Partners Group’s Insider Buying Spree Collides With a Redemption Crunch

Insider buying of $20M+ in Partners Group shares contrasts with a 35% stock drop, as redemption requests near 10% in flagship fund trigger liquidity concerns and analyst downgrades.

The message from Partners Group’s boardroom could hardly be louder: insiders have snapped up shares worth more than 20 million Swiss francs over recent months, with three directors alone spending roughly 2.2 million francs in just two days. Yet the market is paying scant attention. The stock has tumbled around 35% since the start of the year, hovering near 714.40 euros — perilously close to its 52-week trough. Short sellers have piled in, betting the worst is yet to come.

The root of the sell-off lies in a liquidity squeeze inside the asset manager’s flagship open-ended funds. The 8.6-billion-dollar Global Value SICAV, a Luxembourg-domiciled vehicle, received redemption requests equivalent to almost 10% of its net asset value in the second quarter. That figure is nearly double the quarterly cap of 5% that triggers a gating mechanism, forcing the firm to honour just 62% of those withdrawal orders. Retail investors — accounting for roughly a fifth of Partners Group’s assets under management — have been the driving force, stampeding for the exit amid jittery markets. Management warns that three other evergreen funds are likely to suffer similarly heavy outflows in the current quarter.

The knock-on effect for the stock is brutally simple: when payouts are curtailed, fee income shrinks, and analysts have been quick to slash their forecasts. Earnings estimates for the next two years have been cut by as much as 22%. The divergence in price targets tells its own story. Bank of America now sees fair value at 850 Swiss francs, Jefferies at 760 francs, while Oddo BHF removed its buy recommendation and set a new target of 920 francs. The relative-strength index has sunk to 23.9, deep in oversold territory, yet selling pressure persists.

Co-founder Fredy Gantner dismisses the rout as a “massive overreaction” by the market, but concedes that the firm needs to communicate more proactively. Management is standing by its medium-term guidance: gross new inflows between 26 billion and 32 billion dollars for 2026. At the same time, it acknowledges that the evergreen platform faces structural headwinds — net outflows could shave up to two percentage points off overall asset growth in the second half, with a similar drag expected in 2027.

In a move to address the persistent valuation discount, Partners Group is restructuring its London-listed investment trust, giving investors a choice between a long-term strategy and a wind-down vehicle. That proposal goes to a shareholder vote in the fourth quarter of 2026.

All eyes now turn to July 15, when the firm will report managed assets as of the end of June. That data point will provide the first hard evidence of whether institutional inflows can offset the retail exodus. Until then, the gap between insider conviction and market pessimism remains as wide as ever.