Listed private markets managers are under pressure in recent weeks as investors question the resilience of evergreen funds and worry about technology exposure in private credit portfolios. Shares across the sector have slid after several retail-focused vehicles limited withdrawals, raising fresh doubts about whether funds that promise periodic liquidity can withstand market stress. Partners Group believes those fears are misplaced.
Partners Group ceo David Layton said he is “quite flabbergasted” by the recent decline in listed private markets stocks. He argued that investor concerns about technology exposure and evergreen funds are overstated, particularly when it comes to Partners Group’s portfolio.
Speaking during the firm’s annual results call on Tuesday, he said the Swiss manager’s software exposure amounts to only “basis points” of assets, a sector investors fear could face disruption from artificial intelligence. Its wealth-focused evergreen funds, he said, are holding up well despite market volatility. “There is no scenario I can think of where we don’t outperform the experience that investors have within the broader industry,” he said.
Despite a twenty-odd percent drawdown of Partners Group’s stockprice this year, Layton emphasized multiple times that evergreen-funds are “navigating this environment in an attractive way”. Those vehicles, which allow periodic subscriptions and withdrawals, have become a major source of capital for private markets managers targeting wealth clients.
The comments come as shares of several listed private markets firms have fallen in recent weeks amid concerns about technology exposures and potential redemption pressure in open-ended funds. The debate has intensified after evergreen vehicles managed by Blue Owl Capital and Blackrock have restricted withdrawals.
Growth engine for private markets
Evergreen funds have become a key growth engine for private markets managers seeking capital from wealth clients. The structures allow investors to subscribe continuously while offering limited liquidity, giving private banks a way to provide exposure to private equity, infrastructure and credit without the long lockups of traditional funds.
Partners Group moved to calm investors recently after the sell-off in listed private markets managers. In a press release, the firm said it runs more than 30 evergreen funds, only three focus on private credit. They represent less than 3 percent of the group’s roughly 185 billion in assets under management, and the company said none of those funds has seen net redemptions so far in 2025 or 2026. All evergreen programs together now represent roughly 30 percent of the firm’s assets under management.
Layton said the way those products are distributed differs markedly between regions. In the U.S., wealth platforms often offer large shelves of private market funds from multiple managers. In Europe, by contrast, private banks tend to select a small number of strategies and package them as a “house solution” for clients, a model he said tends to produce stickier capital and fewer redemption pressures. That difference, Layton said, is “already showing up in redemption patterns across the market.”
Layton pointed to the firm’s latest results as evidence that demand remains strong. Evergreen strategies raised 9.4 billion dollars in 2025, a 12 percent increase from a year earlier and about 36 percent of total new commitments, with the vehicles now contributing roughly a quarter of Partners Group’s performance fees.
Fees are typically charged on invested capital, creating recurring revenue as assets grow, though the contribution from evergreen programs appears to have declined in the second half of the year. In the first half of 2025 they accounted for 37 percent of performance fees, compared with about 25 percent for the full year, implying a noticeable slowdown before the latest market turbulence.
Private credit was a major driver of that growth. Performance fees from the strategy more than doubled from a year earlier, rising 112 percent, according to the firm.