Zurich — A steady stream of insider buying has put Partners Group’s own leadership on the opposite side of a punishing year for the Swiss asset manager’s stock. Directors and executives have picked up shares worth close to CHF 39 million since the start of September, according to media reports, with roughly CHF 21 million of that spent across just three trading sessions between October 6 and 8.
Separate disclosures showed structured programs running alongside those open-market purchases, scheduling daily acquisitions of 58 and 42 shares from October 7 and 8 respectively, each subject to a defined knock-out threshold. Whether those programmed trades were actually executed was not clear from the filings.
Such moves are widely read on trading desks as a confidence signal — a bet by management that the market has been too harsh in marking the stock down. Partners Group closed Friday at EUR 655.20, some 5.2% above its 52-week low, but still 38% weaker since the turn of the year.
Buyout Unit Trimmed After Performance Review
The purchases land in the middle of an internal reshuffle. Bloomberg reported that dozens of positions in the firm’s private equity division were either cut or reassigned worldwide, with some staff leaving the company and others moving into areas such as infrastructure and royalties. A company spokesperson said the changes followed a routine performance assessment and that team size remains within its long-term average.
Behind the adjustment lie softer returns from older portfolios and rising redemption requests from investors in open-ended evergreen vehicles, according to Bloomberg. The firm is also weighing a split of its EUR 6.6 billion Global Value SICAV: legacy holdings would be moved into a separate distribution portfolio to be wound down gradually, while a second sub-portfolio would carry younger commitments and take on new investments.
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Credit Platform Takes Centre Stage
On the credit side, the group is pressing ahead. Its private credit platform acted as senior lender in a unitranche refinancing for DELABO.group on behalf of clients, a package that also includes facilities for acquisitions, capital expenditure and working capital. Roughly two weeks ago the firm launched a global multi-sector private credit income strategy aimed at institutional investors and private wealth clients through an open evergreen vehicle, targeting high single-digit to low double-digit returns drawn mainly from running income. A chartbook titled “Higher-for-Longer,” published on October 6, was released to frame the strategy for a changed rate environment.
Partners Group is simultaneously shielding existing positions. Per Bloomberg, the firm is invoking contractual clauses to keep hedge funds away from the refinancing of about EUR 6 billion of debt at portfolio companies Emeria SASU, Ammega Group BV and Breitling AG, whose liabilities fall due in 2028.
London-Listed Trust to Wind Down
Elsewhere in the group’s orbit, shareholders of the London-listed Partners Group Private Equity Limited have approved an orderly wind-down of its portfolio. The vehicle is managed by Partners Group Holding AG, but the holding company itself is not the entity being dissolved — a distinction that leaves the core asset-management business untouched by the vote.
With the stock down 38% year-to-date and a market capitalisation of EUR 16.53 billion, the firm is leaning harder on private credit to deliver steadier earnings as it works through the headwinds elsewhere.
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