Partners Group - Buyout
Hi all,
I’m currently an Associate 0 in IB at a BB and have recently received an offer for an Associate role in the Buyout team at Partners Group. I’m torn on whether it makes sense to leave my current role. My long-term goal has always been to target megafunds for the learning opportunities and career trajectory, though I’m well aware of how competitive those processes are.
What are your thoughts on the Partners Group Buyout team? Do you think it’s worth making the move now, or would it be better to stay in banking and continue recruiting for other opportunities?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated 🙏🏻
Bump
Hey - also in a similar situation, let's catch up. Also have a lot of friends in MF (BX, Apollo, etc.) so happy to share my impressions and previous exp. Feel free to DM
Hi, for which sector team at Partners Group would it be?
And in which office?
Nice try partners group staffer
If you want to chill it’s the place to be. If you want to make investments I would target another fund
It’s not chill lmao
What are you talking about?
Partners Group has been underperforming lately. Some of their portfolio companies are even facing distress or bankruptcy (you can read online). On top of that, PG doesn’t really sit in the same league as true megafund PE
They are $150bn AUM...
How big was the last take-private they did?
PG is a very solid UMM firm that is a large diversified asset manager. Not to be rude, but if you are an Aso 0, you realistically have very low odds of getting an MF offer, as most MF classes are people leaving as analysts. Very few associates at PE firms leave as associates in title, even if they have only just received the promotion, despite many of them attempting to make the switch. If you also aren't at a top firm and are already an Aso 0, your odds are just so low that you might as well take whatever you can take. As the years go on, it seems like PE exits dry up (though you obviously continue to have corporate exits).
This is wildly inaccurate re: ASO 0 - don’t listen to this person
ASO 0 can be marketed as 3rd year analyst and is a good sign - also all work at that level is still analyst work, and the more thoughtful pages and process work as an very junior associate in banking is comparable in a lot of ways to PE
Echoing that this just isn't true.
Have friends there.. I think depends on vertical. Healthcare for example seems like a truly awful place to work. I think their industrials group is better, at least on the services.
Seems like they have all the bad things about corporate PE x100 + are also slow to deploy capital so you end up without the resume lines to justify the brutality
What about the Technology Buyout team?
Take with grain of salt as I only have a close connection that worked there up until very recently. But have heard a LOT of detailed bitching, like way more than usual and somewhat weirder content too. See point 2 for the tech group
I realized as I typed the below list that it comes off very negative so let me preface with Partners seems like a good place for a junior person to learn how to do modeling and memo construction and portfolio company stuff etc, like any other large cap fund. I would take an associate offer there over an MM, especially if NY office bc personally I see zero reason to pursue finance in Denver. But I would have severe concerns about building a career there, UNLESS you want to live in Denver, in which case it’s probably the most interesting option as the only other firms I know out there are cookie cutter MMs though Mountaingate admittedly did very very well selling shit to NMC. And I wouldn’t recommend Partners over other UMMs in the 6b+ range.
However:
1. Comp is on par with like a Chicago middle market firm vs. A NY MF, so think like 250-300ish for an ASO1, I think.. but not sure.. hours are on par with like the worst of the worst like Apollo etc
2. Extremely slow to deploy capital because all actual decisions are made by one little investment committee of Swiss people that sits in Switzerland — there are several subordinate ICs that are like puppet governments. This IC only really understands very simple industrial companies so healthcare / tech / etc all get shafted, they haven’t done a deal in either since like 2021? The actual decision makers are so far removed from even MDs that often months and months of effort are put into a deal only for it to be razor wire machine gunned in the first minute of IC. Some of the first hand accounts I have heard are simply shocking
3. A big thesis of the firm is kind of that investment professionals are a commodity and overvalued by the rest of the larger cap market — they don’t fundraise based on their superstar talent they basically lock up capital from LP tickets that are too small to go to larger sponsors. It’s actually a great idea for the firm but it makes life as an IP there worse than at other firms
4. It is an exceedingly layered and bureaucratic firm, and it seems like many of those layers’ primary job is to create new reporting packages / deliverables to standardize how the portfolio companies are run — which leads to immense frictions at portcos and constant deliverable prep.
5. Portfolio in trouble makes all of this worse. They have a number of bets in healthcare services and that sector has been hit hard everywhere, though I have no idea how the Partners portfolio is doing. I think the other groups have their problem children too.
6. The other big one — culturally, my sense is it’s hyper-political and toxic even more than most firms. Outside in my sense is this is basically because most of the firm is in Denver and Switzerland, and in both geographies it is one of only a handful of options for IPs. So if you put down roots where Partners has an office they really have you by the balls, and I think it is that supply/demand asymmetry that usually creates truly toxic cultures. Type of culture where it seems like everyone is trying to force everyone out
Thank you, very helpful! Any insights on the London industrials & Consumer team? Additionally, could it be a good stepping stone form banking to larger PEs?
From what I've heard, the team has a very toxic culture and operates on an underpaid burn-and-churn model. Heard they once tried to propose an investment to the IC, only to find out that the company had already signed a SPA with another sponsor while they were still working on it, something you'd expect a senior to be aware of. Additionally, if you don't speak German, don't even consider joining; the team will likely find a way to push you out. No wonder they've been trying to recruit for 12–18 months…
Heard carry has a five year cliff. Why would anyone ever sign-up for that lol. Might as well stay in banking.
It’s a 3-year cliff not 5-year. Allocations of carry are granted annually, with each grant vesting over 5 years.
Still pretty rough - not sure if I have heard of anyone with worse terms but I’m sure someone will one-up this
At which level do they start granting carry?
It’s also ordinary income and so taxed at that rate, and the quoted figures assume a 2.2x moic not 2.0x. All sorts of little nickels and dimes as they aim to be the cost leader in investment mgmt.
I also understood there is a 40bps claw-back on vested carry if you join a competitor. Their carry structure seems to be quite unique - does anyone has insight how it actualy works in detail with regards to annual carry grants (also DAW for SA/Investment Leaders)?
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