Ares Capital IPO Raises $165 Million

Ares Capital Corp. raised $165 million in its initial public stock offering Tuesday, much less than the L.A.-based investment company hoped to pull in.

The firm sold 11 million shares at $15 each. In its original filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ares hoped to raise as much as $450 million.

Ares Capital was created by Ares Management, a private investment firm founded by former financiers of Drexel Burnham Lambert. By launching a publicly traded fund, Ares Management can go beyond the traditional pool of investors who have been tapped to provide financing for company buyouts and other transactions.

A number of other buyout firms, including Apollo Management, have either raised money through such IPOs or have announced plans to do so.

Ares Capital shares will begin trading on Nasdaq today under the symbol ARCC.

In other IPO news, the board of investment banking firm Lazard, meeting in Paris, failed to decide on a proposed plan to take the 150-year-old firm public, sources said. A Lazard spokesman declined to comment.