Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation Announces Pricing of Offering of Common Stock

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (the “Company”) (NYSE:ACRE), today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 7,000,000 shares of common stock for total estimated gross proceeds of approximately $101.9 million.

The Company has also granted the underwriters an option for 30 days to purchase up to an additional 1,050,000 shares of common stock. The offering is expected to close on or about March 17, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. The Company intends to use all of the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including repaying indebtedness and investing in mortgage loans and other target assets and investments consistent with its investment strategies and investment guidelines and funding commitments on existing mortgage loans.

Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Securities and BofA Securities are joint book running managers for the offering, and JMP Securities, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, A Stifel Company and Raymond James are co-managers for the offering.

A registration statement on Form S-3 relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and has been declared effective. The offering may be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. A copy of the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus related to the offering can be obtained, when available, for free by visiting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov or by contacting: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014; Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 30 Hudson Yards, 500 West 33rd Street - 14th Floor, New York, NY 10001 or by telephone at 1-800-326-5897 or by email at [e-mail]; or BofA Securities, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd floor, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001, Attn: Prospectus Department or by email at [e-mail].

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor does it constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Nothing in this press release constitutes an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of the Company or an investment fund managed by the Company or its affiliates.