Partners Group Insiders Bet CHF 39 Million on a Turnaround as Investors Wind Down London Trust

Partners Group's top brass are putting their money where their mouth is. Between 6 and 8 October, members of the management team and board snapped up shares worth roughly CHF 21 million on their own account, according to reporting by Swiss newspaper Blick on Thursday. Add earlier purchases and insider buying since the start of September has climbed to almost CHF 39 million.

Such moves are widely read by market watchers as a signal of internal conviction — a vote of confidence in the firm's earnings power, and one that carries extra weight after a stretch of heavy losses across international trading venues.

The buying spree lands against a bruising backdrop. The stock is down 38% year to date and closed Friday at EUR 655.20, a mere 5.2% above its 52-week low of EUR 623.00 — a gap that lays bare how cautious investors remain.

Several Forces Behind the Slide

The pressure of recent months has more than one source. Redemption requests at evergreen funds have weighed on sentiment, as has an attack by short sellers. A announced change at the top of the company has so far done little to steady the shares.

The organisation itself is being reworked. Bloomberg reported that Partners Group cut or relocated dozens of positions across its global private equity arm. According to the company, team sizes remain within their long-term average, and it points to last year's build-out of operational leadership capacity.

Distribution is getting a fresh push, too. A little over a week ago the firm launched a global, multi-sector private credit income strategy through an open-ended evergreen vehicle, aimed at institutional investors and wealthy private clients alike. The strategy targets returns in the high single-digit to low double-digit percentage range, generated mainly from running income. Its portfolio blends direct lending, secondary credit positions and structured fund financings, rounded out with royalties, opportunistic loans and liquid credit instruments.

A London Trust Votes for the Exit

Fund-level changes are also in motion. At the listed investment trust Partners Group Private Equity Limited, 74.1% of voting shareholders backed the liquidation option, Reuters reported — shelving the planned restructuring in favour of an orderly wind-down. Partners Group acts as investment manager to the trust rather than as its parent company.

On the portfolio side, media reports say the asset manager is making it harder for certain hedge funds to participate in portfolio companies.

Jefferies Cuts Target, Sees No Real Recovery Before 2028

Sell-side sentiment remains guarded on how quickly a rebound can take hold. On 29 September, Jefferies trimmed its price target on Partners Group to CHF 605 from CHF 710 while keeping a "Hold" rating. The analysts also cut their earnings-per-share estimates for 2026 and 2027 by 10% and 11% respectively.

Their reasoning: a delayed recovery in assets under management, dragged down by the persistent troubles in the evergreen fund business. A durable upturn is unlikely before 2028, in their view. Whether the latest multi-million-franc insider purchases are enough to steady the mood for good is a question the coming months will have to answer.

Investors will get a detailed look at client money flows early next year. Per its financial calendar, Partners Group publishes assets under management as of 31 December 2026 on 13 January 2027 at 17:45 CET — a report likely to show how recent market conditions have shaped new business.