Partners Group’s Liquidity Puzzle: A 30% Exit Option and a 5.29 Million Franc Insider Bet

The shares of Partners Group have shed more than a third of their value since the start of the year, plunging to a five-year low of 731.40 euros on June 19 before closing that session at 734.80 euros and ending the week at 735.00 euros. Yet even as the stock hit the skids, six company insiders — including co-founder Fredy Gantner — piled in with purchases totaling over 5.29 million Swiss francs. Gantner called the selloff overdone, pointing to a record year, but conceded that the private-markets giant needs to communicate “definitely better and more proactively.”

The structural remedy under discussion is a two-share class overhaul for the company’s London-listed investment trust, which manages roughly 800 million euros. Under the proposal, investors can either stay in the long-term strategy or shift up to 30% of their holdings into a liquidation vehicle that will gradually return capital. The liquidation tranche will be capped at around 250 million euros. The board is expected to lay out full terms in the third quarter, and if shareholders approve at an extraordinary meeting, the new structure will take effect in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The trust’s restructuring is a direct response to the deeper malaise afflicting Partners Group’s evergreen fund platform. In early June, the firm capped redemptions in its flagship Global Value SICAV — a semi-liquid vehicle with $8.6 billion in assets — at 5% of net asset value per quarter, after redemption requests surged to an estimated 9.8% of NAV. Retail investors, who account for about 20% of total assets under management, drove the bulk of the outflow pressure. The crisis was compounded by an April report from short-seller Grizzly Research, which alleged that up to 40% of the assets in the evergreen funds could be significantly overvalued.

The redemption cap is already eating into growth. Partners Group warned that the evergreen platform would shave one to two percentage points off net AUM growth in the second half of 2026, with similar headwinds expected in 2027. Against that, the firm is sticking to its full-year target for gross new money inflows of $26 billion to $32 billion, supported by a deep project pipeline. New fundraising for real estate secondaries has secured commitments of $650 million so far.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Partners Group?

The insider buying spree is the most visible sign of management’s confidence. Six employees bought shares in a single week. Gantner’s total was not disclosed separately, but his public comments underscored the disconnect he sees between the market’s panic and the underlying business. Still, he acknowledged the need for more transparent communication — a shortcoming many analysts have flagged as well.

Partners Group’s dividend record remains a bright spot. The 2025 payout was 46.00 Swiss francs per share, marking the 20th consecutive year of distributions and the 17th year of increases. For 2026, FactSet consensus points to a forward yield of 6.56% — the highest in the Swiss Large & Mid Cap Index. Technical indicators, however, tell a bleaker story: the relative strength index stands at 26.4, deep in oversold territory, though alone that rarely signals a turning point.

Analysts are split on the outlook. Octavian cut its price target to 1,175 Swiss francs but maintained a buy rating. Bank of America lowered its target to 850 francs and Jefferies to 760 francs, both with hold recommendations. Earnings-per-share estimates for 2026 and 2027 have been slashed by 10% to 22% across various houses, reflecting weaker AUM growth and a squeeze on performance fees.

All eyes are now on July 15, when Partners Group will report assets under management as of June 30. The numbers will reveal how deeply the redemption wave has eroded the fee base — and whether institutional fundraising can offset the retail outflows fast enough to keep the long-term targets intact.