Fundraising

Partners Group shares surge in IPO

The Swiss private equity and hedge fund advisory group has garnered a €1.4 billion market capitalisation on its first day as a publicly traded company.

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Partners Group, the Zug, Switzerland-based manager of private equity and hedge fund partnership investments saw its share price surge on the firm’s first day of trading.

Partners Group’s initial public issue price on the Swiss Exchange was CHF 63, but the firm’s shares closed the day at CHF 84 per share, a 33 percent increase.

The share price surge gives Partners Group a market capitalisation of CHF 2.24 billion (€1.4 billion; $1.7 billion) on firm’s first day as a public company.

Information provided by the Swiss Exchange lists Partners Group’s 2005 revenue at CHF 125 million and net gain at CHF 77.6 million.

Partners Group, established in 1996, is led by chief executive officer Steffen Meiser. The firm now has additional offices in London, New York, Guernsey and Singapore. The firm has 29 partners and more than 140 employees. It manages more than $7 billion in private equity, hedge funds and mezzanine debt assets.

In recent years, a number of private equity fund of funds managers have been acquired, but none have been publicly listed.

The listing agent on the IPO was Credit Suisse.