AIC Conversations - Urs Wietlisbach (Co-Founder, Partners Group)

0:00 Introduction 1:34 Introduction & background 7:03 Relationship with partners 9:31 Partners Group investment style 13:42 How has the groups style developed 18:07 Social impact investing 23:13 Why private markets over public markets 27:55 Dry powder: headwind or tailwind 31:10 Response to opinions of PE being immoral 34:50 Adding value to portfolio companies 39:20 Partners Group differentiators 43:57 Due-diligence processes 45:57 Present opportunities in PE 46:37 Future opportunities in PE 51:10 Advice for young investors 53:07 Building a strong generalist foundation 57:16 Something Mr. Wietlisbach wished he knew at 20-years old 58:54 Something Mr. Wietlisbach would do at 20-years old 1:03:27 Biggest mistake made in Mr. Wietlisbach's career 1:07:58 Importance of social skills 1:09:27 One person Mr. Wietlisbach admires 1:12:07 Mentorship 1:17:06 Don't get bogged down with old books & ideas 1:20:01 Further advice for students --- Background: Mr. Wietlisbach founded Partners Group in 1996 with Alfred Ganter and Marcel Erni. The company is a leading global private market investment manager and since 1996, has invested over $145 billion in private equity, private real estate, private debt and private infrastructure on behalf of its clients globally. Since 2005, the firm’s assets have increased from $6 billion to $109 billion. In the twelve-month period ending on 31 December 2020, Partners Group received $16 billion in new commitments from its global client base. Investment activity slowed over the same period due to the market disruptions triggered by COVID-19 and the firm invested a total of $8.6 billion (2019: $14.8 billion) on behalf of its clients across all private markets asset classes, with the majority of these investments undertaken in Q1 and Q4. Recently, the firm invested in two European real estate portfolios worth €500 million with 170,000 square meters of leasable area. In October of 2020, the firm acquired a significant equity stake in Telepass S.p.A ("Telepass" or "the Company"), a leading electronic toll collection ("ETC") services provider in Europe. The stake values Telepass at over €2 billion. In 2018, Partners Group committed to invest AUD 700 million to develop Grassroots Renewable Energy Platform ("Grassroots"), a large-scale platform that aims to construct over 1.3GW of new wind power, solar power and battery storage assets across Australia within the next four years. Prior to Partners Group, Urs Wietlisbach worked at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. Mr. Wietslibach holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. --- Subscribe and follow our social media channels for further updates on upcoming speakers: Website – https://www.lseaic.com/aicconversations Facebook –   / lsesuaic   LinkedIn –   / lse-alternative-investments-conference   Instagram –   / lsesuaic   #partnersgroup #privateequity #finance #investor #investment