Ares Management Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GLP Capital Partners' (GCP) international business, excluding its operations in Greater China.

The deal was completed for an estimated $3.7 billion, with $1.8bn in cash and $1.9bn in Ares Class A Common Shares, subject to customary adjustments.

tokyo east 2 glp ada
Tokyo east data center - GLP – Ada Infrastructure

The acquisition nearly doubles Ares assets under management to $96bn across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

GLP Capital Partners is a global alternative asset management firm with $44bn of AUM. It has built scaled investment platforms across industrial, digital infrastructure, and self-storage in regions such as Japan, Europe, and the US.

The acquisition was driven significantly by data center demand from both hyperscale and enterprise customers.

“We have long admired GCP's global real estate experience and capabilities in facilitating the economy of the future, which includes investing in and managing industrial, data center, and self-storage assets," said Michael Arougheti, CEO and president of Ares.

GLP has emerged as one of the leading players in global data center investment and operations. Through its data center platform, Ada Infrastructure, it owns and operates several large hyperscale development projects, with upwards of 1GW of capacity across markets including London, Tokyo, Osaka, and São Paulo.

Developments include a 210MW data center campus in East London’s Royal Docks, which was awarded a resolution to grant planning in June, and the 31MW Tokyo West 1 campus, whose groundbreaking was announced in May.