By Nate Wolf

Just when it seemed like investors were putting their concerns about private equity on the back burner, those fears reignited Wednesday.

Swiss asset manager Partners Group capped withdrawals from one of its private-equity funds at 5% of the fund's value. Partners Group had received nearly double that amount of redemption requests from investors in its $8.6 billion Global Value SIVAC fund, CEO David Layton told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Partners Group stock tumbled 17% in Zurich trading.

Back in the U.S., shares of asset managers with large private-equity practices also fell sharply. Blackstone stock dropped 5.2%, KKR fell 6.5%, Ares Management was down 7.2%, and Blue Owl Capital tumbled 5.8%.

The companies didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Barron's.

The industry has come under pressure in 2026 as investors worry about funds' exposure to highly-leveraged software companies vulnerable to disruption by artificial intelligence. That dynamic has resulted in a familiar pattern: Investors request to withdraw their money, funds cap withdrawals at a pre-disclosed limit, and stocks across the sector fall.

Detailed information on the loans held by private-equity funds is limited, making it difficult to either prove or dispel their credit quality. And the funds themselves aren't liquid, so investors can't buy and sell as they please. That combination has bred a cycle of fear that asset managers have found difficult to break.

"This feature of capping redemption requests at 5% of the fund is a key attribute of this fund," said Layton, the Partners Group CEO. "It's known that in an environment where investors get a little bit more skittish, like today, you won't see huge amounts of outflows."

Individual investors accounted for the bulk of the redemption pressure at Partners Group, Layton said, even as institutional investors make up about 80% of its client base.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com

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June 03, 2026 08:37 ET (12:37 GMT)

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