Partners Group’s Hallmark Faces Scrutiny as Rich Clients Waver

(Bloomberg) — Partners Group Holding AG has long taken pride in forging its own path.

The Swiss private equity firm downplays buyouts in favor of growing companies. The slogan “built differently to build differently” is emblazoned on its Baar, Switzerland headquarters while signage at the firm’s Colorado campus proclaims: “This Is Not Wall Street.”

A key differentiator — and growth driver — has been its early embrace of rich individuals. Partners Group was a leader in selling alternative investments to a broad swathe of wealthy investors, pioneering so-called evergreen funds that have no fixed end date and allow periodic redemptions.

This week that point of difference proved painful. Shares tumbled 16% on Wednesday after withdrawal requests from those same clients surged, prompting the firm to cap withdrawals at one of its private equity funds and warn more such moves were likely.

The firm emphasizes such clients only make up about a fifth of its assets under management. But its pioneering presence in the space is leaving it under particular pressure with individual clients proving far more skittish than institutional investors amid a global slump in confidence in private markets.

“It’s a consequence of fundamentally different client behavior with wealth investors” compared to institutional investors, said Nicholas Herman, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in London. The firm’s private-equity offering for rich individuals is the most mature in the industry, Herman added.

Doubts about the valuations of less-transparent private assets have already hit private credit funds run by firms such as Blue Owl Capital Inc. and Blackstone Inc., prompting some to cap withdrawals. Those pressures have resurfaced this week, with both Blackstone and Cliffwater LLC limiting redemptions from flagship funds.

Partners Group is suffering from the general malaise affecting private markets, Chief Executive Officer David Layton said in an interview Friday, emphasizing the ability to curb redemptions is a key feature of funds — and one reason investors should be comfortable investing in private markets.

Other top executives have made similar comments, including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who said redemption limits were “on page one” of fund prospectuses.

“These funds are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do,” Layton said. “They’re designed to help individual investors invest across cycles more like institutions.”

He also emphasized Partners Group’s decision to avoid piling into private credit.

“We made a conscious choice not to build disproportionate scale in private credit over the past few years,” Layton said. “We continue to feel reasonably good about that decision.”

Still, in some ways, “private equity evergreen funds face a more complex challenge than private credit,” said Patrice Mesnier, founding partner of Oldenburg Capital Partners. That’s because credit funds generate steadier income from loans, while buyout funds ultimately rely on being able to sell businesses, and the so-called exit market still hasn’t normalized, he said.

Short Sellers

Founded by three Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alumni, Partners Group has risen to become one of Europe’s largest alternative asset managers, alongside peers such as EQT, Ardian and CVC Capital Partners.

The trio, Alfred Gantner, Marcel Erni and Urs Wietlisbach, remain shareholders and active board members. Each holds a roughly 5% stake, data collated by Bloomberg show.

Evergreen funds, which Partners Group pioneered in the early 2000s, have been central to its growth. Today those funds make up some 30% of all assets. Partners Group managed about $56 billion in evergreen funds as of year-end, compared to $185 billion in total assets.

Most of the firm’s 33 evergreen funds are private-equity focused, with roughly 10% centered on private credit, Layton told investors on a March earnings call.

This week’s redemption curbs cap a string of setbacks. Partners Group stock has been under pressure for the past two years, amid broad concern about a dearth of new private equity deals to drive returns.

In April, short-selling firm Grizzly Research said it’s betting against Partners Group, alleging as much as 40% of investments were significantly overvalued. Partners Group called the report defamatory and misleading.

Profit rose 12% in 2025, in line with estimates, with revenue up 20%. The company re-confirmed on Thursday its guidance for gross new client demand of between $26 billion and $32 billion this year and touted a healthy fundraising pipeline, including on the evergreen platform where it expects fundraising to exceed outflows in the first half of the year.

“I think people may be surprised to see more participants in private markets at the end of the year than we had at the start of the year,” Layton said in the interview.

Under ambitious growth targets set out last year, Partners Group plans to boost headcount and lift assets under management above $450 billion by 2033.

“That’s looking very aggressive now,” said Morningstar analyst Johann Scholtz. “Evergreens are a third of their assets under management, and if that’s flat to declining, that leaves a lot of heavy lifting for the rest of the portfolio to do.”

Natural Selection

Distinctiveness is a design feature at Partners Group. Both management campuses in Baar and Broomfield, Colorado, overlook mountain scenery from the outskirts of urban centers.

It has also taken a different tack in other areas. Unlike US-based peers such as Apollo Global Management or KKR & Co., Partners Group hasn’t pushed into insurance to secure long-term capital, although insurers make up a decent chunk of their client base.

In a potential signal that it aims to bridge this gap, last year Partners Group named Urban Angehrn, an insurance-industry insider and former top financial regulator, to its board.

Partners Group has drawn attention in Switzerland in recent years through the political involvement of its founding partners, particularly Gantner, who is known inside the firm as “Big Fredy.”

The 58-year-old has campaigned against closer ties with the European Union through Kompass Europa, an organization that wants to force a referendum before Switzerland ratifies an updated treaty with the EU.

Gantner also joined a White House trip last year meant to curry favor for Swiss businesses over tariffs. The delegation caused a stir back home by presenting gifts to President Donald Trump, including a gold Rolex desk clock and an engraved gold bar.

CEO Layton has sought to make a virtue of the firm’s unusual character. He has cited an “industrial” mindset that focuses on building businesses more than doing deals. Its head of buyouts is Wolf Schneider, who ran a car supplier previously and isn’t from the buyout world.

Layton, who is set to move on in two to three years, has also warned that an external event, such as a recession, could create a shakeup that some private equity firms won’t survive.

There could be “a period of natural selection,” he said in 2022.

–With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster, Sinead Cruise and Sam Nagarajan.

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