KKR Passes Partners Group as Europe’s Top Evergreen Fund Manager
(Bloomberg) — KKR & Co. has overtaken Partners Group AG as Europe’s largest manager of open-ended private market funds, with the US firm expanding its business as the Swiss asset manager has grappled with withdrawal requests.
“We recently became the largest manager of evergreen private markets funds in Europe. Previously the number one was a Swiss company,” KKR’s managing director and head of global wealth solutions international Markus Egloff said in an interview in Zurich, citing data compiled by industry research firm Novantigo.
The US private equity firm became the largest manager of European-domiciled evergreens by assets under management in the first quarter, with €13.6 billion ($15.6 billion) across its evergreen platforms. Partners Group’s asset under management also grew, to €13.4 billion at the end of the first quarter, up €0.4 billion from the end of 2025.
“We have been doing this business for three years, so it goes to show that at least in the private wealth space we have clearly been winning significant market shares,” Egloff added.
KKR launched its first European-domiciled evergreen fund for its wealth channel in May 2023, joining a flurry of alternative asset managers opening offices in Zurich to tap investors through partnerships with private banks.
Private equity firms have increasingly tapped wealthy retail investors to boost inflows as institutional buyers reach their limits for allocations to private markets.
In some instances, the pursuit of new investor types has backfired.
Private credit funds — including some managed by KKR — have faced investor redemption requests this year amid broader worries over debt quality and the impact of AI on the software companies in PE portfolios.
The withdrawal requests put Partners Group, Europe’s second-largest listed PE firm, in the spotlight.
The firm placed a cap on redemptions for its flagship $14.5 billion evergreen fund following a surge in requests. The move underscored a broader systemic crunch for evergreen private market funds, where high-profile asset mismatches and liquidity crunches have sparked intense regulatory scrutiny and forced managers to drastically restructure how they handle retail investor exits.
The turbulence might now present an opportunity, according to KKR.
“There are lot of our competitors, private asset managers, and traditional asset managers also trying to get into that space. So the number of evergreen funds and access points have hugely increased,” he said.
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