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Private Equity House Buys Partners Capital Minority Stake

Tom Burroughes Group Editor February 9, 2024

Private Equity House Buys Partners Capital Minority Stake

The ascent of OCIOs such as Partners Capital reflects how some institutions, including multi-family and single-family offices, have found it easier and less expensive to farm out the job of making investments, and dispensing advice, rather than trying to do this in-house

General Atlantic, a US private equity firm, has taken a minority stake in Partners Capital, the outsourced chief investment office.

The stake has been bought by Partners Capital’s external shareholders and some of the founding generation partners. The financial size of the transaction was not disclosed by Partners Capital yesterday.

Partners Capital, which was founded in 2001, acts for institutional and private clients. The ascent of OCIOs such as Partners Capital reflects how some institutions, including multi-family and single-family offices, have found it easier and less expensive to farm out the job of making investments, and dispensing advice, rather than trying to do this in-house 

Partners Capital’s client base includes endowments and foundations across the US, Europe and Asia, ultra-high net worth families and senior members of investment firms for whom the firm runs their family endowment.

The organization oversees more than $50 billion in assets and employs more than 350 people across its seven offices located in Boston, New York, London, San Francisco, Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong. This news service interviewed the firm in 2022 about its investment philosophy. As for General Atlantic, it has  approximately $83 billion in assets under management inclusive of all products as of December 31, 2023.

In a separate but related note, Cerulli Associates, the US-based research and analytics firm, said that higher inflation, increased volatility, difficulty reaching investment goals, and challenges in recruiting and retaining investment staff have caused institutional investors, who five years ago wouldn’t have considered OCIOs, to look at these solutions for the first time.

Demand is also emerging from private wealth clients, it said. The findings are in The Cerulli ReportUS Outsourced Chief Investment Officer Function 2023

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