The Swiss Market Index is smashing records above the 14,400-point mark, yet one of its heavyweight components is moving in the opposite direction. Partners Group, the Zug-based private-markets giant, has become the poster child for the tension between euphoric public equity markets and the liquidity squeeze gripping the private sector. Its stock closed Friday at €738.40, down 1.23% on the day but still managing a 2.98% weekly gain — a glimmer of hope after months of brutal selling. The longer-term picture is stark: the shares have lost 32.38% since the start of the year and 33.98% over the past twelve months.
At the heart of the sell-off is a double hit. Short-seller Grizzly Research has publicly questioned the valuations of Partners Group’s Evergreen funds — a class of vehicles that allows investors to redeem capital on an ongoing basis rather than locking it up for a fixed term. That flexibility, once a selling point, has become a liability in a higher-interest-rate environment. Investors hungry for liquidity are pulling money out, and the pressure is building across the industry. In the second quarter of 2026, investors worldwide demanded nearly $15.6 billion back from private-credit funds, with managers paying out only a fraction of that sum. Even prominent figures like US Representative Ann Wagner have been offloading their stakes in Partners Group vehicles, shifting into other sectors.
Yet the company’s own leadership is sending a very different signal. Since the stock began its slide in June, executives have purchased over 60 million Swiss francs’ worth of shares from their personal accounts. That level of insider buying is rare for a firm under short-seller fire — a clear vote of confidence in the valuations Grizzly has attacked. Management has also pushed back publicly, insisting that the affected portfolios hold enough liquidity and that all funds remain open for subscriptions. Partners Group reiterated its 2026 gross new-money target of $26 billion to $32 billion, suggesting that its institutional distribution pipeline remains intact outside the retail channel.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Partners Group?
Even so, the Evergreen drag is real. The company itself acknowledges that the developments in that fund category will shave one to two percentage points off asset-under-management growth in the second half of 2026 and across the whole of 2027. The numbers that matter most are due on July 15, when Partners Group reports its AuM figures for the first real test of how much redemptions have already eaten into the base. A fuller picture will come with the half-year results on September 1.
The technical picture reflects the uncertainty. The stock is trading 13.85% below its 50-day moving average, 20.30% below the 100-day line, and 26.05% beneath its 200-day average of €998.48 — a level that now looks like a distant target. The relative strength index at 38.8 hovers near oversold territory but has not yet triggered the kind of extreme reading that often precedes a strong bounce. Annualized 30-day volatility of 51.57% is unusually high for an asset manager of this size, signaling that the market is pricing in plenty of downside risk. From the 52-week high of €1,213.50 the shares have fallen 39.15%, while they sit just 7.51% above the low of €686.80 — dangerously close to testing new depths.
Outside the company’s direct control, the macro environment could offer some relief. Weak US labor data has pushed the probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September down to 35%. Private equity, a capital-intensive industry, would welcome any sign of stable or lower rates. The ISM services index due Monday and the Fed minutes on Wednesday will be closely watched for hints of a looser policy bias. A dovish pivot could help Partners Group start clawing back its near-34% annual loss, but the fundamental challenge remains the same: as long as redemption requests keep rolling in, the stock is caught between a short-seller’s narrative and management’s own bet on itself.
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