Delaware-domiciled fund may face liquidity cap, highlighting a need for clients to be certain of potential restrictions when investing in private markets funds
Partners Group has disclosed that a second fund is facing elevated withdrawal pressure, with a US-domiciled private equity vehicle receiving redemption requests above its quarterly limit; extending the crisis beyond the European fund that triggered a sharp selloff in the firm's shares earlier this week.
The Delaware-domiciled evergreen vehicle received repurchase requests estimated at approximately 6% of NAV following the close of its May tender window, modestly above the 5% threshold.
The firm said the exact value of requests, and the amount that will ultimately be repurchased, will be confirmed by the end of July under standard fund procedures. Partners Group said it is prepared to invoke the liquidity limitation mechanism on the US fund as it has already done on its Luxembourg-domiciled Global Value SICAV vehicle.
Partners Group made the decision to cap withdrawals from the Global Value SICAV at 5% after redemption requests on that $8.6 billion fund approached 10% of NAV, sending the firm's Zurich-listed shares down as much as 18% on June 3.
The US fund disclosure adds a new dimension to what Partners Group has described as an industry-wide phenomenon rather than a firm-specific problem.
Chief Executive David Layton, in an appearance on Bloomberg TV, pointed to contagion from the private credit market as the driver: "Some of this redemption pressure in private credit started to make its way over into other asset classes," he said.
Three additional mature evergreen funds with combined assets of $9.7 billion are also projected to see Q2 redemptions of between 3.5% and 5%, and Partners Group said it stands ready to apply 5% liquidity caps across those vehicles as well if requests exceed that level. The firm manages approximately $185 billion in total AUM, with around 80% sourced from institutional investors and 20% from the private wealth channel where withdrawal pressure has been most acute.
The broader context is one of a deepening reassessment of private markets among retail and wealth investors.
Some allocators have grown skeptical that valuations in the sector are as rigorous as those applied in regulated public markets, while others have found they value liquidity more than they anticipated when they entered these vehicles. Concern has also grown around software-heavy portfolios and their vulnerability to AI-driven disruption.
Education gap
Tony Dalwood, CEO of Gresham House, told CNBC that the Partners Group developments underscore the need to match investors with funds whose liquidity profiles align with their actual time horizons. Retail and wealth clients typically invest over shorter durations than institutional counterparts such as pension funds and insurers.
"Private markets really should be for people with those long-term ambitions and investment horizons and they should be matched accordingly," Dalwood said.
He added that the democratization of private markets through the ongoing push by asset managers to bring retail and wealth investors into vehicles previously reserved for institutions, requires significantly better education about how liquidity limits operate during periods of stress. Evergreen vehicles currently account for around 3% of private assets, Dalwood estimated, a share widely expected to grow.
Partners Group reaffirmed full-year gross new client demand guidance of $26 to $32 billion and said it expects fundraising to exceed outflows on its evergreen platform during the first half of 2026. The second half outlook is more cautious, with the firm warning that evergreen dynamics could reduce overall net AUM growth by 1 to 2% in H2 and projecting a comparable drag across the full year 2027.
