Perpetual mulls tie up with Partners Group

Perpetual is mulling a partnership with Partners Group's Australian arm to develop products and investment strategies for public and private assets.

Signing a letter of intent, the two parties hope to collaborate on launching investment vehicles or products such as listed investment trusts, co-investments, and/or fund structuring. This also includes sharing research and investment insights.

Perpetual head of equities Vince Pezzullo said the agreement provides foundations for public-private strategies that will allow Perpetual to invest in a company's full lifecycle through various markets and for investors to benefit from exposure to different parts of the capital structure in the future.

"Potential solutions could also allow for dynamic re-allocation between the investment sleeves over time and make use of liquidity and market events to add additional value to client portfolios," he said.

Partners Group has US$152 billion in global assets under management.

Partners Group head of Australia Martin Scott said combining public-private assets for Australian investors "is an exciting step for our business in the region and one that reflects the increasing role played by private markets in the real economy."

"Since 1996, our business has invested more than USD$234 billion in a range of private markets opportunities across the globe with the sole intent of building long-term value for our clients and stakeholders," Scott said.

In February, Perpetual called off KKR's courtship of its wealth management and corporate trust operations and spinning out its asset management business.

Perpetual chief executive and managing director Bernard Reilly said the new relationship with Partners Group aligns with Perpetual's "strategic intent of bringing innovative solutions to our clients and continuing to evolve our product suite to provide contemporary, high quality and in-demand investment solutions for our client base."

"Combining Perpetual's expertise, knowledge and connections as an Australian equities investor, together with Partners Group's significant local and global reach in private markets including private equity, infrastructure, real estate, royalties and credit, provides the opportunity to explore products that give investors access to asset classes across both public and private markets within a single product, which is a strategic relationship among the first of its kind in the Australian investment industry," Reilly said.

Perpetual has about $221.2 billion in assets across brands Pendal, Barrow Hanley, J O Hambro, Regnan, Trillium and TSW.