Partners Group raised $16 billion in the first six months of 2026, up 31% from the same period a year earlier, and David Layton says the firm is now raising about 50% more capital than it did in 2023 while the private-markets industry raises 15% less.
The share price has fallen anyway, the firm has put liquidity restrictions on one of its funds, and it has named two co-chief executives to replace Layton. The hosts put it to him twice that the timing looks like a response to the withdrawals.
"Well, it has zero to do with that, Dani."
Layton has run Partners Group for eight years and becomes its chief investment officer on January 1, taking the chairmanship of the global investment committee that the firm's first chief executive took on when his own eight years ended.
I listened to the full interview so you can skip it.
Here are the 8 takeaways that matter.
👤 Guest: David Layton, chief executive of Partners Group, the Swiss private-markets manager, who becomes its chief investment officer on January 1 after eight years in the top job
🎙️ Hosts: Dani Burger and Isabelle Lee of Bloomberg News, who present Bloomberg Open Interest, where this interview aired
📰 Published: 1 September 2026 on Bloomberg Talks
🔴 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 13 min
Key Takeaways
The chief executive change was scheduled, not a response to the withdrawals Four Partners Group chief executives in a row have served eight years and then moved to another role inside the firm
Fundraising set a record in the same half the share price fell $16 billion raised, up 31% from the same period last year
Partners Group says it is taking share from an industry that is shrinking It raises about 50% more than it did in 2023; the industry raises 15% less
The evergreen funds are 30% of the business and individual investors only 20% of it
Elevated redemptions have another 12-18 months to run Evergreen inflows were still positive at $4.2 billion in the first half
Falling share prices across private markets make acquisitions harder, not cheaper Both sides' stock is down, which he says can delay a conversation or stop it
1. Eight years, then rotate
Dani Burger opened on the news, and on whether replacing the chief executive after a slump in first-half earnings was an attempt to calm investors.
Layton said the change has nothing to do with the redemptions. "Well, it has zero to do with that, Dani."
Four consecutive chief executives have each served eight years. Layton reaches eight years in January, and he said the three before him each did the same "We have a partnership culture here at Partners Group where we kind of rotate leadership assignments from time to time on a somewhat predictable basis." He said the firm has run that rotation for 30 years
On the two people taking over: "The two new individuals that are stepping up could not be more ready to lead the organization."
He said he is returning to the part of the business he came up in, as chief investment officer, after eight years in a corporate role
2. The optics are for others
The hosts pressed on the timing: announcing a leadership change alongside earnings the market did not like makes it look like a decision taken under stress.
Layton tied the timing to the readiness of his successors rather than to the results. "Well, I think the timing has a lot to do with the fact that the two co-CEOs that we've been, incoming co-CEOs that we've been working and developing are absolutely ready to step up and to take on the topics that face the business today."
The firm considered delaying the handover and decided not to. "I think we're going to operate the way we feel is best, put people in the seats that we feel like is best to put them in, and we'll leave the optics to kind of other people."
3. Where the ex-CEOs land
Asked how it will work to have a former chief executive sitting as chief investment officer, Layton said the firm already has several of them in other jobs.
Every former chief executive is still inside the firm. Alfred Gantner, the first one, rotated out after eight years and became chairman of the global investment committee, the role Layton will now take; Steffen Meister became chairman of the board; André Frei led a number of the firm's environmental, social and governance initiatives
Layton said he has worked with the incoming co-chief executives for over 20 years, and with the former chief executives who are still at the firm for years before that
He described the structure as generational rather than hierarchical. "It's maybe a little bit more Swiss than American with regards to how we're set up."
4. $16B to put to work
Layton said he takes over investment strategy with a record amount of money waiting to be invested. "We raised $16 billion in the first six months of this year. That's up 31% year over year, and it's coming from an increasingly diversified number of channels."
The infrastructure business raised $15 billion for its direct strategy, which buys assets itself, and another $5 billion for its secondary strategy, which buys stakes in existing funds from other investors — $20 billion in total for infrastructure over this fundraising cycle
He said the firm is winning share while the industry raises less. "Our firm has raised about 50% more capital today than we were raising back then. And the industry is raising 15% less capital than it was back then." Both comparisons are against 2023, which he called the start of the current fundraising cycle
Having money to spend when rivals do not is the advantage he expects to press: "And we've got the opportunity to, I think, 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."
5. The evergreen shadow
The hosts noted that Partners Group had reiterated its fundraising guidance for the year off a record first half, and asked why public shareholders are still fixed on the outflows from the evergreen funds.
Layton put the evergreen business at 30% of the firm and individual investors at 20%. "Well, the evergreen business is only about, well, it's 30% of our business, but individual investors using evergreen are only 20% of the business." Evergreen funds take money continuously and let investors ask for it back at set intervals, rather than locking it up for the life of a fund
Being an early mover in that market is why the name is tied to it, he said, and individual investors redeeming has "cast a shadow over the firm"
Money is still going into the evergreen funds on a net basis. "Let's keep in mind we have $4.2 billion in inflows into our evergreen business."
Asia fundraising rose and the consultant channel grew, which he said produced a record first half, up 31% on the same period last year
He did not expect the perception to shift quickly. "But I think it's going to take a little bit of time to get out from under that shadow."
6. Small deals, not big ones
The show put to him the chairman's remark on the earnings call that Partners Group is open to acquisitions but "hasn't been courageous", and asked what it is looking at.
The model is Empira, a residential real-estate platform in Germany that Partners Group bought and sold through its own client channels. "We've talked about Empira in the past. That was a great example of a successful M&A transaction that we completed." He said the firm will keep looking for asset managers with a good culture that it can plug into its distribution the same way
Layton said the base case is small or mid-sized deals rather than one that remakes the firm. "I think a base case, it's probably bolt-ons or medium-sized acquisitions."
He expects the industry to consolidate: listed asset managers want private-markets capability, and strong private-markets teams cannot raise money the way the big platforms can He said the middle market is now reached through private markets more than through public ones
Falling valuations make the conversations harder, not cheaper. "And so that doesn't make M&A discussions particularly easy because if our stock is down and our peer stock is down, you're going to be looking at a counterparty across the table and tell them that their private stock is down." He said that can delay a discussion or freeze it, and added: "But we remain active."
7. No forced asset sales
Asked what he would have done differently once the redemption requests started, Layton defended how the funds behaved rather than naming a change.
He said the funds did what they were built to do and the firm did not sell assets cheaply to fund exits. "Well, I think those funds have worked in the way that they were intended to work in that we have protected the investors that wanted to stay in those investors and not fire-sold assets to the detriment of performance."
What is changing is the number of places the money can go. He said the firm is building more investment strategies so that no single one carries the job of putting the evergreen funds' cash to work He named royalties, a new special situations business and the Empira acquisition as the examples already done The stated aim is to avoid concentrations in individual assets in future
8. Redemptions: 12-18 months
With about 30 seconds left, the hosts asked where redemptions stand and whether they have started to ease this quarter.
Layton restated the June guidance rather than giving a figure for the current quarter. "Yeah, so we communicated in June that we expect for this period of elevated redemptions to probably go on for 12 to 18 months."
He said the firm is assuming its fund behaves like other funds that have restricted withdrawals. "We are not the first firm to introduce liquidity restrictions on one of our funds." He said those funds follow a pattern that can be watched, and that Partners Group is assuming its own does the same
Through all of it the evergreen business has stayed net positive, at $4.2 billion of new assets in the first half
Bonus Insights
The show's own framing set the sequence. Burger said it started earlier this year when a wave of redemption requests hit the firm's evergreen funds, and that the slump in first-half earnings followed
The handover takes effect on January 1, when the two co-chief executives take over and Layton becomes chief investment officer
The interview aired on Bloomberg Open Interest, and the anchor closed by saying she hoped their conversations would continue after he changes jobs
Layton's bottom line is that the withdrawals touch only the fifth of the business that individual investors hold, and that Partners Group will keep raising and deploying record amounts of capital while it waits out the 12 to 18 months he expects the redemptions to last.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Partners Group (The Swiss private-markets manager Layton runs; he says it raised $16 billion in the first half, about 50% more than it was raising in 2023, while the industry raises 15% less)
Empira (The residential real-estate platform in Germany that Partners Group bought and integrated into its client distribution, which Layton holds up as the model for the acquisitions it wants next)
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