Partners Group is positioning itself to benefit from market disruptions stemming from Middle East conflicts, liquidity pressures at rival private credit funds and growing doubts over AI software valuations.
The extended mid-market specialist is slated to launch a special opportunities fund in coming months. The strategy, sitting between private equity and private credit in the risk-return spectrum, will provide tailored capital solutions to companies seeking an alternate to traditional financing.
“In a market environment where you have a lot of transformation and disruption in industries, you have a huge refinancing need in the credit market that cannot be met by traditional capital sources,” said Juri Jenkner, president at Partners Group.
“We believe this will be a long-term trend, where investors can earn outsized returns with some downside protection by solving problems and acting as a capital partner,” Jenkner told The Korea Economic Daily in a recent interview.
Jenkner forecast the special opportunities market to grow into the hundreds of billions. The firm did not disclose the fund size.
LESS COMPETITION, BETTER PRICING
The current private market environment is creating a less crowded field and more attractive valuations, in what Jenkner describes as a winner-takes-all market.
Capital raising has become increasingly concentrated, while overall private market fundraising has declined from 2019 levels.
Although there are about 11,000 general partners globally, the top 1% accounted for 80% of total fundraising over the past one to two years.
“We think it’s a very attractive market environment and we’re glad that we can really capture this opportunity,” he said.
PARTNERS GROUP’S PLAYLIST
With $185 billion in assets under management, Partners Group has been expanding its royalties portfolio as an alternative source of income.
The firm now oversees more than $1 billion in assets across its royalty business. The first of its kind, Partners Groups cross-sector royalty fund is entering into its 7th year and delivered a last-twelve-month (LTM) net return of 11.7% as of end 2025, at the upper end of its return target.
Positioned between private credit and private equity on the risk-return spectrum, the strategy offers low correlation to other traditional asset classes, both public and private.
Jenkner said Partners Group’s royalty business aimed to expand to $30 billion by 2033.
Its royalty portfolio includes more than 500 titles and 100,000 underlying royalties streams across life sciences, pharmaceuticals, energy transition and other infrastructure and entertainment royalties.
This portfolio spans music from Warner Bros. entire film and TV catalogue such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, as well as works by the Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd.
As of April 29, his most-streamed track, “Blinding Lights,” has logged 5.4 billion streams on Spotify, compared with 3.3 billion streams for Taylor Swift’s most-streamed song, “Cruel Summer”.
“We have a Partners Group playlist,” Jenkner said. “The playlist of songs whose royalties Partners Group owns runs seven hours and 28 minutes.”
NEW INFRASTRUCTURE SECONDARY FUND
Partners Group remains upbeat on secondaries across infrastructure, private equity and private credit.
The firm is set to close an infrastructure secondary program in the second quarter of this year, which is targeting at least $3 billion.
The program has already invested in 16 investments with exposure to more than 150 underlying assets, generating a current gross total value-to-paid-in capital multiple of 1.3 times.
Its $36 billion infrastructure platform has delivered an average net internal rate of return (IRR) of 21% since inception.
PORTFOLIO STABILITY
Partners Group is relatively insulated from the fallout of the credit fund squeeze linked to software companies.
Its current software exposure is below 10%, compared with 25% to 30% for the broader private equity industry, according to Jenkner. Of its 30 evergreen funds, about 10% are credit-focused and 90% are equity-focused.
DEDICATED INDIA CONTROL STRATEGY
India is one of Partners Group’s growth drivers. Since its inception, the firm has invested $2.5 billion in India across 11 assets with an IRR of over 38% and distributed to paid-in capital of 3.4x in US dollar terms.
Last year, Partners Group acquired a significant majority stake in Infinity Fincorp Solutions, a leading non-bank lender in India, for $230 million.
The firm is pursuing controlling stakes in India, a market that has traditionally focused more on minority or growth investments.