Ares Management Valuation Multiples

Morgan Stanley is a global financial-services firm founded in 1935 that serves individuals, companies, institutional investors and governments. Its investment-banking and capital-markets businesses advise clients on transactions and help them raise financing. The firm also provides securities sales, trading, market-making and research services to institutional clients. Its wealth-management business supports individuals and organisations in building, preserving and managing their assets. Investment Management offers strategies across public and private markets for institutional and individual investors. The group earns revenue from financial advice, capital-raising services, trading and investment-management activities. It also provides workplace financial solutions for employers and their employees. Its international office network supports cross-border transactions and investment services. Morgan Stanley participated as an equity investor in the 2007 TXU acquisition, a role distinct from merely providing acquisition financing or advisory services.

Goldman Sachs is a storied financial institution, founded in 1869 and best known for its role as a leading global investment bank. The firm has a sprawling reach across global financial centers and has been the leading provider of global merger and acquisition advisory services, by revenue, for the past 20 years. Since the global financial crisis, Goldman has expanded its offerings into more predictable, fee-based businesses like asset and wealth management, which contributed roughly 30% of postprovision revenue at the end of 2025. The firm generates revenue from investment banking, global market making and trading, lending, asset management, wealth management, and a small and declining portfolio of consumer credit card loans.

SoftBank Group is a Tokyo-listed technology investment and telecommunications holding company founded in 1981. Its assets include a controlling interest in semiconductor designer Arm, ownership positions in Japanese telecommunications and internet businesses, and a global portfolio of public and private technology companies. SoftBank also sponsors the Vision Funds, which invest large pools of capital in growth-stage companies across artificial intelligence, software, consumer internet, mobility and related sectors. The group earns operating revenue from consolidated businesses and investment returns through asset management, equity ownership and disposals. In September 2021 SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led Sorare’s USD 680 million Series B financing, which valued the fantasy-sports company at USD 4.3 billion. The live Sorare round already names SoftBank Group as lead investor; the Aldea correction only adds the missing participating investor and aligns the date with Sorare’s official announcement.

BlackRock is an American investment management company headquartered at 50 Hudson Yards in New York City and the largest asset manager in the world, with $15.3 trillion of assets under management as of 2026. It runs index and active funds, the iShares exchange-traded fund range, alternatives including infrastructure and private credit, and retirement assets for institutional and individual clients in 100 countries, and it licenses its Aladdin investment and risk management technology to more than 1,000 institutional clients. BlackRock was founded in 1988 by Larry Fink, Robert Kapito, Susan Wagner and colleagues as a fixed income and risk management manager, and Fink remains chairman and chief executive. It grew through acquisitions including Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 2006 and Barclays Global Investors, owner of iShares, for $13.5 billion in 2009, followed by Global Infrastructure Partners for $12.5 billion, announced in January 2024, and private credit manager HPS Investment Partners for about $12 billion, agreed in December 2024. The company reported revenue of $24.22 billion and net income of $5.553 billion in 2025. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange and it is a component of the S&P 500.

Investor AB is an industrial holding company with a long-term, active investment portfolio plan. Its operations are divided into three business areas: Listed Companies, Patricia Industries, and Investments in EQT. The majority of the company's revenue is generated from dividends and changes in the value of its investment in other listed companies. Geographically, it generates the maximum revenue from the United States, with the remainder coming from Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, South America, Africa, and other regions.

Blackstone is the world's largest alternative-asset manager with $1.346 trillion in total assets under management, including $961.6 billion in fee-earning assets under management, at the end of June 2026. The company operates with scale in each of its major product lines: private equity (28% of fee-earning AUM and 35% of base management fees), real estate/real assets (29% and 32%), credit and insurance (33% and 25%), and other alternatives (10% and 8%). While the firm primarily serves institutional investors (84% of AUM), it also caters to clients in the high-net-worth channel (16%). Blackstone operates through 25 offices in the Americas (8), Europe and the Middle East (9), and the Asia-Pacific region (8).

Brookfield Corp is an investment firm focused on building long-term wealth for institutions and individuals, operating through seven segments: Asset Management, Wealth Solutions, Renewable Power and Transition, Infrastructure, Private Equity (which generates the highest revenue), Real Estate, and Corporate Activities. The company invests in real assets that form the backbone of the economy to deliver risk-adjusted returns to stakeholders, with the majority of its revenue coming from Asset Management. It has a presence across the United Kingdom, the United States (which contributes the highest revenue), Australia, Canada, Brazil, India, Colombia, Germany, other parts of Europe, other parts of Asia, and additional countries.

KKR is one of the world's largest alternative-asset managers, with $796.5 billion in total managed assets, including $638.4 billion in fee-earning assets under management, at the end of June 2026. The company has two core segments: asset management (which includes private markets—private equity, credit, infrastructure, energy, and real estate—and public markets—primarily credit and hedge/investment fund platforms) and insurance (following the firm's initial investment in, and then ultimate purchase of, Global Atlantic Financial Group, which is engaged in retirement/annuity and life insurance lines as well as reinsurance).

Brookfield Asset Management is one of the world's largest alternative-asset managers, with USD 1.151 trillion in total managed assets, including USD 580.7 billion in fee-earning AUM, at the end of September 2025. The company has three main business segments: private credit (USD 349.0 billion in total AUM and USD 262.8 billion in fee-earning AUM), private equity (USD 151.0 billion/USD 46.3 billion), and real estate/real assets (USD 651.0 billion/USD 271.6 billion). The firm primarily serves institutional investors (90% of AUM) and high-net-worth individuals (10%), and is diversified globally, with 67% of revenue from the Americas, 20% from EMEA, and 13% from Asia-Pacific. Canadian-based Brookfield Corporation owns 73% of Brookfield's outstanding Class A shares.

Macquarie Group is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group headquartered in Sydney and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. It operates through four groups: Macquarie Asset Management, Banking and Financial Services, Commodities and Global Markets, and Macquarie Capital, its advisory and principal investment arm. It serves institutional, corporate, government and retail clients, and is one of the world's largest infrastructure asset managers, with A$938.3 billion of assets under management and total assets of about A$403 billion in 2024. The group employs more than 20,000 staff in 34 markets and earns fees and commissions, net interest income and trading and investment income. Its subsidiaries include Macquarie Bank Limited and investments in infrastructure businesses such as Southern Water and Arqiva. Macquarie was founded on 10 December 1969 in Sydney as Hill Samuel Australia, a subsidiary of the UK's Hill Samuel & Co.

Apollo is one of the world's largest alternative asset managers, with $908.4 billion in total assets under management, or AUM, including $685.0 billion in fee-earning assets, at the end of September 2025. The company has two core operating segments: asset management and retirement services. Apollo operates with scale in each of its major product lines-private equity (with $125.6 billion in total AUM and $71.7 billion in fee-earning AUM), real estate/real assets ($59.6 billion/$27.1 billion), and private credit ($723.2 billion/$586.2 billion). Apollo has a distribution profile that is likely not too far off from the industry averages-with 84% of its assets held by institutional investors and 16% by high-net-worth clients.

Banco BTG Pactual is a Brazilian investment bank and asset manager headquartered in São Paulo and listed on the B3 exchange. It provides investment banking, corporate lending, sales and trading, wealth management, asset management and consumer banking services, and its merchant banking and private equity arm invests in companies across Latin America. The bank traces its origins to Pactual, founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1983 by André Jacurski, Luiz Cezar Fernandes and Paulo Guedes, and is chaired by André Esteves with Roberto Sallouti as chief executive. BTG Pactual earns fees, trading income and net interest income, reported net income of about US$3.0 billion and total assets of about US$162.8 billion in 2025, and employed 8,188 people in 2024. In 2025 its private equity arm agreed to invest $300 million in egg producer Global Eggs for an 11% stake.

Strategy Inc is a bitcoin treasury company and a provider of business intelligence services. It is designed to provide investors varying degrees of economic exposure to Bitcoin by offering a range of securities, including equity and fixed-income instruments. The company also provides industry AI-powered enterprise analytics software. It has one reportable operating segment: the Software Business, which is engaged in the design, development, marketing, and sales of the company's enterprise analytics software platform through cloud subscriptions and licensing arrangements and related services (i.e., product support, consulting, and education). Geographically, the company operates in EMEA, U.S. and Other Regions, of which maximum revenue is derived from U.S..

State Street is a leading provider of financial services, including investment servicing, investment management, and investment research and trading. With approximately $54 trillion in assets under custody and administration, and $5.7 trillion in assets under management, as of Dec. 31, 2025, State Street operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs about 51,500 worldwide.

Ameriprise Financial has evolved into a diversified financial services provider that generates roughly 65% of its operating income from advice and wealth management. With nearly $1.2 trillion in segment assets under management and advisory at year-end 2025, and with roughly 10,600 affiliated and employee advisors, Ameriprise is one of the larger US-based wealth managers. It also boasts a reasonably large asset management franchise in Columbia Threadneedle, which boasted $678 billion in assets under management at year-end 2025. The firm's third key segment is its retirement and protection services business, which sells insurance products to the firm’s advisory clients. After eliminations, Ameriprise had $1.69 trillion in assets under management and advisory across segments at year-end 2025.

Sun Life Financial is one of the Big Three Canadian life insurers. The Canadian business contributed around 38% of adjusted earnings. In that segment, the firm provides health, life insurance, and annuity products to individual and group customers. Its US business is mostly group health and contributed about 20% of the firm's adjusted earnings in 2024. Sun Life also offers life insurance and wealth products in several Asian markets with a strong presence in Hong Kong and the Philippines. The Asia segment contributed around 18% of adjusted 2024 earnings. Its asset management business had around CAD 1.1 trillion total assets under management or administration at the end of 2024 and represents around 34% of the firm's earnings.

Power Corporation of Canada is a holding company with controlling interests in Great-West Lifeco (one of the Big Three Canadian life insurers), IGM Financial (Canada's largest nonbank asset manager), and other alternative-asset management platforms (Sagard and Power Sustainable). Great-West and IGM Financial contribute to over 85% of Power's value. The company also has minority interests in Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, a holding company with interests in European firms.

Prudential Financial is one of the largest US life insurers, offering annuities, life insurance, and asset-management products. The United States and Japan are its two largest markets. Its US business contributed about 50% of adjusted 2024 earnings and includes institutional retirement (mostly pension risk transfer), individual retirement (annuities), group insurance, and individual life insurance. Its international business represented about 40% of adjusted earnings, with a strong market position in Japan, and the firm also has a presence in emerging markets like Brazil. The company's investment management business, PGIM, contributed approximately 10% of its 2024 adjusted earnings. PGIM had around $1.4 trillion in assets under management at the end of third-quarter 2025.

ORIX Corp is a diversified financial services company with operations in Corporate Financial Services, Maintenance Leasing, Real Estate, PE Investment and Concession, Environment and Energy, Insurance, Banking and Credit, Aircraft and Ships, ORIX USA, ORIX Europe, Asia, and Australia and engages in various other fee businesses by providing products and services aligned with customer needs to its core customer base of domestic small and medium-sized enterprises. Orix's numerous divisions finance leases of large-ticket items like ships, airplanes, and technology equipment. The company generates the majority of its revenue from Corporate Financial Services and Maintenance Leasing operations and Real Estate operations.

EQT is a Swedish global private markets investment firm, formally EQT AB, headquartered in Stockholm and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. It was founded in 1994 by Investor AB, SEB and AEA Investors, with Conni Jonsson as founding chairman, and is associated with the Wallenberg family. Its funds invest in private equity, infrastructure, real estate, growth equity and venture capital across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, and it runs a private wealth business. EQT ranks second globally in private equity and fifth in infrastructure by capital raised. Together with Coller Capital it reported about €341 billion of assets under management in the second quarter of 2026, and its portfolio companies employ more than 550,000 people across over 330 companies. It set up EQT Ventures in 2016, listed in 2019, bought Life Sciences Partners in 2021 and Baring Private Equity Asia in 2022. Well-known investments include the software company IFS, the pest-control group Anticimex, SUSE, Zayo Group and the Swedish fibre operator IP-Only. It is led by chief executive Per Franzén and chairman Jean Salata, and earns management fees and carried interest.

Itausa Investimentos ITAU SA is a Brazilian investment holding company. It has equity interests in the companies engaged in the financial, consumer goods, construction materials, sanitation, energy, and infrastructure sectors. Its portfolio consists of brands such as Itau Unibanco, Dexco, Alpargatas, CCR, Aegea Saneamento, Copa Energia and Nova Transportadora do Sudeste (NTS). The majority of the revenue for the company is generated from Itau Unibanco which is a banking institution that offers, directly or using its subsidiaries, a broad range of credit products and other financial services to a diversified individual and corporate client base in Brazil and abroad.

3i Group PLC is a closed-ended investment fund and an investment company specialising in private equity and infrastructure. The Company generates returns for its shareholders and co-investors by investing in private equity and infrastructure assets. Its business segments are private equity, infrastructure, and Scandlines. The private equity segment invests in business services, consumer, healthcare, and industrial sectors, while the infrastructure segment invests in utilities, transportation, and social infrastructure.

Swiss Life is predominantly a life and long-term savings company that generates the main share of its revenue and earnings from its domestic market of Switzerland. The company also operates in France, Germany, and a few smaller but wealthy European countries. The company has an asset manager as well. Swiss Life has three main sources of income that vary in significance by geography. Savings income relates to spread-based earnings, the risk result relates to an insurance margin, and the fee result relates to asset management and financial advisory. The fee result has been growing in importance over recent years as a result of advice, asset management, and unit-linked sales.

Yuanta Financial Holdings Co Ltd is engages in the business of a financial holding company and its operations are limited to investing and investment management.

Northern Trust is a leading provider of wealth management, asset servicing, asset management, and banking to corporations, institutions, affluent families, and individuals. Founded in Chicago in 1889, Northern Trust has offices in 20 states and Washington, D.C. as well as 23 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. As of December 2025, Northern Trust had assets under custody or administration of $18.7 trillion and assets under management of $1.8 trillion.

Raymond James Financial is a diversified financial services firm that provides wealth management, investment banking, asset management, and capital markets services to individuals, corporations, and municipalities. The firm maintains an extensive catalogue of products and services across its business lines. However, the wealth management franchise generates the bulk of its revenues and earnings through a vast network of more than 8,900 independent and employee-affiliated advisors, who collectively managed over $1.7 trillion in client assets as of fiscal year-end 2025. While Raymond James maintains a global footprint, the company derives over 90% of its revenue, and an even larger percentage of its operating income, from the United States.

Nomura Holdings Inc is a financial services group in Japan and operates offices in countries and regions world-wide, including Japan, the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("Hong Kong") through its subsidiaries. The company's clients include individuals, corporations, financial institutions, governments, and governmental agencies. The company's business consists of Wealth Management*, Investment Management, and Wholesale. The company generates the majority of its revenue from the wholesale segment. The Wholesale Division consists of two businesses, Global Markets, which is mainly engaged in the trading, sales, and structuring of financial products, and Investment Banking, which is engaged in advisory, financing, and solutions businesses.

Mega Financial Holding Co Ltd is a financial services holding company operating mostly in Taiwan but with exposure internationally. The activities of the company includes banking, underwriting securities, brokerage and proprietary business of bills and bonds, insurance, asset management, venture capital, business operations, and others.

Principal Financial Group Inc is a financial services provider. It offers various financial products and services including retirement, asset management, and workplace benefits and protection solutions to individuals and institutional clients. The company, along with its subsidiaries, operates in the following reportable segments; Retirement and Income Solutions, Principal Asset Management, and Benefits and Protection. Maximum revenue is generated from the Retirement and Income Solutions segment which provides workplace savings and retirement solutions, banking, trust and custodial services, individual variable annuities (including RILAs), pension risk transfer, and investment services to businesses, their employees, and other individuals.

Industrivarden AB is a holding company that invests in and works long-term to develop and create value in its portfolio companies. Active ownership is exercised through sizable ownership stakes in a selection of listed companies with firm market positions, good cash flows, financial strength, and clear development capacity. Its stock offers exposure to a portfolio of companies with validated business models, a wide breadth of underlying business areas, and good value potential.

T. Rowe Price provides asset management services for individual and institutional investors. It offers a broad range of no-load US and international stock, hybrid, bond, and money market funds. At the end of September, the firm had $1.767 trillion in managed assets, composed of equity (50%), balanced (35%), fixed-income and money market (12%), and alternative (3%) offerings. Approximately two-thirds of managed assets are held in retirement-based accounts, which provides T. Rowe Price with a somewhat stickier client base than most of its peers. The firm also manages private accounts, provides retirement planning advice, and offers discount brokerage and trust services. The company is primarily a US-based asset manager, deriving less than 10% of its AUM from overseas.

Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC is an investment trust company. The company's objective is to maximize total return from a portfolio of long-term investments chosen on a global basis enabling the company to provide capital and dividend growth. It focuses on investment in quoted securities irrespective of any geographical, industry, and sector exposure. The portfolio also invests in fixed-income securities, convertible securities, funds, unquoted entities, and other assets.

Legal & General Group PLC operates across five reportable segments, comprising Institutional Retirement, Asset Management, Insurance, Retail Retirement and Corporate Investments. Its revenue includes insurance revenue, fees from fund management and investment contracts and other operational income from contracts with customers. The company operates in United Kingdom, USA and Rest of World.

GF Securities Co Ltd is principally engaged in securities business, the proxy sale of securities investment funds, the provision of futures intermediary services for futures companies, securities investment fund custodian, fund raising, fund sales, asset management, project and investment management, commodity futures brokerage, financial futures brokerage and futures investment advisory, etc. It operates through the following segments: Investment banking, Wealth management, Trading & Institutions, and Investment management.

KGI Financial Holding Co Ltd is engages in financial holding, invests in and manages the businesses of finance-related institutions domestic and foreign approved by authorities and investees. It operates four segments: Commercial banking, Securities, Venture Capital and Insurance. Commercial banking engaged in consumer banking, corporate banking and market and financial institution. Securities engaged in wealth management business, trading business and investment banking business. Venture Capital engaged in investment business directly. Insurance department operates life insurance business based on the provisions of the insurance law. Key revenue is generated from Insurance segment.

Amundi resulted from the merger of the asset manager businesses of French banks Credit Agricole and Societe Generale in 2010. In 2017, it expanded into Italy, Germany, and Austria by acquiring Pioneer Investments, which had previously been UniCredit's asset manager. France accounts for just under half of assets under management, while Italy and the rest of Europe contribute about 30% combined. Assets from Asia are growing rapidly and contribute just shy of 20%. Amundi is the largest European asset manager and a top 10 asset manager globally. Credit Agricole remains a controlling shareholder with a 70% stake.

Two Point Zero Group PJSC is an investment firm involved in the energy and consumer sectors. Its portfolio incorporates AI-enabled and diversified assets designed to support operational efficiency and potential long-term returns. Its business operations are involved in: i) Energy & Infrastructure: renewable energy, infrastructure solutions, and regional mining across the energy value chain. ii) Consumer: media, mobility, retail, beauty, food, and packaging iii) Investments: institutions and fintech initiatives focused on long-term capital, synergies, and financial infrastructure development.

Partners Group is a private markets investment manager headquartered in Baar, in the Swiss canton of Zug, and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange since its 2006 IPO. It was founded in 1996 by Marcel Erni, Urs Wietlisbach and Alfred Gantner. The firm invests in private equity, infrastructure, real estate, private credit and royalties, largely through direct investments, and offers clients closed-end funds, evergreen (semi-liquid) funds and bespoke mandates; its US Private Equity Master Fund dates from 2009 and it launched the first European Long Term Investment Fund in 2017. It serves more than 800 institutional clients, together with private banks and individual investors, and earns management and performance fees; revenue was CHF 2.56 billion in 2025. Partners Group manages USD 186 billion, has invested over USD 270 billion since 1996 and employs about 2,000 people, including more than 500 investment professionals, while its portfolio companies employ over 250,000 people. Holdings have included Breitling, DiversiTech, Version 1 and Techem. Around 45% of the shares are held by employees and partners. David Layton has been chief executive since 2019; in September 2026 the firm named Roberto Cagnati and Juri Jenkner co-CEOs from January 2027, with Layton becoming chief investment officer.

China International Capital Corporation, known as CICC, is a Beijing-based investment banking and financial services group established in 1995. Its activities include investment banking, equity sales and trading, fixed income, currency and commodities services, investment management and wealth management. The company provides financial advice and capital markets services to businesses and institutions, while its wealth management operations also serve individual investors. Its investment banking activities support securities offerings, corporate transactions and access to domestic and international capital markets. Investment management services and research capabilities complement its securities and advisory businesses. CICC earns revenue through financial services, securities activities and the management of client investments rather than manufacturing or selling physical products. The company converted into a joint stock company in June 2015 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in November of that year.

Pershing Square is a United States investment-management business associated with Pershing Square Capital Management and its publicly listed parent. The manager follows a concentrated, research-intensive approach to investing in large public companies and selected private or strategic opportunities. It manages permanent capital and other investment vehicles for shareholders and institutional investors. The business earns management and performance-related fees from the capital it oversees. Pershing Square and its affiliated funds had invested in Howard Hughes Holdings for many years before a newly formed Pershing Square holding company completed a separate primary investment in 2025. That transaction gave the group a larger strategic position and an advisory role as Howard Hughes began transforming into a diversified holding company. Pershing Square therefore operates as an asset manager and investment platform rather than as an operating company in the industries represented by its portfolio holdings.

ASR Nederland NV is an insurance company. The company offers a variety of insurance policies to its customers. The business segments are Non-life; Life; Asset Management; Distribution and Services; and Holding and Other. The Non-life insurance entities offer Non-life insurance contracts. Its Life insurance entities offer financial products such as life insurance contracts and life insurance contracts on behalf of policyholders. The Asset Management segment involves all activities related to asset management, including investment property management. Its Distribution and Services segment includes activities related to the distribution of insurance contracts. It generates the majority of its revenue from the Non-life segment.

HAL Trust is an investment company. The company's reportable segments include Unquoted, Quoted interests, Real estate, and Liquid portfolio. It generates majority of its revenue from the Quoted interests segment which comprises both the company's consolidated and unconsolidated interests in publicly traded entities that are not in scope of the Liquid portfolio segment. Geographically, the company operates in Europe, USA & Canada, Asia, and Other. It generates maximum revenue from Europe.

Franklin Resources provides investment services for individual and institutional investors. At the end of December 2025, Franklin had $1.684 trillion in managed assets, composed primarily of equity (41%), fixed-income (26%), multi-asset/balanced (12%) funds, alternatives (16%), and money market funds (5%). Distribution tends to be weighted between retail investors (57% of AUM) and institutional accounts (40%), with high-net-worth clients accounting for the remainder. Franklin is one of the more global of the US-based asset managers we cover, with 30% of its assets under management invested in global/international strategies and 29% sourced from clients domiciled outside the United States.

EXOR NV is a private equity investment firm based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The firm seeks to invest in the United States and Europe.

Meritz Financial Group provides various financial services in South Korea and internationally. It operates through Insurance, Securities, Capital, and Others segments. It provides a wide range of non-life insurance products, including fire, marine, accident, engineering, liability, auto, and various long-term insurance plans covering damage, health, savings, and pensions. In addition to insurance, the company operates in merchant banking, securities, private equity, trust management, real estate leasing, and asset-securitization services. It generates the majority of its revenue from the Securities segment.

Corebridge Financial Inc provides retirement solutions and insurance products in the United States, offering fixed, fixed index, and registered index-linked annuities with optional benefits, including lifetime income guarantees and death benefits, distributed through an extensive platform. The company operates through the Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Life Insurance, Institutional Markets, and Corporate and Other segments. Individual Retirement consists of fixed, fixed index, and registered index-linked annuities, while Group Retirement includes recordkeeping and plan administrative services. The company operates in North America and internationally, with overall revenue coming from North America.

Guosen Securities Co Ltd is a national securities company. It offers investment banking, financial engineering, and asset management services.

Sprott Physical Gold Trust is a closed-end mutual fund trust. The company provides a secure, convenient and exchange-traded investment alternative for investors interested in holding physical gold bullion without the inconvenience associated with direct investment in physical gold bullion. The company invests mainly in long-term holdings of unencumbered, fully allocated, physical gold bullion and does not and will not speculate about short-term changes in gold prices.