Partners Group Carves €6.6 Billion Evergreen Fund in Two as Analysts Pare Back Targets

Partners Group plans to split its €6.6bn Global Value SICAV into two portfolios as UBS and Jefferies cut price targets and shares sit 39% lower this year.

Partners Group is pressing ahead with a structural overhaul of its flagship evergreen vehicle while contending with a wave of more cautious analyst models, as the Swiss asset manager navigates a year that has shaved 39% off its share price.

The Zug-based group intends to split its Global Value SICAV — a private equity evergreen fund carrying a net asset value of €6.6 billion — into an umbrella structure housing two distinct sub-portfolios. The move, which still requires shareholder approval, is designed to address shifting demands around liquidity management and portfolio oversight in the evergreen segment. Under the plan, one sleeve would operate as a compounding fund targeting long-term value appreciation, while a second, distribution-oriented portfolio would focus on realizing returns. Since inception, the vehicle has returned 4.5 times the capital committed.

A Year of Headwinds and a Share Price Near Lows

The restructuring lands against a difficult backdrop for listed private equity. Partners Group shares closed Friday at €647.40, leaving them 39% lower since the start of the year and hovering not far from their 52-week low of €623.00. Investors have stayed on the sidelines amid delayed exit proceeds and changing conditions across several core sectors.

President Steffen Meister addressed the mechanics of evergreen funds in a conversation with L'Agefi, touching on their redemption limits and specific holdings such as AVK and Aroma-Zone — themes that have become central to the debate over open-ended vehicles for private clients.

UBS and Jefferies Trim Their Sights

Brokerage houses have been recalibrating. On September 28, UBS analyst Mate Nemes cut his 12-month price target on Partners Group to CHF 670 from CHF 705, keeping a "Neutral" rating. Nemes pointed to delays in selling portfolio companies, more conservative return assumptions and higher costs for currency hedging. The stock traded as low as CHF 592 at one point on the day of the downgrade.

A day later, Jefferies followed with its own adjustment, lowering its target to CHF 605 from CHF 710 while reaffirming a "Hold" stance. The analysts flagged the evergreen funds and a sluggish recovery in assets under management as the main drags, and trimmed their per-share earnings estimates for 2026 and 2027 by roughly a tenth.

Earlier in the month, on September 23, AlphaValue/Baader Europe had already responded to the half-year results, reducing both its price target and its forecasts for 2026 and 2027, citing more cautious assumptions on asset and earnings growth.

Software Weakness Weighs on the Sector

The broader listed private equity segment has underperformed the wider equity market this year. Senior portfolio manager Benjamin Lorenz, speaking in an interview on Tuesday, singled out weakness in the software sector as a key factor behind that reticence.

Real estate tells a similar story. Henrik Orrbeck, co-head of real estate at Partners Group, joined an industry panel on September 1 to discuss the UK property market, pointing to shifting capital flows, political volatility and a higher level of financing costs as defining forces.

Selective Deals Continue Despite the Chill

Even as monetization of existing holdings lags, the group is not standing still. On September 15, Partners Group became the largest external shareholder in SEG, an international sports talent agency — marking its entry into the sports sector. The plan is to more than double the initial equity investment, with founder Kees Vos and existing shareholders remaining on board.

That same day, the firm's financing arm arranged a senior financing package of more than €300 million for MDT technologies, supporting Bregal Unternehmerkapital's acquisition of a majority stake in the electronics manufacturer from IK Partners.

For investors, the message is twofold: new commitments are still being pursued in select segments, but the hesitant monetization of the existing portfolio remains the central obstacle to any meaningful recovery in the share price.