Partners Group Co-Founder Admits Communication Failure as Firm Fires Back at Short Seller

Fredy Gantner, the billionaire co-founder of Partners Group, used a weekend interview to acknowledge that the Swiss asset manager had fallen short in explaining itself to investors. “We must definitely communicate better and more proactively,” he told the SonntagsZeitung. The admission came as the firm also revealed it had filed a criminal complaint against US short seller Grizzly Research, which in April 2026 accused its open-ended funds of being mispriced by up to 40%.

The damage from the week’s events was stark. On Wednesday, Partners Group’s stock cratered 17% in a single session — its worst daily loss since its 2006 IPO — after the firm capped redemptions on its flagship Global Value SICAV. The €8.6 billion fund limited quarterly payouts to 5% of net asset value because redemption requests had surged to nearly double that threshold, hitting 9.8% of NAV. The same kind of gate had last been deployed during the COVID pandemic.

The shockwaves spread well beyond Zug. Shares in EQT slid more than 6%, while CVC Capital Partners, KKR and Bridgepoint all suffered notable declines as markets fretted about contagion across private-markets stocks.

Partners Group’s decision to cap redemptions was driven primarily by the behaviour of its retail clients, who account for roughly 20% of its assets under management. They tend to react more nervously than institutional investors, and the pattern had already emerged in private credit vehicles earlier in 2026 before shifting to private equity structures. A separate US vehicle based in Delaware has received redemption requests equivalent to about 6% of NAV, and three other evergreen funds with a combined volume of around €9.7 billion expect second-quarter redemptions in the 3.5% to 5% range. The firm stresses that its private credit evergreen funds recorded no net redemptions in 2025 or 2026 and that the institutional 80% of its portfolio remains stable.

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

Gantner pointed to his own share purchases as a gesture of confidence. On Friday evening, management buys totalling more than CHF 20 million were disclosed, and Gantner said he had added to his already substantial holding.

Despite the rout, the majority of analysts keep their buy ratings, albeit at sharply reduced price targets. Vontobel slashed its target to CHF 960 from a prior CHF 1,200. Julius Baer’s Roger Degen cut to CHF 1,200 from CHF 1,400 but still lists Partners Group among his top picks, citing a dividend yield that has climbed to 6.5%. ZKB analyst Daniel Regli described the market reaction as “exaggerated” — a view echoed by Octavian and Helvetische Bank. PitchBook’s Nicolas Moura offered a more measured perspective: “Evergreen fund gates are often misread as a red flag, but they are precisely the mechanism these structures were designed for.”

The stock, which plunged to €772.60 on the day of the announcement, had inched up to €775.40 by the following Monday — still roughly 36% below its 52-week high of €1,213.50 set in August 2025. The relative strength index hovered around 27, deep in oversold territory.

Partners Group at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.

Operationally, management is sticking to its 2026 target of $26 billion to $32 billion in gross new money inflows and expects first-half inflows into evergreen funds to exceed outflows. However, the evergreen platform is likely to shave 1 to 2 percentage points off net AUM growth in the second half of 2026, and a similar drag is forecast for the full year 2027.

The next concrete test for the firm will come on July 15, when it releases AUM figures as of the end of June. Those numbers will reveal whether redemption pressure has eased during the second quarter — or whether it has continued to build.

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