Pros
Used to be a good place to work when the firm had between 200 and 500 employees
Cons
Base salary is significantly lower than the industry average since Partners Group operates at a 65% EBITDA margin, whereas competitors have an EBITDA margin of between 30% and 45%. Consequently, salaries are low. An AVP has a base salary between CHF 105-115k, a VP between CHF 120-142k, a SVP between CHF 150-170k and an MD has a base salary of only CHF 200k. Cash bonus: Cash bonus is also low compared to industry standards. In Switzerland you even need to pay taxes on the restricted equity employee programs at the time of allocation, which results in very low cash bonuses. In case you receive a base salary increase, your cash bonus will be cut by the same amount in the next year. Effectively you don’t have an increase. Management tells you then that it looks at total compensation. Equity incentive program: Partners Group employees receive shares in Partners Group Holding AG. However, the shares are locked up for several years, with a linear vesting of 20% per year. For instance, if you receive a bonus of CHF 50k p.a. over a period of 5 years (in total CHF 250k), you are only entitled to CHF 150k because the remaining shares are still restricted. This means that you lose 40% of your share entitlement over a 5 year horizon if you leave the firm. It is a rolling process and the employee always loses and the “bank” always wins. Carry: First and foremost, 65% of carried interest goes to Partners Group Holding AG (the listed management company). Partners Group employees receive carried interest from Vice President level. However, the carried interest only vests over time with a linear vesting of 20% per year. For instance, if you receive a carried interest dollars of CHF 100k p.a. over a period of 5 years (in total CHF 500k), you are only entitled to CHF 300k because the remaining carry is still restricted. This means that you lose 40% of your carry entitlement over a 5 year horizon if you leave the firm. In addition, there is a 2 year non-compete clause. In case you join a competing firm, you lose everything. It is a rolling process and the employee always loses and the “bank” always wins. Employees are squeezed like lemons and, to salve their conscience, the founders make occasionally smaller donations to welfare organization. Partners Group employs 1.200 employees globally and has permanently around 120 open positions on its website. Personnel turnover is very high due to (1) low compensation, (2) incompetent management coupled with (3) extremely high expectations for which employees are not adequately compensated. Discrimination: Horrible pay compared to similar asset managers. Very little chance of promotion beyond Vice President level if you are not Swiss or work in sales. The firm keeps increasing promotion timelines and has made it almost impossible to get carried interest. The firm keeps making very large special allocations/distributions to senior management, but refuses to share anything with non-senior employees that ultimately keep the firm. Partners Group only promotes Swiss nationals to business unit heads in Switzerland, with the exception of sales people. The firm claims that it is responsible for the dreams of beneficiaries. In reality, however, the only story about Partners Group is asset gathering so that the founders and senior management are able to pay large dividends to themselves. Conclusion: Therefore, never ever join Partners Group. Management´s only objective is to boost the share price and increase dividends. Since less than 20 people – including former and retired partners – own more than 40% of the outstanding share capital, the only objective is to make them even wealthier and exploit employees with low salaries and restricted compensation. Before the IPO in March 2006, Partners Group was a small shop having difficulties attracting qualified employees. The vast majority of your compensation was equity options and from 2008 onwards equity options and shares of Partners Group. It only mattered when you joined the firm (how many equity options and equity you got). Forget the big and shining brand that Partners Group is today. Many seniors that have joined before the IPO are retiring or have already retired because the stock rose twelve-fold since the IPO in 2006 (from CHF 63 to CHF 750 per share) and made many of them multi-millionaires ranging between CHF 20m and CHF 500m. It was the equity story Partners Group. To conclude, never ever consider even applying at Partners Group. Do stay away from this company!!!!!