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Partners Group closes its fourth private equity buyout programme with total commitments of USD15bn

Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, has received total client commitments of USD15 billion for its fourth private equity buyout programme. 

Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, has received total client commitments of USD15 billion for its fourth private equity buyout programme. 

The programme is anchored by Partners Group’s fourth flagship direct equity fund, which raised USD6 billion, and includes an additional USD9 billion committed via other private markets programs and bespoke client solutions that will invest alongside the fund.

David Layton, Chief Executive Officer and Head of Private Equity, says: “The successful close of our fourth buyout programme highlights global investor commitment to our transformational investing strategy and we are grateful for the trust that our clients have placed in us. As investors, we seek not only to generate long-term, sustainable returns for our clients, but also to create lasting positive impact for all our stakeholders.”

The closing follows an intense period of investment activity for the firm and the fund is already committed to 17 companies that are leaders in their respective fields. These include Blue River Petcare, a US operator of veterinary hospitals for companion animals; Axia Women’s Health, a provider of women’s healthcare services in the US; Rovensa, a manufacturer of specialty crop nutrition, protection and biocontrol products headquartered in Portugal; Pharmathen, a European pharmaceutical company specializing in advanced drug delivery technologies; and Ecom Express, one of the largest providers of technology-enabled end-to-end logistics solutions to the Indian e-commerce industry.

The remainder of the programme will be deployed globally on behalf of investors with a focus on mid-market companies across four industry verticals: Goods & Products, Health & Life, Services and Technology. Partners Group uses a proprietary and systematic Thematic Research approach to identify attractive transformational investment opportunities for its clients across these verticals, by tracking up to 60 thematic ideas associated with the overriding giga themes of Digitisation & Automation, New Living, and Decarbonisation.

Todd Miller, Managing Director, Private Equity, comments: “We work to identify transformative industry trends and then drill down to find the companies with the strongest potential to benefit from them – our aim is help tomorrow’s winners to realise their potential. To drive growth, we apply entrepreneurial governance to build high-performing boards and work together with management teams on targeted value creation initiatives.”

Investors in Partners Group’s fourth buyout programme are a mix of new and existing clients, including public and corporate pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowment funds and foundations. Existing investors anchor the flagship fund, accounting for commitments that exceed the total size of its predecessor fund. Partners Group’s founders, partners, and other employees, together with affiliates of the firm, also made a substantial commitment to the flagship fund, bringing the total amount committed to-date by this group to the firm’s suite of investment programs to more than USD3 billion.

Sarah Brewer, Partner and Co-Head of Client Solutions, comments: “We prioritise building long-term relationships with our clients, which is reflected in the fact that existing investors have substantially anchored this flagship fund. In addition, we are proud of the strong and longstanding alignment of interests between Partners Group employees and our clients, which is demonstrated by the very significant commitments made by colleagues over the years to all of our programs.”

Partners Group’s third flagship buyout fund currently has a net IRR of 22 per cent and a net TVPI of 1.95x. Recent Partners Group exits on behalf of its clients include the sales of leading US digital engineering services company GlobalLogic to Hitachi for an enterprise value of USD9.5 billion, and of PCI Pharma, a US-headquartered global provider of outsourced pharmaceutical services.

In December 2020, a report published by leading private markets data provider Preqin named Partners Group as the most consistent top-performing globally diversified buyout fund manager with a fund in market. The report was based on Preqin’s analysis of the fund performance of the largest global buyout firms since the Global Financial Crisis. Separately, the UN PRI has awarded Partners Group’s private equity business an A+ score for responsible investment strategy and governance for six consecutive years.

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