Partners Group goes on hiring spree to meet LP demand

Partners Group has boosted its staff numbers by around 5 percent during the first half of 2018 to meet growing client demand.

The Zug-headquartered investment firm could reach up to 150 hires by the end of the year to match its anticipated AUM growth for the year, according to an investor presentation on Thursday. It has just under 1,100 employees.

Staff numbers rose across all asset classes at mostly junior levels, with a particular focus on value creation, due diligence and dealflow.

Partners Group deployed $1.9 billion in secondaries investments during the first half, up from $1 billion in the same period last year.

Overall the firm deployed $7.7 billion in private markets on behalf of its clients in the first half, including $2.8 billion in direct equity and $1.8 billion in private debt. The firm is in market with PG LIFE, an impact fund targeting global social and environmental challenges by investing only in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The firm received €6.2 billion in new commitments during the first half of the year, of which €2.4 billion were in private equity, the investor presentation noted. Its total private equity assets rose 7 percent to €33.9 billion as of 30 June, with AUM across all asset classes reaching €67.1 billion.

The firm expects investor demand of between €11 billion to €14 billion for the full year.

“The most important drivers for our AUM remain the structural growth in institutional AUM globally and the rising allocation to private markets of these institutional investors,” Philip Sauer, co-head of group finance and corporate development, told investors.

“We clearly benefited from this development and continue to build our investment platform as a pure play private markets firm. However, this platform build-out comes with limited scalability as you can see; we simply need more resources to source, transact and create value on our long-term assets.”

The increased emphasis on value creation comes as European Central Bank asset purchases come to an end and amid inflation pressures, according to the investor presentation.