Partners Group has launched a new private equity strategy aimed at institutional investors seeking income-generating private market exposure alongside long-term capital appreciation.
The firm said its new Total Return Strategy (TRS) would focus on control private equity investments using lower leverage and targeting businesses with durable cash flows and strong market positions.
The strategy is targeting mid-teens total gross returns and an initial gross annual dividend yield of approximately 5-8%, according to the firm.
Partners Group said the strategy would invest globally across sectors, including industrial manufacturing, distribution, transportation and logistics, healthcare, consumer products and services, and business services.
The firm added that target companies would typically exhibit “long-term resilience, essential demand, and limited exposure to technological disruption”.
The launch comes as institutional investors, including pension funds, increasingly seek private market strategies capable of delivering income and downside protection alongside traditional return objectives in a higher interest rate environment.
More recently, NEST – the UK’s workplace pension scheme – joined an Australian delegation of six industry super funds, alongside IFM Investors and the Super Member Council, on a trip to France to source investment opportunities within European private markets to support the group’s target of deploying a projected A$660bn (€401.7bn) into the sector by the mid 2030s.
In Italy, a group of Italian pension funds are strengthening collaboration by pooling assets to cut costs and share expertise through investment consortia for easier access to private markets.
Strategy aims
According to Partners Group, its new strategy aims to differentiate itself from traditional buyout approaches through lower leverage levels, accelerated cash yields and greater duration flexibility.
David Layton, chief executive officer at Partners Group, said: “As private markets continue to evolve, investors are increasingly seeking strategies that balance income generation with equity upside while managing downside risk. Our Total Return Strategy is the first of its kind in the industry and reflects our ability to adapt to changing market conditions and evolving client preferences.”
He added: “Given the scale and characteristics of the target opportunity set, we see significant potential to grow this strategy over time.”
The strategy will sit alongside the firm’s existing private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate, royalties and special opportunities capabilities.
Todd Miller, partner and head of total return strategy at Partners Group, added: “The strategy builds on Partners Group’s deep sector expertise, but with a distinctly longer-term and lower-risk approach that unlocks access to a new set of high-quality assets not typically targeted in traditional buyouts.”
He noted that the strategy would target “market-leading companies with strong free cash flow and durable competitive positions”, supported by active ownership and governance measures designed to deliver “attractive risk-adjusted outcomes across market cycles”.
