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CHICAGO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE) announced that it priced its initial public offering of 7,700,000 shares of common stock at $18.50 per share, raising approximately $142.5 million in gross proceeds. Ares Commercial Real Estate has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,155,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Shares of Ares Commercial Real Estateas common stock are expected to begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol aACRE.a The offering is expected to close on Tuesday, May 1, 2012.

Ares Commercial Real Estate intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to repay certain outstanding indebtedness under its debt facilities, to pay the holders of its Series A Convertible Preferred Stock who are redeeming their shares upon the completion of this offering and the balance for general corporate purposes and to originate its target investments.

Wells Fargo Securities, Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan acted as book-running managers in this offering. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, RBC Capital Markets, Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acted as co-managers in this offering.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor will there be any sale of the shares referred to in this press release in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction. A registration statement relating to these securities was filed and has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus, copies of which may be obtained from: Wells Fargo Securities, Attn: Equity Syndicate Department, 375 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10152 (Tel: 800-326-5897) or email: [ cmclientsupport@wellsfargo.com ]; or Citigroup, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220 (Tel: 800-831-9146) or email: [ batprospectusdept@citi.com ]; or BofA Merrill Lynch,4 World Financial Center, New York, NY 10080, Attn: Prospectus Department (Tel: 866-500-5408) or email: [ dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com ]; or J.P. Morgan, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: 866-803-9204).

About Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation is a specialty finance company that originates, invests in and manages middle-market commercial real estate loans and other commercial real estate investments. Through its national direct origination platform, Ares Commercial Real Estate provides flexible financing solutions for middle market borrowers. Ares Commercial Real Estate intends to elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust and is externally managed by an affiliate of Ares Management LLC, a global alternative asset manager that had approximately $46 billion in committed capital under management as of December 31, 2011.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements included herein may constitute aforward-looking statementsa within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which relate to future events or our future performance or financial condition. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ares Commercial Real Estate undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made herein.