Partners Group's Busy Summer: A Billion-Dollar Power Play Meets a French Beauty Bet

Partners Group acquires AVK Power and Aroma-Zone for ~€3B, betting on AI-driven energy demand and consumption, despite soft performance fees.

The Swiss private-markets heavyweight has been anything but idle. Within the span of a few days in early August, Partners Group lined up two major acquisitions with a combined price tag of roughly €3 billion, pressing ahead with its expansion strategy even as its own stock continues to trade well below the levels investors saw a year ago.

The larger of the two moves centers on AVK Power Solutions, a British provider of power supply systems for data centers. Partners Group announced on August 7 that it had secured a majority stake in the company, committing more than $1 billion in equity to build AVK into a European infrastructure platform for energy-as-a-service offerings. The rationale is straightforward: the explosive growth of AI applications is driving unprecedented electricity demand, and data center operators need reliable power solutions. AVK's existing management team will retain a minority interest in the business, with additional debt financing supporting the transaction.

Hot on the heels of that announcement came word that Partners Group had entered exclusive negotiations with Eurazeo over a majority stake in Aroma-Zone, the French natural cosmetics brand. According to the Financial Times, the deal values Aroma-Zone at around €2 billion, with Eurazeo expected to keep a significant minority position after the sale closes. The two transactions together underscore a clear strategic bet on consumption and digital infrastructure as durable growth themes.

Operational Wins Behind the Scenes

While the new deals grab headlines, Partners Group has also been touting progress at existing portfolio companies. DiversiTech, a US HVAC player, has seen revenue climb 60 percent since the firm took it over, while PremiStar — another HVAC holding — has doubled its revenue over the same stretch. Those kinds of operational improvements are central to Partners Group's value-creation playbook, and management is keen to show investors the strategy pays off well beyond the initial acquisition.

Digital transformation is also moving the needle. At insurance broker Foundation Risk Partners, a joint AI program developed with portfolio company Version 1 lifted EBITDA margins by 120 basis points. Efficiency gains from digitization are becoming an increasingly important driver across the portfolio, according to the firm.

A Tale of Two Halves: Record Fundraising, Soft Performance Fees

The acquisition spree comes at a moment when Partners Group's financials tell a mixed story. On the fundraising front, the firm collected $16 billion in new client commitments during the first half of 2026, up from $12 billion in the same period a year earlier. Assets under management reached $186 billion as of June 30, compared with $174 billion twelve months prior. Management also reaffirmed its full-year guidance of $26 billion to $32 billion in fresh capital.

The earnings picture is less rosy. Performance fees accounted for less than 20 percent of total revenues in the first half, well shy of the firm's medium-term target range of 25 to 40 percent. The shortfall stems from weaker results at more mature evergreen strategies, and Partners Group cautions that the evergreen platform could shave one to two percentage points off net asset growth in the second half — a drag that may persist into 2027.

Redemption pressure at the open-ended evergreen funds remains a live issue as well. First-half redemptions totaled $3.8 billion, with nine percent of that concentrated in three older funds. Earlier in the summer, the Partners Group Global Value SICAV saw redemption requests equivalent to roughly 9.8 percent of net asset value, triggering the fund's gating mechanism at its 5 percent threshold.

Buybacks Offer Support, but the Chart Remains Ugly

The listed investment vehicle Partners Group Private Equity Limited has been steadily buying back its own shares, acquiring 25,000 shares on August 12 at an average price of €7.168, following a purchase of 35,000 shares at €7.04 on August 3. Such buybacks typically signal management confidence in the underlying value of the portfolio.

The parent company's stock, however, tells a more somber story. The shares recently traded at €779.20, down 0.6 percent on the day, and have lost 27 percent since the start of the year. Compared with twelve months ago, the decline is even steeper at 35 percent. The stock sits 37 percent below its 52-week high of €1,240, reached in early September, and remains roughly 16 percent under its 200-day moving average.

There are some signs of stabilization, though. The shares closed at €783.60 on a recent Wednesday, having gained 4.2 percent over the prior 30 days and trading about 4.8 percent above the 50-day average. They are also nearly 14 percent off the lows of the past year. Late July brought a technical sell signal when the stock crossed below its 38-day line at CHF 731.40 — a warning flag for short-term chartists, though one that has done little to slow the firm's deal-making momentum.

Investors will get a fuller picture on September 1, when Partners Group releases its complete half-year results for 2026. The key question: whether the aggressive acquisition strategy can offset the softer performance-fee income that has weighed on sentiment.