Partners Group appoints manager, strengthens Aussie client solutions team

Global private markets firm Partners Group has appointed a client solutions manager to strengthen its service offering across Australia’s southern states.

Founded in 1996, Partners Group has offices across the globe, offering investment programs and custom mandates spanning private equity, private credit, infrastructure, real estate, and royalties. The group has some US$174 billion ($268 billion) in assets under management (AUM), including US$52 billion in AUM across more than 20 of its specialist evergreen funds.  

Reinforcing its client solutions team in Australia, Krista Laios has been appointed client relationship manager. She joins the firm after four years as an account manager at Schroders, before which she spent around five years with MLC Asset Management as an investment specialist.

Rounding out more than 15 years in the finance sector, Laios also spent seven years working across National Australia Bank (NAB) and MLC Limited as a client relationship manager, business development associate, strategic alliances consultant, and then finally as associate director of NAB’s income and investment solutions.

In her new role, Laios will lead new client relationships with private wealth investors across Victoria and Tasmania. Based in Sydney, she will report to the managing director and head of private wealth Australia, Jonathan Abraham.

This appointment marks the firm’s next step in strengthening its overall Australia offering following the appointment of Brent Finneran in 2024 to lead Partner Group’s client relationships efforts in the northern states, including Queensland.

Meanwhile, Partners Group expanded its offering in September with the launch of an evergreen fund aimed at providing advisers and investors with access to its cross-sector royalties strategy, with the fund invested in royalties across key sectors, including pharmaceuticals, music, broader media, and entertainment.

With a minimum investment of $20,000, the private wealth fund targets a 10 per cent net return and a cash yield of 4-6 per cent per annum.

Earlier in the year, Perpetual announced it had signed a letter of intent with Partners Group, collaborating to explore new investment products that combine both public and private assets, such as listed investment trusts, co-investments and innovative fund structures.

“Combining Perpetual’s expertise, knowledge and connections as an Australian equities investor, together with Partners Group’s significant local and global reach in private markets including private equity, infrastructure, real estate, royalties and credit, provides the opportunity to explore products that give investors access to asset classes across both public and private markets within a single product, which is a strategic relationship among the first of its kind in the Australian investment industry,” said Perpetual CEO Bernard Reilly.