Partners Group sets fundraising guidance at USD 17bn-22bn

Ero Partsakoulaki
13 January 2023

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Switzerland-headquartered private markets investor Partners Group has announced its 2022 results and updated its long-term financial objectives, including an expected USD 17bn to 22bn of planned fundraising in 2023.

The firm bases its guidance on a normalisation in the pace of client conversions and on financing markets stabilizing sufficiently during H1 to support an increase in investment activity later in the year, according to a press release.

Partners Group received USD 22bn in new commitments from its global client base in 2022, bringing the firm's total AUM to USD 135bn as of 31 December 2022. Last year's guidance was at USD 22bn-26bn.

In spite of this, the GP's fundraising in H2 should be supported by a number of next-generation flagship strategies coming to market at that time, it said.

Its latest flagship private equity fund, Partners Group Direct Equity V, invests in mid-market companies in Europe, the US and Asia, with a focus on the goods and products, health and life, services and technology sectors. The GP focuses on three main themes that it believes are driving structural change and secular growth: digitisation and automation, new living, as well as decarbonisation and sustainability

The GP manages a range of other private markets strategies, including secondaries and direct lending. Partners Group is on the road for its second impact fund PG Life II, registered in Luxembourg in February 2022, Unquote reported.

The firm committed USD 26bn globally across its private markets asset classes last year, down from USD 32bn in 2021.

In July 2022, the GP appointed Wolf-Henning Scheider, former CEO of automotive supplier ZF, as the new head of its private equity division, as reported.

The firm increased its stake in independent Swiss watchmaker Breitling to a majority in December 2022. It first acquired a minority stake in the business in October 2021 from CVC and management, as reported.

The GP has USD 71.2bn in private equity assets as of 2022, which accounts for 96.4% of its total assets under management (AuM). Gross client demand for private equity last year was USD 13.2bn, accounting for almost 3% of 2022 total gross client demand.

In 2022, portfolio realisations were down by half compared to 2021, amounting to USD 14bn. Portfolio assets and credit distributions accounted for 59% of realisations and direct equity distributions for the remainder. In part, the year-on-year decrease in distributions was a result of bringing forward a portion of the direct exit pipeline originally planned for early 2022 into 2021, according to the press release. The firm also then elected to postpone certain realizations originally planned for 2022 to future years, it said.

Its 2022 exits in Europe included the sale of Voyage Care, a UK specialist care provider, which it sold to London-based infrastructure investment manager Wren House in January 2022.