Patient Capital, Impatient Investors: Private Equity Under Scrutiny

Private equity firms invest in companies that are not publicly traded. The capital comes from pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, and, increasingly, high-net-worth individuals. The goal is to increase the value of the investments over several years and later sell them at a profit. In addition to ongoing management fees, providers earn performance-based compensation, known as performance fees, which are incurred particularly when companies are sold. While this asset class was long reserved for institutional investors, new fund structures have increasingly made it accessible to retail investors in recent years. These include evergreen funds, which have no fixed maturity date and allow for regular entries and exits, though only within certain redemption limits (FuW, 18.09.2026).

Partners Group is one of Europe's best-known private equity firms. Globally, the U.S. firms KKR and Blackstone are the dominant players in the private market investment sector. In recent years, both companies have significantly expanded their presence in the high-net-worth private client business and are increasingly competing directly with the Swiss firm (FuW, 18.09.2026).

This is particularly evident in the so-called evergreen funds. KKR and Blackstone have recently been able to attract substantial capital from private investors in Europe and gain market share. At the same time, despite recent turbulence, Partners Group remains one of the largest providers in this segment. In the European market for evergreen funds, the company most recently remained ahead of KKR, with approximately 22 billion euros in assets under management compared to KKR’s approximately 15 billion euros (FuW, 18.09.2026).

However, competition has intensified noticeably. Some new providers are benefiting from the fact that their funds do not include older investments from the boom years of 2017 through 2021, when low interest rates favored acquisitions and valuations were high. As a result, performance comparisons today often favor newer funds, even though these have not yet gone through a full market cycle (FuW, 18.09.2026).

The year began with an attack. In late April, the short seller Grizzly Research questioned the valuations of the Evergreen funds. Partners Group rejected the allegations and announced legal action (Partners Group, 30.04.2026). The next blow came in June. Redemption requests for the Global Value SICAV fund reached approximately 9,8 percent of net assets. The limit is 5 percent per quarter (Partners Group, 4.06.2026). The stock fell by more than 16 percent at one point (Reuters, 3.06.2026).

Part of the problem lies with older funds. They hold investments from 2017 through 2021, when low interest rates fueled high prices. Newer providers are launching without this burden and are performing better by comparison. In the first half of the year, the Evergreen funds saw net inflows of just $0.4 billion, compared with outflows of $3.8 billion (FuW, 18.09.2026).

However, the picture is not entirely clear-cut. Overall, Partners Group raised $16 billion in the first half of the year, more than ever before in a single half-year period. Profit nevertheless fell by 13 percent to 502 million Swiss francs; on a currency-adjusted basis, it remained stable. Performance fees fell by 39 percent. This is due to delayed sales of portfolio investments. Since exits may occur later than expected, some of the corresponding revenues are being deferred to future years (FuW, 9.10.2026). Vontobel Research cites weaker performance fees and the challenging market environment as headwinds (Vontobel Research, 10.09.2026).

Partners Group is responding with structural changes. The Global Value SICAV, with assets of 6.6 billion euros, is being split. A distribution fund comprising investments made prior to 2023 is to be phased out gradually and accounts for 77 percent. A growth fund comprising more recent investments accounts for 23 percent and will continue to invest (FuW, 9.10.2026). This would allow investors to choose between liquidity and capital appreciation. In addition, Partners Group plans to contribute its own capital to the growth fund (Partners Group, 2.10.2026).

In London, the picture is different. For the publicly traded Partners Group Private Equity fund, shareholders holding 74.1 percent of the shares voted to exit. The shares were trading at a discount of about 40 percent to their net asset value (FuW, 6.10.2026). At the special meeting on October 7th, the orderly liquidation was approved virtually unanimously (Scottish Financial News, 8.10.2026). Partners Group considers the cases to be incomparable, as they involve different structures (FuW, 6.10.2026).

For seventeen years, the Board of Directors has increased the dividend. The analyst consensus for 2026 is a dividend of 46.25 francs per share and earnings of 40.15 francs per share. This would mean that Partners Group would pay out more than it earns in the current year, resulting in a payout ratio of 115 percent. The Board of Directors emphasizes that a stable or rising dividend is a priority. It does not rule out paying out slightly more than earnings in certain years (FuW, 9.10.2026). In that case, Partners Group would have to draw on its equity.

If major corporate sales are delayed until next year, this would further weigh on 2026 profits. However, this would not necessarily mean a permanent shortfall, but could primarily be a temporary delay.

Competitors are also feeling the headwinds. KKR lost 23 percent over the course of the year, and Blackstone lost 19 percent (FuW, 18.09.2026). At Blackstone, the BCRED retail credit fund recently limited redemptions to 5 percent for the second time in a row, even though 10 percent had been requested (Bloomberg, 3.09.2026). The current challenges are thus not limited to Partners Group but affect the industry as a whole. Whether retail investors will return is likely to become clear from the results of the coming quarters. It is also conceivable that the competition for their money is only just beginning.