Higher profits, bigger volumes, more jobs – Swiss asset manager Partners Group hit its stride last year. Its outlook is far more cautious.
Partners Group is within striking distance of a billion in profit: last year the Zug-based private markets investor's profit surged 17 percent to 900 million Swiss francs ($971.3 million), it said in a statement on Tuesday. It will hike its dividend by 16 percent to 25.50 francs per share.
The results are stunning: managed assets rose 13 percent t0 94.1 billion francs, it won new commitments of 16.5 billion, and invested 14.8 billion. Overall revenue climbed by more than one-fifth to 1.6 billion francs, helped by a 46 percent surge in performance fees.
Its margin on earnings before interest and tax stood at 63 percent, and it hiked staff by 20 percent last year.
Refraining Guidance
But the global spread of the coronavirus outbreak changes everything: investors are especially worried that financial market liquidity could dry up – and private market investments are at the least liquid end of the spectrum.
Partners Group said it is refraining from reinforcing its full-year guidance for demand because it expects the pandemic to delay commitments from clients. The company said it will update investors on expected demand as well as «potential tail-down» effects and redemptions on July 14. In January, the company had flagged $19 billion in new commitments.
