Partners Group secondaries co-head to depart

Partners Group managing director and co-head of secondaries Philipp Schnyder will be leaving at the end of this year.

A spokesman for Partners Group confirmed the departure but said there was no further information concerning reasons for the departure or whether Schnyder is destined for another firm. He would not be drawn on how Schnyder will be replaced.

Based at the firm’s head office in Zug, Switzerland, Schnyder has been with the firm since 2002 and was promoted to managing director in 2010.

The spokesman also said that secondaries co-head and managing director, Adam Howarth, was moving back to New York after two years at the firm’s Singapore office where he had been working to expand Partners Group secondaries market presence in Asia.

The change in the secondaries arm comes as Partners Group looks to make itself less dependent on its founding members.

Partners Group was founded in 1996 by former Goldman Sachs employees Alfred Gantner, Urs Wietlisbach and Marcel Erni.

Partners Group Peter Wuffli, formerly chief executive of UBS AG until 2007, agreed at the beginning of this month to replace Gantner as chairman at Partners Group. If approved it will be the first time that the role will be held by a non-founder. Gantner will remain a board member and will also chair the firm’s Global Investment Committee.

In March 2013, Partners Group held a final close on €680 million for its latest investment programme, Partners Group Global Value 2011, which will make direct, secondary and primary private equity investments as well as select mezzanine investments worldwide, according to PEI data.

In December 2012, the firm held a final close on €2 billion for its new secondaries fund, Partners Group Secondary 2011, hitting the fund’s hard-cap, according to PEI data.

Partners Group said it had €31.6 billion ($43.4 billion) of assets under management across its operations in private real estate, private equity, private infrastructure and private debt.