Partners Group CEO换帅：原CEO转任CIO，应对上半年业绩下滑

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. Partners Group is reshuffling its stock management after a slump in first half earnings. It all started earlier this year when a wave of redemption requests hit the firm's Evergreen funds. Partners Group is naming uh two different co-CEOs who will be replacing David Leighton who becomes the CIO on January 1st. I'm pleased to say that David Leighton joins us now. David, great to see you this morning.

And we have to start with the news there on the rotation of CEOs. And I know it is the group's line that you do this sometimes keeps the firm fresh having different leadership positions, but the timing is notable considering it comes after these outflows and concerns over your evergreen funds. How much of this is an attempt to calm investors and do something that looks like riding the ship?

Well, it has zero to do with that, Danny. So, I I've been in my seat for eight years uh in January. Uh the prior CEO was in his seat for 8 years. The CEO before that was in his seat for 8 years and the CEO before that was in their seat for 8 years. Uh we have a partnership culture uh here at Partners Group where we kind of rotate leadership assignments from time to time uh on a somewhat predictable uh uh basis. uh the two uh new individuals that are stepping up could not be more ready uh to to to lead the organization.

Uh I'm looking forward to after 8 years in more of a corporate function getting back to the investing side of things. Uh that's the part of the business that I came up in. I'm very much looking forward uh to to to getting back to investing as chief investment officer. Uh but this is very much a part of a natural leadership rotation that uh that our firm's been doing for uh 30 years now.

I guess David, why why decide to do it now then? Because I'm sure you're very aware of the optics that doing it at a point when you announce earnings that perhaps aren't the strongest just considering how the market is reacting that it looks like it's coming from a place of stress rather uh than just a normal announcement you would do otherwise. Well, I think the timing has a lot to do with um uh the fact that the two co-CEOs that we've been uh incoming co-CEOs that we've been working and developing are absolutely ready to step up and to take on uh the the topics that face the business today.

Um you know, we talked about do we want to postpone a leadership transition because of optics, but that's not really our style. I think we're going to operate the way we um feel is best. Uh put people in the seats that they feel like uh that we feel like uh uh is best to put them in and we'll leave the optics to kind of other people. We're not as concerned uh with that. Dave

and David, you're staying on as chief investment officer. How will that dynamic be?

Well, we have uh multiple former CEOs still present within the firm. uh our first CEO Freddy Gander uh he rotated out after eight years and became uh the chairman of our global investment committee a role I'll also uh take on Stefan Meister after eight years in his seat rotated out and u and took on the chairmanship of our board uh Andre Fry after his eight years he rotated out and led a number of our ESG initiatives um and so that's the culture that we have it's more of a partnership culture where you have gener generations of leaders working together uh as opposed to a traditional maybe corporate hierarchy.

Uh uh it's the uh uh individuals that sit around the table for years and years and years. We've been together for 20 years. I've been working with the incoming co-CEOs uh for over 20 years. Uh I've been working with the prior CEOs uh that still exist within the company for a period of time. It's maybe a little bit more Swiss uh that than American with regards to how we're set up, but it's a culture that very much works for us uh and allows us to keep uh uh a very natural leadership uh rotation going within the business.

So, David, you go back to your roots again leading investment strategy. What would you like to change? Is there anything that you would that you will be changing as you take over as CIO?

Well, I'm stepping into that role as CIO, I think, at a good time. Number one, our firm has raised a record amount of capital that needs to be invested. We raised $16 billion in the first 6 months of this year. That's up 31% year-over-year. And it's coming from an increasingly diversified number of uh channels. Our infrastructure uh business, for example, raised $15 billion for its direct strategy, another $5 billion for its secondary strategy. has $20 billion of total capital raised for infrastructure investments uh that have been uh uh uh brought in uh over this last fundraising cycle.

And so indeed this is an environment that we feel like we can uh capture really interesting private markets opportunities for our clients. Uh we have been winning market share within the private markets. Uh if you look at uh since you know 2023 uh the start of this most recent fundraising cycle our firm has raised uh about 50% more capital today than we were raising back then and the industry is raising 15% less capital uh than it was back then.

So we're taking share and we've got the opportunity to I think uh uh be highly differentiated how we go about finding investment opportunities and deploying capital in an environment where not everybody has the luxury of having access to capital.

And David, we we should also note that you reiterated your guidance for fundraising this year which does uh continue off the back of a record new assets in the first half. If things are going so smoothly, David, why has it been so hard to turn around the image for your public equity investors? Why aren't investors appreciating this? What is going wrong that the public image of partners group is still around the drama concerning your Evergreen funds and the outflows there?

Well, the Evergreen business is only about well, it's 30% of our business, but individual investors using Evergreens are only 20% of the business. But because we were an early pioneer in that space, the partners group name is very much associated with that channel uh the channel of individual investors and as you have individual investors that have uh started to redeem uh in certain funds that's cast a shadow uh over the firm but the reality is that's only 20% of the business.

Uh we have uh an increasingly diversified set of channels that we raise capital from. that'll continue to be an important channel for us. Uh let's keep in mind we have $4.2 billion in inflows into our evergreen business. Uh despite some of the redemption pressure, we're still net positive with regards to uh inflows uh in that part of the business. But then we also have a very strong Asia uh uh segment of the business where we've seen an increase in fundraising.

We see uh uh uh certain channels like the consultant channel which is increasingly important for us and uh and that has led to an overall result that is a record high. We're up 31% year-over-year in our H1 fundraising uh from the same period last year despite these headwinds. Uh but I think it's going to take a little bit of time to you know get out from under that shadow.

David, what about when it comes to M&A? The chairman on the earnings call said that partners group is open to M&A but hasn't been courageous. What kind of targets are you looking at?

Well, if you look at uh our business today, I think there are certain strategies that we could be deeper in. Um we've talked about uh uh Impira in the past that was a great example of the successful M&A transaction that we completed. Uh we bought uh Impira, a real estate platform primarily known for its uh its uh uh residential business in Germany and we have really successfully integrated their investment content into our client distribution channels.

Uh and that has been a really successful addition for us. Uh and so you'll cont