Partners Group Is Said to Cut Jobs in Private Equity Unit

(Bloomberg) — Partners Group Holding AG has cut or reassigned dozens of positions in its private equity unit, as the firm seeks to boost performance under investor scrutiny.

Some of the affected staff in the division, which is run by Wolf-Henning Scheider, have exited the firm, people familiar with the matter said, while others have been moved to other parts of the company including Infrastructure and Royalties. The cuts were global and went across the hierarchy in the unit, which has over 200 staff, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential information.

Partners Group has seen performance at its older portfolios trail those of some peers, which has helped fuel a surge in investor requests to return cash from its “evergreen” products. One of Europe’s largest private markets firms with $186 billion under management, Partners is seeking to emerge from a turbulent period in which it has been targeted by a short seller firm amid doubts over its valuations.

“Partners Group’s private equity team size remains consistent with its long-term average, while we have significantly strengthened our senior operational capabilities over the past year,” the company said in a statement. “This reflects a buyout environment in which creating long-term value and driving distributions require greater operational intensity.”

The exits from the private equity team happened after one of the firm’s regular performance review exercises, a spokesman said.

Senior hires over the last year have included Tarak Mehta, Nicholas Smith Wang, Jennifer Hoh and Pete Zippelius, the spokesman added.

Partners Group shares are down about 40% this year, making the Zug-based company one of the worst-performing financial stocks in Europe at a time of sustained pressure on private equity firms generally. A recent management reshuffle, in which David Layton moved from the chief executive officer position to be chief investment officer, has done little to arrest the slide.

Partners Group has recently experienced a number of write-downs at investments, some of which were made at the peak of the post-Covid market. Private equity performance is heavily influenced by the timing of deals, with investments made at the end of the low-interest rate-era when valuations soared now often under pressure of much higher rates.

Partners Group earlier this year wrote off its investment in healthcare firm Pharmathen and is discussing handing over the keys of German toy company Schleich to its creditors. It has also been weighing injecting fresh funds into French real estate services provider Emeria SASU.

One of the firm’s flagship investments, watchmaker Breitling, has also been cutting jobs as the Swiss firm grapples with softening luxury demand and higher costs.

Like other private equity firms, Partners has struggled to offload their assets as quickly as they used to, leaving their investors waiting longer to be repaid. That has prompted some investors, in particular wealthy individuals, to seek the periodic redemptions which the evergreen structure pioneered by Partners Group allows.

At the same time, some of Partners’ more recent private equity investments have recorded stronger earnings growth than the firm has seen in its 30-year history. And in infrastructure, the firm’s newer evergreens have outperformed many large rivals, according to a recent Goldman Sachs Group Inc. research report.

Partners has reacted to the redemption pressure by presenting a plan for one of its flagship private equity funds, the €6.6 billion Global Value SICAV, proposing to divide it into two sub-portfolios. Older assets are to be moved into one pocket and a smaller number of newer investments which are more likely to generate higher returns into another.

The move is aimed at giving investors who are keen on cashing out a way to do so, while letting those committed for the long-term stay invested in the fund’s more promising bets.

(Adds names of new hires in sixth paragraph.)

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