Luckin Coffee stakeholder Ares SSG seeks a slice of the growing private credit market in Asia
- Demand for private credit in Asia is going to be quite significant, Ares SSG CEO Edwin Wong says
- Ares was part of a consortium that took control of scandal-plagued Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in January last year
Ares SSG, one of the owners of the once-troubled Luckin Coffee, is eyeing opportunities in Asia as the credit-focused alternative investment manager seeks to meet the rising demand for capital in the region.
“Private credit has been a growing asset class across the region as this region continues to be an engine for the world’s growth,” said Edwin Wong, the Hong Kong-based managing partner and CEO of Ares SSG, a subsidiary of Ares Management and one of the largest alternative investment managers in Asia.
As most of that growth is funded by credit, the demand for private credit in Asia is going to be quite significant, he added.
The company had US$10.9 billion in assets under management as of September 2022 and had investments in major Asian markets, including China and India, across a range of sectors.
Ares SSG’s Asian expansion plans were set in motion in 2021 when it closed its third secured lending fund worth US$1.6 billion, twice the size of its previous fund raised in 2017.