Partners Group's MSCI Wooden Spoon: How a Redemption Squeeze Rewrote the Shareholder Narrative

Partners Group faces 28% YTD drop, $3.8B Evergreen outflows, and gating, with performance fees below target.

The unglamorous distinction belongs to a firm that once defined the gold standard of private markets investing. According to Bloomberg data, Partners Group has become the worst-performing financial stock in the MSCI European financials index for 2025 — a fall from grace that has been months in the making and shows few signs of reversing.

The share price tells a stark story. The stock closed Friday at 767.20 euros, a modest 0.2 percent gain on the day and a 6.1 percent advance over the past month. But strip away that short-term stabilization and the damage is severe: a 28 percent decline since the start of the year and a 35 percent slide over twelve months. The equity now trades roughly 38 percent below its 52-week high of 1,240.00 euros, reached in early September last year, and sits just 12 percent above its late-June trough.

The Evergreen Drain

At the heart of the investor unease lies a persistent outflow problem. Redemptions from the firm's popular Evergreen fund structures totaled 3.8 billion US dollars in the first half of the year, forcing Partners Group to activate so-called gating — a cap on withdrawals — across five funds during the period.

The most prominent case is the Global Value SICAV, a vehicle with 8.6 billion US dollars in assets. After redemption requests surged to an estimated 9.8 percent of net asset value in the second quarter, the firm capped quarterly withdrawals at 5 percent of NAV starting in June.

The financial consequences are measurable. Assets under management stood at an estimated 186 billion US dollars at the half-year mark, below the consensus forecast of 189.9 billion. More troubling for the earnings outlook, performance fees accounted for less than 20 percent of total revenues in the first half — well short of the firm's medium-term target range of 25 to 40 percent. Management attributes the shortfall to weaker portfolio performance in the more mature Evergreen strategies.

Looking ahead, the company expects net asset growth to decelerate by 1 to 2 percent in the second half of the year and into 2027, a direct consequence of the Evergreen dynamics.

A Short Seller's Shadow

The redemption pressure has been compounded by a lingering credibility issue. In April, US short seller Grizzly Research published a critical report alleging that up to 40 percent of Evergreen investments were significantly overvalued. While the attack is now several months old, it continues to color investor perception — not just of Partners Group, but of the broader private markets asset class.

The skepticism is industry-wide. Rivals including KKR, Blackstone and Blue Owl face similar headwinds, with one emerging concern being the threat of AI disruption to an estimated 25 to 35 percent of the private credit market, particularly loans extended to software companies.

A Stabilizing Footing

Despite the gloomy headlines, there are signs the selling pressure is easing. Friday's closing price of 767.20 euros sits roughly 3 percent above the 50-day moving average, suggesting the stock has found a temporary floor after its extended slide. The monthly gain of 6.1 percent marks a tentative recovery from the June lows.

The firm's fundamentals remain substantial. At the end of 2025, Partners Group managed 184.9 billion US dollars in assets, spread across private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate and licensing operations. Income-focused investors have also been rewarded: the annual general meeting in May approved a dividend of 46 francs per share for 2025, a 9.52 percent increase year-on-year.

Two Dates That Matter

The coming weeks will test whether the stabilization holds. On August 27, the subsidiary Partners Group Private Equity Limited hosts an investor webcast covering its half-year results with a portfolio update. Then, on September 1, the parent company releases its own first-half figures for 2026.

Both events should provide clarity on whether the redemption wave has continued into the third quarter or whether the gating measures are beginning to take effect. For a firm that has spent the year defending its valuation narrative, the stakes could hardly be higher.