Ares Leads $2.2B Arcmont Private Credit Continuation Vehicle as Secondaries Market Doubles

The Deal Ares Management Corp. is the lead buyer in a secondary market transaction involving Arcmont Asset Management, which is transferring loans from its third direct-lending fund — originally established in 2019 with €6 billion — into a new continuation vehicle. The deal could raise up to $2.2 billion. Pantheon is a co-investor, and PJT Park Hill (a unit of PJT Partners) is advising on the secondary sale. Why Arcmont Is Doing This Private credit funds face a structural liquidity challenge: they primarily lend to companies owned by private equity firms, and a slow dealmaking environment has reduced repayment velocity. Continuation vehicles allow fund managers to extend holding periods while returning capital to existing LPs who prefer liquidity. This structure has become the preferred solution across the private credit market as deal exit timelines lengthen. Market Context: Private Credit Secondaries Exploding The private credit secondaries market nearly doubled in 2025, reaching approximately $20 billion in volume — up from roughly $11 billion in 2024. This growth is expected to continue as the broader private credit market expands to $1.8 trillion in AUM. Both Ares and Pantheon are actively raising dedicated capital for credit secondaries strategies: Ares has already raised $7.1 billion for its first private credit secondaries strategy Pantheon is seeking at least $6 billion for its latest credit funds Why This Matters for Private Markets The Arcmont continuation vehicle is a bellwether for where the secondaries market is heading. As private credit has grown into a $1.8 trillion asset class, the secondary infrastructure needed to support it is still catching up — creating a structural opportunity for specialist buyers. For LPs in maturing private credit funds, secondary sales increasingly represent the most viable path to liquidity before natural loan repayments occur. The Ares-Arcmont transaction signals that large-cap buyers are ready to deploy capital at scale in this emerging sub-segment.