Partners Group formally launches a special opportunities strategy

• The firm is building a dedicated team to support special opportunities as a standalone investment strategy
• The strategy will focus on capital solutions across corporate assets, real assets, and other liquidity-driven opportunities
• The team will be led by Joshua Hartz, who has joined the firm as a Partner from Bain Capital

Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, has launched a special opportunities strategy, adding it as a complementary program alongside private equity, infrastructure, private credit, real estate, and royalties. After successfully pursuing special opportunities tactically in the past, Partners Group is now resourcing a dedicated team for the strategy, given the growth in investment opportunities that is expected to be generated by a transforming economy in the decade ahead.  

Juri Jenkner, President, comments: "We believe the coming economic transformation, amplified by continued macro-economic uncertainty, will offer a significant untapped market opportunity for special opportunities investments; the time is right to build on our track record with a dedicated team. Our strategy, leveraging the full breadth of the transformational investing skillsets from across our platform, will look to create asymmetric upside while protecting from downside risk. Special opportunities provide flexible capital solutions to assets across private markets, offering a distinct mix of characteristics for client portfolios. These include heightened downside protection and upside potential, with a shorter duration, thereby filling a gap on the risk/return spectrum."

Partners Group's special opportunities strategy will focus on three types of transactions across corporate solutions, real assets, and other liquidity driven opportunities and will invest on a global basis. The types of transaction are: providing structured liquidity for founder-led or growth businesses, investing in highly attractive assets suffering from constrained balance sheets, and offering liquidity solutions where traditional capital is unavailable.

To lead the strategy, Partners Group has appointed Joshua Hartz, who has joined the firm as a Partner from Bain Capital and will split his time between Zug and Sydney. Mr. Hartz, who has 19 years of relevant industry experience, is building a dedicated global special opportunities investment team across the US, Europe, and Asia, which will be integrated into the wider Partners Group platform. The team will benefit from the firm's varied experience set, leveraging Partners Group's private equity verticals for research insights, its credit team for differentiated financing technology and deep due diligence capabilities, as well as its royalties team for alternative financing options.  

Joshua Hartz, Partner, Global Head of Special Opportunities, adds: "Historically, during both times of dislocation and market expansion, special opportunities strategies have been relied on to drive transformation and growth in companies. In the coming economic transformation, driven by the increasingly fast pace of technological change and enhanced by looming debt maturity walls, slower GDP growth, and elevated global inflation, the volume of transaction opportunities requiring flexible private capital solutions is only increasing. The special opportunities team will continue the Partners Group tradition of partnering with founders, owners, and other stakeholders to drive transformational value creation."

Special opportunities is the latest investment strategy that Partners Group has added to its multi-strategy private markets platform since adding royalties in late 2024. Partners Group has over USD 185 billion in AuM across all asset classes globally.