In the Media

We believe a number of ongoing transformative trends are driving real estate demand on a global scale, including new urbanization, which is influencing property design so that it caters to the mobile generation's busy 'live-work-play' lifestyles. In the US for example, this trend has led us to focus on office properties in highly amenitized urban locations benefiting from strong underlying key drivers such as population and employment growth. As primary markets are highly valued, we focus on secondary CBD markets, such as Austin, Atlanta and Nashville, which offer opportunities to drive net operating income growth.

Partners Group wins Private Equity International's (PEI) Operational Excellence Award 2017 in the category Large-Cap, EMEA for its value creation efforts with VAT Group.

Early 2014, Partners Group acquired VAT Group, the leading global developer, manufacturer and supplier of high-end vacuum valves. During ownership, the firm worked diligently on value creation initiatives alongside the company's management team. In April 2016, Partners Group successfully completed its IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

In our H2 2017 Private Markets Navigator, we explore the global trend towards increased digitalization, which is creating different investment opportunities in different regions. US and European markets are generally more advanced in both internet penetration and mobile adoption, creating opportunities around data analytics, specialist software solution providers and digital infrastructure developers and servicers that support the growth of global IP traffic. In emerging markets, improvements in global communications infrastructure continue to drive and facilitate the outsourcing trend, with specialist business process outsourcing companies with high-quality offerings expected to grow rapidly in the years to come.

How would a multi-asset private markets portfolio perform under different economic and market scenarios compared to a traditional public markets portfolio? Would a return-focused private markets portfolio outperform its public markets equivalent by a wider margin than a yield-focused one? In the 'Portfolio Perspectives' chapter of our H2 2017 Private Markets Navigator, we analyze the expected impact on returns in the broader private markets industry and public markets of a number of potential macroeconomic scenarios, using our innovative Expected Return Framework.

In our H2 2017 Private Markets Navigator, we explain the importance of scenario thinking to our underwriting analysis in an investment environment characterized by stretched valuations and elevated leverage levels. Our base case scenario continues to center around low yet robust economic growth combined with gradual monetary tightening in the US. However, we have defined three test scenarios that can be used to assess the robustness of an asset, sector or portfolio of assets to different economic and market outcomes. We seek assets that not only work well in our base case, but that would also be able to successfully withstand downside scenarios.

Against a backdrop of increasing cybercrime, Partners Group has placed increased focus on ensuring data and transaction security online. We recently launched a bespoke blockchain-based signing and verification service for our Treasury Management team to facilitate the exchange of important documents with third parties. The technology has the potential to be used across many operational processes requiring counterparty interaction, greatly enhancing security for Partners Group's clients and business partners. The graphic below shows how a counterparty can leverage this service for the validation of the integrity of a document.