Partners Group

Partners Group Holding AG is a Swiss-based global private equity firm with US$141.7 billion in assets under management in private equity, private infrastructure, private real estate and private debt.
The firm manages a broad range of funds, structured products and customized portfolios for an international clientele of institutional investors, private banks and other financial institutions. The firm has completed more than 250 private equity investments in portfolio companies. As end of 2021, Partners Group is the fifth most-valuable publicly listed private markets firm in the world by market capitalization.
Since 2020 Partners Group is a component of the Swiss Market Index.
History
Early history (1996-2010)
Partners Group was co-founded in 1996 by Urs Wietlisbach, Marcel Erni and Alfred Gantner in Zug, Switzerland. Each of the co-founders contributed an equal share to the initial pool in the first year. In the firm's second year it had its first major milestone, launching a US$150 million small & midcap fund focused on investments in German-speaking Europe. The fund was a huge success in mainland Europe. According to Institutional Investor magazine, this is partly due to the lack of competition at the time in Europe compared to North America. In the same article, co-founder Alfred Gantner stated “you had to explain the term to people because ‘private equity’ in the way we understand it today did not exist, it was called Risikokapital, risk capital, which was associated with venture capital.”
In 1998, it completed the secondary transaction of the private equity portfolio of Royal Dutch Shell’s U.S. pension fund for US$265 million. At the time, it was the largest secondary transaction recorded. In 2002, Partners Group was an early investor in Esmertec, a Java client software maker.
Partners Group is a joint stock company under Swiss law, listed on the Swiss Exchange since its 2006 initial public offering (minority floating). Around 45% of the shares are held by employees and partners. As of 2016, according to Forbes' annual billionaire's list, founders Gantner, Erni, and Wietlisbach are listed as three of the 25 wealthiest private equity managers in the world, each with net worths totaling $1.3 billion.
Since 2001, Partners Group has pioneered evergreen funds in private markets and launched the first European Long Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) in 2017.
Beginning in late 2004, Partners Group made a number of announcements about the opening of new global offices. This began with the Asia Pacific region, with the opening of an office in Singapore in December 2004. The regional office would be responsible for the Asian-focused fund of funds and the investment firm's push into Asia. Christoph Rubeli was responsible for overseeing the expansion. In March 2005, the investment firm opened its first UK-based office in London due to its growing investor base in the region. Erik Kaas of PG's executive board would manage the UK operations. On February 6, 2009, Partners Group announced that Peter Wuffli would be joining its board of directors. Wuffli had previously served as CEO UBS AG until 2007.
Recent history (2011-present)
As of 30 November 2011, Partners Group has been included in the MSCI Switzerland Index, after having been included in mid-September in the Swiss Small & Mid Cap Index (SMIM Index) which tracks the 30 biggest listed companies in Switzerland that are not listed by the Swiss Market Index.
At Private Equity International's 2012 awards, Partners Group were standout winners at the awards ceremony, as they were the only firm to win three categories. In 2014, it held its first investor conference in the United States. Partners Group expanded its real estate portfolio in 2015 with a number of purchases in the United States. Hotels in New York and Tennessee, along with land in California, were purchased for a total of US$163 million. In January 2018, Royal Dutch Shell purchased the company's 44% minority interest in solar energy firm Silicon Ranch for an estimated $200 million. Around the same time, Partners Group continued with its efforts to invest in green technology companies by investing in the Borssele Offshore Wind Farm project off the coast of the Netherlands. It acquired a 45% stake in the wind farm.
As of 18 September 2020 after closing, Partners Group is in the Swiss Market Index, its first trading day as part of the SMI being September 21. The blue-chip SMI is the most prominent stock index in Switzerland, comprising the 20 largest Swiss stocks. Partners Group was awarded Firm of the Year in Switzerland for four years in a row (2017-2020) by Private Equity international. In 2019, the firm opened its 129,400-square-foot North American headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado.
In 2020, Partners Group entered into a major cooperation with UBS in the form of a new private markets solution for its wealth management clients, targeting an annual investment capacity of US$1–3 billion over time. In 2021, Partners Group was selected by Malaysia's Employees Provident Fund to manage a substantial portion of its US$600 million Shariah Private Equity Direct/Co-Investment Fund - the largest of its kind in the world. In September 2021, the firm announced that it had raised $15 billion for a private equity program. At the time of the announcement, $6 billion of the total had been invested to acquire stakes in 17 companies.
Partners Group led a consortium in the biggest Swiss 2022 venture capital investment in cleantech company Climeworks, the world's largest direct air capture and storage plant. Also in 2022, Partners Group invested USD 500 million in Budderfly, an energy-as-a-service company that provides energy efficient systems to businesses. The Connecticut-based energy company served 2,750 clients across the United States at the time of the investment. In November 2022, Partners Group acquired EdgeCore for $1.2 billion, a Colorado-based data center owner and operator company. In December, Partners Group announced that it was increasing its stake in the Swiss watchmaker, Breitling. It previously had a 23% stake in Breitling and would become the majority shareholder once the deal was completed. Breitling at the time was valued at USD 4.5 billion. Co-founder of Partners Group, Alfred Gantner, also became President of Breitling's directorial board. Breitling re-entered the lift of top 10 Swiss brands after it posted its 2022 revenue figures.
On January 4, 2023, Partners Group announced that they had acquired SureWerx, a Canadian-American supplier of PPE, safety gear, and tools. They acquired SureWerx from Riverside Partners. In April, Partners Group continued its focus on decarbonisation, when it agreed to buy 7,000 credits generated by Climeworks’ direct air capture (DAC) facilities. The firm entered into a partnership with Canadian-based Bank of Montreal (BMO) to launch a private assets fund for smaller investors. The fund is aimed at Canadian retail investors as well as smaller institutional clients.
Management
Partners Group was managed during its early history by the three co-founders, Marcel Erni, Alfred Gantner and Urs Wietlisbach. In more recent years, the founders have all remained as large shareholders and board members, but the day to day management is done by the Executive Team. In the late 90s, the three founders introduced a number of changes to boost team morale. This included a one-month paid sabbatical every five years for employees to recharge and regular hikes up Wildspitz, located close to the Partners Group's Zug office. Hikes up Wildspitz are still done today by Partners Group as part of its onboarding process for new employees. In 2021, its CEO Dave Layton received media coverage for banning the word "deal," a move which Layton believed could reduce the transactional mindset often associated with private equity. Senior management that broke the rule, would be asked to donate $1,000.
In 2023, Executive Chairman Steffen Meister documented the ongoing role reversal between private and public markets. In the white paper, Meister was quoted saying "real value creation is rarely about big M&A
transactions. Instead, it is about organic growth, platform-building, and research and development."
During the same year, Pensions & Investments magazine ran an article about Partners Group and its early adoption of generative AI and how the move was supported by senior executives.
Controversies
In January 2020, freight rail operating company MidRail accused the private equity firm of soliciting the rail company's business secrets to compete against it on a deal, in violation of a non-disclosure agreement previously signed and agreed to in 2017. The lawsuit was filed in New York State Supreme Court. According to the lawsuit, the company MidRail was forced to bid $100 million more for acquisition target Patriot Rail as a result of the breach in the confidentiality agreement.
References
External links
Partners Group (company website)
Financial Times Profile
PEI Awards: Carlyle and Partners Group win big. PEI Awards, 2013
Silver Lake and Partners Group to Buy Global Blue for $1.25 Billion. The New York Times, 2012
Partners Group Holding Closes Partners Group European Mezzanine Debt Program Above its EUR 500 Million Target. Reuters, 2010
Partners Group successfully closes secondary fund at hard cap of EUR 2.5 billion. Bloomberg, 2009
Partners Group Secondary 2006 closes on €1bn. AltAssets, 2006
Partners Group opens London office and launches joint HSBC fund of funds. AltAssets, 2005
Financial services companies established in 1996
Investment management companies of Switzerland
Private equity firms of Switzerland
Private equity secondary market
Companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange
Breitling SA