companies with below-investment-grade credit ratings and have large concentrations to software providers that could face increased competition from artificial intelligence.

Almost two-thirds of the requests in the second quarter came from investors that had previously asked for their money back.

"We believe the remaining unfulfilled repurchase requests for the second quarter of 2026 could be largely satisfied by year-end, assuming future quarterly repurchase requests remain in line with the prior quarter's unfulfilled requests," Ares said in the shareholder letter.

The fund manages $22.6 billion of assets but some of those investments were purchased with borrowed money, a common practice among private-credit funds. Net asset value in the fund amounted to about $11 billion at the end of May, according to an SEC filing.