Partners Group considers 'slightly smaller' evergreen funds, chairman says

ZURICH, June 25 (Reuters) - Swiss asset manager Partners Group may slightly reduce the size of its evergreen funds in future while sticking to its overall strategy, Chairman Steffen Meister was quoted as saying by Bloomberg, after the company recently capped withdrawals from a private equity fund.

Partners Group's share price has been pummelled since the company said on June 3 it had capped withdrawals from an $8.6 billion open-ended private equity fund, reigniting investor worries about the risks of popular alternative investments and spurring a broad retreat in the shares of global asset managers.

The decision followed redemption pressure from clients.

Partners Group's shares are down around 34% this year.

"We clearly don't see the need to change our strategy based on what has happened over the past weeks," Meister told Bloomberg in an interview published on Wednesday. "We are looking at the open funds and we might keep them slightly smaller in size going forward, more aligned to flow dynamics over time."

Rising concerns about private credit fund performance and valuations have prompted investors, particularly wealthy retail clients, to pull money from such vehicles. Those pressures have spilled over into private equity.

Partners Group on June 12 issued a statement on its evergreen funds in response to what it called "media interest in unfounded market rumours" that it was considering additional liquidity restrictions on or freezing its evergreen vehicles.

"Partners Group has no intention of altering any documented liquidity mechanisms and has no plans to freeze any of its evergreen vehicles, given their portfolios are healthy and they have sufficient liquidity in line with the target allocations," the company said at the time.

Senior management of Partners Group have backed the firm, buying more than 60 million Swiss francs ($74 million) worth of its shares since June 3, according to stock exchange filings.

($1 = 0.8114 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Ariane Luthi, Oliver Hirt and Dave Graham; Editing by Susan Fenton)