Adds details and background on tender offer, fund throughout

June 25 (Reuters) - Ares Management ARES.N again capped withdrawals at its flagship private credit fund after redemption requests rose in the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing released Thursday.

Investors sought to pull 14.4% of shares from the $22.6 billion Ares Strategic Income Fund (ASIF) in the second quarter, up from 11.6% in the previous quarter . The fund limited withdrawals to 5% of shares, the customary threshold for such vehicles.

Most requests were concentrated among a small number of non-U.S. institutions and family offices, which represent less than 1% of the fund's more than 20,000 shareholders, the fund said. They accounted for nearly half of second quarter requests.

Wealthy individuals have increasingly pulled money from non-traded private credit funds in recent months over concerns about lending standards and how software companies that borrowed heavily from direct lenders will navigate disruption from artificial intelligence.

Investors pulled a combined $12.9 billion from private credit funds for wealthy individuals in the first five months of 2026, according to investment bank Robert A. Stanger.

Ares also saw a decline in new withdrawal requests from investors in the U.S. private wealth channel, ASIF's largest investor segment.

CEO Michael Arougheti said earlier this month that U.S. high-net-worth individuals were growing their alternatives exposure and not redeeming at the rate markets expected.

Repurchase requests from the segment represented 2.4% of outstanding shares and marked a 35% decline from the prior quarter.

The segment also accounted for nearly half of second-quarter inflows, ASIF said.

Nearly two-thirds of repurchase requests were submitted by investors who had tendered in the prior quarter, the fund said.

ASIF, launched in 2022, said its Class I shares had generated an annualized total return of 10.27% since inception, representing a 187-basis-point premium to broadly syndicated bank loans.