Ares Strategic Income Fund 10-Q: NAV $26.69 at Sep 30, 2026, 38.2% of Tender Paid, Q3 Income 90.5% of Payout

What this filing adds to what the fund already told you

The fund reported its September 30 NAV and leverage on October 21 and a portfolio letter on November 3 (see our page on ASIF’s tender proration, Cox Capital bids and leverage). Neither gave third-quarter income, the money in and out by class, or the risk-grade tables. The Form 10-Q does, and the Supplement No. 15 to the prospectus filed the same day (accession 0001628280-26-071725) attaches the same 10-Q as its Appendix A, so there is one set of numbers, not two. The sections below follow the order a holder asks the questions: what is a share worth, can I sell it, is the payout earned, and is the loan book holding.

NAV per share by class and by month

By class at September 30, 2026, Class I had net assets of $7,766,064 thousand on 290,924 thousand shares, Class S $1,324,904 thousand on 49,632 thousand shares and Class D $824,895 thousand on 30,901 thousand shares. The three classes together are 371,457 thousand shares, from 382,315 thousand at December 31, 2025 (down 2.8%, our arithmetic). The cover page counted 292,490,653 Class I, 49,944,225 Class S and 31,067,708 Class D shares on November 4, 2026, which excludes shares sold effective November 1 because their price is not set yet.

The nine-month per-share bridge for Class I is $27.48 at the start, plus NII of $1.85, minus $0.71 of net realized and unrealized loss, minus $1.93 of distributions, equals $26.69. Total return on NAV is 4.33% for Class I, not annualized, against 7.13% in the first nine months of 2025. The net unrealized loss for nine months was $297,533 thousand, almost all in the first half: $294,410 thousand in the first six months, then a small $3,123 thousand loss in the third quarter, which also had $19,531 thousand of realized gains.

The October NAV is not out. The 10-Q says new shares sold effective November 1, 2026 are priced at the NAV “as of the last calendar day of October 2026,” generally available within 20 business days after November 1, 2026. We checked EDGAR on November 7, 2026 and the last filing on this CIK was the 10-Q of November 6.

Tender offers: requested against accepted

Requests were 11.6%, 14.4% and 13.1% of shares outstanding in the three offers (our arithmetic, using the 5% limit to infer the share count). The September request was the second largest in dollars: the NAV of the shares tendered was $1,347,704,693, against $515,097,753 paid. Every offer in the first nine months of 2025 was paid in full (1,093 thousand, 5,281 thousand and 2,943 thousand shares, 0.47%, 1.80% and 0.93% of shares outstanding). The price is NAV at the end of the month before the offer closes, less 2.00% for shares held under a year unless a waiver applies.

Worked example (our arithmetic, not a forecast). A holder who asked to sell 10,000 shares in September received 3,820 shares at $26.74, about $102,147 before any early repurchase deduction, and still held 6,180. If the same holder had resubmitted the unfilled part in each offer, they would have been filled at 43.1%, 34.7% and 38.2%, leaving 10,000 × 0.569 × 0.653 × 0.618 ≈ 2,296 shares after three offers, if the percentages had applied to the whole position each time. The 10-Q is clear on the rule: “Unfulfilled repurchase requests do not carry over automatically and must be resubmitted in the next quarterly repurchase offer.” No fourth-quarter tender offer (Schedule TO-I) was on EDGAR on November 7, 2026. For the other funds that prorated this quarter, see our Q3 2026 tender results census and the private credit redemptions tracker.

Money in against money out

The sales are Class I, S and D proceeds added together. Distributions reinvested by holders in the third quarter were $61,185 thousand (Class I $44,111 thousand, S $8,779 thousand, D $8,295 thousand), and net share transactions removed $288,522 thousand from net assets. New sales were down 90.5% from the third quarter of 2025 (our arithmetic). After quarter-end the fund sold about $34,818 thousand of shares effective October 1 and received about $96,599 thousand for shares effective November 1. Over the nine months the fund’s principal debt rose $1,056,859 thousand, from $11,194,548 thousand to $12,251,407 thousand (our arithmetic), while net assets fell; the 10-Q does not say which cash paid for which tender, so this is a comparison, not a statement of cause.

Is the distribution earned? NII against payout, by quarter

The first-quarter figures are the six-month totals in the June 10-Q less the second quarter. By class, nine-month NII per share was $1.85 for Class I, $1.68 for Class S and $1.80 for Class D, against distributions of $1.93, $1.76 and $1.88, so each class earned 95.5% to 95.9% of what it was paid (our arithmetic). The gross monthly distribution has been $0.21430 a share in every month of 2026 and is declared at that rate for each month through March 2027; the board declared January to March 2027 on November 6, 2026. The Class I annualized rate on the September 30 NAV is 9.64% (the fund’s figure; $0.2143 × 12 ÷ $26.69 also gives 9.64%).

Why the third quarter is lower, and why the fund’s letter can still be read as true. Total investment income rose to $521,430 thousand from $393,881 thousand a year earlier on a larger average portfolio ($21,894,121 thousand against $17,733,792 thousand) at a 9.1% yield. But interest and credit facility fees were $181,905 thousand, 34.9% of investment income (our arithmetic), and the line “expense support recoupment” took $38,940 thousand: the fund repaying the Adviser for expenses it covered in earlier periods, which is an expense in NII. Add the recoupment back and Q3 NII is $257,962 thousand, 106.6% of distributions; do the same for the nine months, remove the $8,633 thousand of expense support received, and NII is $757,966 thousand, 102.4% (our arithmetic). The November 3 letter says the fund “continues to generate net investment income in excess of its current distribution”; the 10-Q’s NII, as reported, is below the distribution in the third quarter and over nine months. We cannot tell from the filings which measure the letter uses, and the 10-Q does not reconcile the two, so a holder should ask. The fund’s own phrase for its record is that it “has never reduced its regular monthly distribution per share.” That is accurate on the 8-Ks we read; it is a statement about the rate, not about coverage.

Credit: non-accruals, risk grades and the joint venture

The 10-Q gives non-accruals only as percentages, so the dollar amount is approximate: 0.4% of the $21,511,938 thousand of amortized cost is roughly $86 million, and the rounding band is wide (our arithmetic). The grade tables are the fund’s own scale from 1 (the Adviser expects not to recoup cost) to 4 (least risk). Grade 2 means the risk of recouping cost “has increased materially”. Grade 3, the starting grade, is 92.7% of fair value and 753 of 795 companies; grade 4 rose to 5.8% from 2.6%, so the book is moving at both ends. The weighted average grade stayed 3.0. The portfolio shrank by 75 companies in nine months and by $152,822 thousand in fair value ($21,355,776 thousand against $21,508,598 thousand, our arithmetic) while debt grew.

Named nine-month markdowns in the 10-Q: Cornerstone OnDemand and Sunshine Software Holdings, $54,658 thousand; BVI Medical and BVI Group, $25,309 thousand; Kaseya and Knockout Intermediate Holdings I, $17,122 thousand; “other, net,” $240,710 thousand. Against that, FEH Group, Spruce Bidco II and South Florida Motorsports were marked up $29,813 thousand, $15,242 thousand and $15,104 thousand. Software and services is 21.5% of fair value, from 22.0%.

The one structural change: ADLP. The fund’s investments in joint ventures, which are its stake in ADLP LLC, a venture with a large North American pension fund, were $1,003,200 thousand at September 30, 2026, up from $755,200 thousand at June 30 and $391,000 thousand at December 31, 2025, now 4.7% of investments (our arithmetic). In the third quarter the fund put $248,000 thousand into joint ventures and sold $346 million of loans to ADLP, 17% of the quarter’s $2,028,865 thousand of sales and repayments (our arithmetic); the 10-Q reports about $4 million of realized gains on those sales and a 13.5% yield on the joint ventures. The fund holds 80% of the ADLP certificates and the partner 20%. The non-accrual percentages above are those the 10-Q gives for the fund’s investments; this page does not report credit inside ADLP itself.

Leverage and the debt stack

The fund gives 1.24 times, or 1.19 times net of about $463 million of cash, in its October 21 8-K. At September 30 the debt was $2,104,596 thousand on the revolving credit facility, $1,470,811 thousand, $650,000 thousand and $568,000 thousand on three funding facilities, $1,358,000 thousand in three CLO issues, and $6,100,000 thousand in nine unsecured note issues maturing from March 2028 to March 2032 (our sum, 49.8% of principal debt). About $3.8 billion was available under the credit facilities, subject to a borrowing base, against $3.9 billion at June 30. The weighted average stated interest rate on debt was 5.4% for the quarter, against 6.0% a year earlier, on average debt of $11,968,340 thousand, so interest cost is rising with the amount borrowed, not the rate: the Class I ratio of interest and credit facility fees to average net assets is 6.40% for nine months, from 5.20%.

Worked example (our arithmetic, illustrative, not the fund’s result). On $100 of net assets, 1.24 times borrowed means $224 of investments. At the 9.1% yield on the total portfolio that is $20.38 of income; at the 5.4% stated rate the $124 of debt costs $6.70, leaving $13.68 before fees and losses. A 3% fall in the value of the $224 of investments is $6.72, which is 6.7% of the $100.

What to watch, with dates

• Distribution dates: $0.2143 a share is payable November 20, 2026, December 24, 2026 and January 25, 2027 (record dates October 30, November 30 and December 31, 2026).
• October NAV: due within 20 business days after November 1, 2026; the monthly 8-K also reports debt, cumulative sales and leverage.
• Fourth-quarter tender: the Schedule TO-I has not been filed as of November 7, 2026. Look for the percentage of shares offered, the pricing date and whether the board moves off 5%.
• Cox Capital: the unsolicited October bids are covered on our Cox Capital Partners page.

What a reader can do with this

• If you hold ASIF and want out: the fund’s own tender buys at NAV but filled 34.7% to 43.1% of requests in 2026; the 10-Q says unfilled requests must be resubmitted. The dollar value of a request that is only partly filled is NAV on the filled portion, with the rest waiting for the next offer.
• If you are comparing ASIF with another non-traded BDC: the numbers to put side by side are repurchases over new sales (3.11 times here), NII over distributions (90.5% here in the third quarter), debt over net assets (1.24 times) and non-accruals at cost (0.4%). Our BDC explainer defines each term, the non-traded BDC list has the same ratios for 67 funds at June 30, 2026, and the BDC non-accrual census ranks the credit data. A fellow Ares vehicle that is listed, Ares Capital, has its own dividend and NII coverage page; the other Q3 10-Q readings we published are Blue Owl Capital Corporation II.
• Ask the fund three questions: how it defines the NII that is “in excess” of the distribution; how much of the $54,576 thousand of nine-month recoupment remains to be paid; and what is on non-accrual, in dollars.
• Taxes: the fund is taxed as a regulated investment company, so distributions are reported to holders after year-end. See our guide to estimated tax payments on REIT, BDC and K-1 income.

If a meaningful share of your savings sits in a BDC where only part of each sale request is filled, a conversation with a qualified adviser about how that fits the rest of your holdings may be worth having.

FAQ

All figures are from SEC EDGAR filings of Ares Strategic Income Fund (CIK 1918712) read on November 7, 2026: the Form 10-Q for September 30, 2026 (accession 0001628280-26-071717, filed November 6, 2026), its prospectus Supplement No. 15 (Form 424B3, 0001628280-26-071725), the Form 10-Q for June 30, 2026 (0001628280-26-054923), the final Schedule TO-I/A amendments of April 17, 2026 (0001104659-26-044917), July 28, 2026 (0001104659-26-087531) and September 25, 2026 (0001104659-26-110962), and the Forms 8-K of October 21, 2026 (0001628280-26-066727) and November 3, 2026 (0001628280-26-069528). The last filing on this CIK was the Form 10-Q of November 6, 2026. Ratios, sums, percentages and worked examples are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.