Partners Group unveils “dedicated” special opportunities strategy

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

22 January 2026

Special opportunities has been unveiled as the latest niche investment strategy venture from global private markets specialist, Partners Group, developed as a standalone program and made available via its multi-strategy platform. 

Structured alongside the firm’s existing interests in private equity, infrastructure, private credit, real estate and royalties, Partners Group has signalled its commitment to delivering strong outcomes in special opportunities for clients by tapping former Bain Capital dealmaker, Joshua Hartz, to spearhead the new division.

According to the asset manager, the strategy will be concentrated in corporate solutions, real assets, and other liquidity driven opportunities across three key transaction types, including providing structured liquidity for founder-led or growth businesses, investing in highly attractive assets suffering from constrained balance sheets, and offering liquidity solutions where traditional capital is unavailable.

“We believe the coming economic transformation, amplified by continued macro-economic uncertainty, will offer a significant untapped market opportunity for special opportunities investments; the time is right to build on our track record with a dedicated team,” Juri Jenkner, President of Partners Group, said.

“Our strategy, leveraging the full breadth of the transformational investing skillsets from across our platform, will look to create asymmetric upside while protecting from downside risk. Special opportunities provide flexible capital solutions to assets across private markets, offering a distinct mix of characteristics for client portfolios.

“These include heightened downside protection and upside potential, with a shorter duration, thereby filling a gap on the risk/return spectrum.”

Hartz brings close to two decades of investment experience and will split his time between Sydney and the firm’s home base in Zug, Switzerland. Backed by the firm’s proprietary private markets platform, the “dedicated” global special opportunities investment team will be able to leverage its private equity expertise for research, its credit team for differentiated financing technology and due diligence capabilities, and its royalties team for alternative financing options.

“Historically, during both times of dislocation and market expansion, special opportunities strategies have been relied on to drive transformation and growth in companies,” Hartz said.

“In the coming economic transformation, driven by the increasingly fast pace of technological change and enhanced by looming debt maturity walls, slower GDP growth, and elevated global inflation, the volume of transaction opportunities requiring flexible private capital solutions is only increasing.

“The special opportunities team will continue the Partners Group tradition of partnering with founders, owners, and other stakeholders to drive transformational value creation.”