Like his famous brother-in-law Leon Black, Antony “Tony” Ressler is on the path to becoming a private-equity kingpin.
Ressler — who worked at Black’s Apollo Global Management before leaving to start his own firm 16 years ago — is preparing to take his Ares Capital Management public at a valuation of more than $4 billion, The Post has learned.
The Los Angeles firm has chosen JPMorgan as its underwriter, according to a source.
“I know that they have been exploring an IPO,” said another source.
However, an Ares spokesman said, “Ares has not hired an investment bank for a potential IPO.”
If Ares pulls off an IPO, it would join an elite club of publicly traded buyout firms that includes Apollo, Blackstone, KKR and Fortress.
Last month, Ares joined the buyout big leagues when it teamed with a Canadian pension fund on the $6 billion takeover of Neiman Marcus, the luxury department store chain.
In addition to Neiman, the firm also controls Simmons Mattress and the 99 Cents Only discount chain.
Ressler, along with co-founder John Kissick, left Apollo to form Ares after he concluded that Black would never hand him the reins to Apollo, said a source familiar with the situation. Ressler is the brother of Debra Black, who married Leon in 1990.
Since then, Ressler has made a name for himself in the private-equity world, especially in the past few years.
Ares has turned into a major private equity, real estate and leveraged lending firm boasting $66 billion of assets under management — a little more than half of Apollo’s $113 billion.
With an IPO, Ares is seeking money to expand internationally, especially in Western Europe, where banks are hesitant to lend and buy real estate, according to a source.
If it does not list its shares, Ares likely will sell more stakes in the firm, the source said.
In July, Ares announced it was selling a 6.25 percent stake to insurer Allegheny Corp., giving it a $4 billion valuation.
Earlier, Ares listed its finance subsidiary, Ares Capital Corp., on the public markets.