Partners Group deploys $2.9bn in secondaries

Partners Group invested $2.9 billion in secondaries in 2014, according to the Swiss-listed firm’s annual report.

More than $107 billion of secondaries deals were screened last year, including $77.4 billion of private equity secondaries, $24.5 billion of private real estate secondaries and $5.6 billion of private infrastructure secondaries. No private debt secondaries opportunities were screened.

“We saw record deal flow in private equity secondaries… across 450 deals,” Partners Group co-head of private equity secondaries Adam Howarth told Secondaries Investor earlier this year.

In terms of real estate secondaries, Partners Group is seeking mature tail-end secondaries acquisitions, which offer a shorter duration of investment characteristics. Attractive infrastructure secondaries deals can be found in Europe’s brownfield market because of pricing.

“Partners Group views the European infrastructure secondaries market, especially for mature portfolios, as attractive because it provides investors who follow a proactive and systematic approach to sourcing with access to a larger number of otherwise limited brownfield infrastructure investment opportunity,” vice-president Marc Meier previously explained.

Still, Partners Group maintained its “selective and disciplined investment approach”, it said in the annual report.

“We think about our deal flow as a funnel – we like to have the funnel wide at the top to collect and see every opportunity. Then we like to very quickly narrow down the list and filter out the deals where we either do not have an interest or do not have a good angle,” Howarth had said.

Secondaries accounted for 36 percent of the firm’s global private markets investments, which totaled $7.9 billion last year. About half of the capital was deployed in direct investments, followed by secondaries. Fund commitments accounted for $1.3 billion of total investments.

Partners Group’s assets under management grew to €37.6 billion last year, up from €31.6 billion in 2013. The firm has been listed on the Swiss Exchange since 2006.