speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the PGPE Limited Third Quarter 2025 Results Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please use the Q&A box available on the webcast link at any time during the live event. Please be advised that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Andrea Matescu. Please go ahead.

speaker
Investor Relations
Head of Investor Relations

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today.

speaker
Andrea Matteiescu
CEO, Partners Group Private Equity Limited

I'm Andrea Matteiescu, and I'm delighted to be here with my colleagues, Dr. Cyril Visli and Federica Cataniga. Today, we will be sharing an update on the NAV development and portfolio highlights as of 30th of September. But before we get started, just a quick note on housekeeping. If you have any questions during the webcast, please use the Q&A tool available on your screen. As usual, we'll address questions at the end of the presentation. And to ensure we cover as much as possible, we'll group similar questions and respond to them in one go. If we run out of time or you have additional questions afterwards, please feel free to reach out to us via email or through the contact form on our website. Let's get started. So let's have a look at the big picture. Despite the challenging macro backdrop, PGP Limited delivered solid results during the third quarter. NAV was up 2.1%, and the share price gained 6%, continuing the positive momentum we saw in the second quarter. Now, year-to-date, NAV is still slightly negative, and that's mainly due to ethics headwinds. The US dollar weakened against major currencies like the Swiss francs, euro, and pounds, driven by fiscal deficits and policy uncertainty. But the good news is, at the portfolio level, we saw 2.6% value creation in the third quarter, which shows the resilience of our portfolio. Moving on to the shareholder returns. We recently announced the second interim dividend of 37.5 euro cents per share, which is payable on 19th of December. That brings the full year dividend yield well above 7% at current share price and over 50 million euro returned to shareholders as dividends for the full year. And importantly, the board also approved up to 15 million euro for the share buyback program which started in October upon receipt of proceeds from PCI Pharma Services. And this is a strong signal of our commitment to managing the discount and creating value for shareholders. In terms of portfolio activity, and more on this with the next slide, we have invested about 42 million euro a year today, received 65 million euro in distributions by the end of September, and paid almost 26 million euro with the first interim dividend. What is also important to note is that we have made a number of announcements regarding exits at our portfolio level, with proceeds anticipated to be received within the next three to nine months. Equity remains robust, with €2 million in cash and cash equivalents and an undrawn credit facility of €111 million, which has recently been renewed at better terms, as you may have seen in the announcement we made on 13th of November. Looking ahead, I would like to convey the following key messages. First, the progress on trade deals bring more clarity to an uncertain environment. Second, diversification across sectors and regions remains a cornerstone of our resilience. Our exposure spans healthcare, industrials, consumer discretionary and technology across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. Third, M&A markets are normalizing, which means we can realize mature vintages and redeploy capital into high-conviction opportunities And finally, structural headwinds are easing, paving the way for sustained performance momentum. Now, zooming into the transaction activity. The first half of 2025, PTP Limited received almost 40 million in distributions, driven by the gradual sell-down of listed holdings like Vishal and Galderma. During the same period, on the investment side, We deployed 18 million euros and five smaller investments were added to the portfolio. Now Q3 really built on the momentum we've seen in the previous quarter. We invested over 21 million euros into six new opportunities, which is more than the entire first half of the year. Two notable examples are NPM products and Resource 3D. NPM is a UK-based global pet food company. known for its premium wet cat food brands like Aplos, Redeal, and Encore, which are sold in over 50 countries through both e-commerce and retail channels. Barnard Group will partner with NTM's management team to accelerate growth and transform the company into a global leader in premium wet cat food. The business plan focuses on expanding sales in core markets, entering new geographies, strengthening the brand development and building e-commerce capabilities, enhancing supply chain resilience. The second example, Restore3D, which is a technology-driven orthopedic solution specialist in the US, which was founded in 2017, this company offers a full portfolio of implants across shoulder, hip, knee, foot, and ankle. It also combines proprietary AI-driven design software vertically integrated manufacturing and rated surgical planning. This is a company which in 2024 partnered with more than 520 surgeons across 740 hospitals nationwide. On the distribution front in Q3, it was driven by the continued sell-down of Calderma and the exit from Global Blue. And even if not yet reflected in the distributions as of September, within the quarter, we have made several announcements regarding exits from our portfolio companies, on which we will touch base on the next slide. So, let me give you a quick snapshot of realizations over the past 12 months. We've partially or fully exited several investments, and on screen, you'll see some examples. For example, partial realizations to gradual sell-downs and dividend recaps by Rosen, and also that we've completed full exits from Tools, Avast, and Global Blue. What's even more encouraging is the momentum in the second half of 2025. The announced exit of PCI Pharma Services and Tekem are clear evidence of our portfolio ability to generate liquidity and reinforce this positive trend. I'll leave this detailed discussion to Federica, who will address this later in the session. And with that, I'll hand over to Cyril to take you through the next section.

speaker
Dr. Cyril Visli
Managing Director, Private Equity

Good morning. If Partners Group were a car, I would like to give you a look under the hood how the engine works at Partners Group. Partners Group will celebrate next year actually its 30th birthday and has today 2,000 employees and 24 offices around the world who manage over 170 billion US dollars of assets under management in five asset classes, but the oldest and largest is private equity, roughly half of assets under management. Partners Group Private Equity Limited is with its euro 1 billion of NAV around 1% of private equity AOL. Some potential new shareholders in first-time meetings say they are afraid we don't devote enough love in a product which is only 1% of AOL. But the exact opposite is the case. Typical clients on the private wealth side invest 10,000 euros to 1 million euros with the partners group. Typical institutional clients, primarily pension plans, invest 10, 20, 50 million euros with us. Larger pension plans prefer not to invest into a commingled fund, but they want a tailor-made mandate, which typically is 200 to 500 million in size. Thus, PGP Limited with one billion euro is actually a very important client for us. And Partiscope manages over 350 products and mandates, but PGP Limited is the only product which is listed at a stock exchange. So we asked the shareholders actually in the past at an AGM whether they would like us to take the product private, but the answer was no. The answer was no because shareholders said if they wanted the private product, they would have invested in one of the 350-plus products which are private. But they want the product which is listed, and thus they invested in this product, which is the only one which is listed, and thus they do not want this product to be taken privately. Most of the larger shareholders back then are still, as of today, the larger shareholders, so their opinion has not changed. Another question I hear often in first-time meetings with potential new shareholders is that they fear we don't devote enough law on the investment side for a product which is only 1% available. Again, the exact opposite is true. At Partners Group, we have specialized investment committees, and above them, the Global Investment Committee. If the Global Investment Committee approves a new investment, Then portfolio management ensures that all products and mandates get their fair pro rata allocation. Because all Partiscope clients who ask for a 100% private equity direct portfolio get allocated to the same private equity direct investments, regardless of the size of their investments with Partiscope. Now, we call our investment approach transformational investing because we are not happy with an increase of net profit of just 10% or 20%. but we want to double or triple the profits during our ownership, which is typically a holding period of four to eight years. Transformational investing consists of two elements, thematic sourcing and then permanent governance. Semantic sourcing means that on the sourcing side of investing, we are not passively waiting for investment opportunities to find us, but on the contrary, we actively want to find them. So as we define themes which we want to invest in, And then our investment professionals around the world hunt for the best investment opportunities in these themes, meaning winning business models. Already at sourcing stage, we begin building a value creation plan, which will further refine with the portfolio company's management. Entrepreneurial governance means that after we have taken control of a business, our culture is to run that business with the mindset of a founder, the mindset of an entrepreneur, to drive fundamental value creation, as opposed to purely financial-oriented capital providers. Now, PG as a firm is not specialized because we want to build diversified portfolios across many industries. But, of course, our investment professionals, they are specialized. So, for example, 25 years ago, Dr. Remy Hauser joined Partners Group together with me. My PhD was in valuations of private equity companies, but Remy's PhD was in molecular biology and biochemistry. And of course, Remy is now a managing director in our health and life vertical. Partners Group's deep thematic research enables the firm to identify high conviction subsectors supported by resilient long-term global trends across four industry verticals, technology, health and life, goods and products, and services. One example in health and life in a theme called Pharma Discovery Services is Fair Journey Biologics, a leading company in antibody research offering services for discovery, production, and characterization of antibodies. The company supports over 250 clients worldwide and has developed more than 4,000 unique screening libraries used to identify antibodies. Another example in services is ROSEN, in the theme called Enhancing Quality and Safety Standards. We have talked about Rosen in the past. Rosen Group is a leading global data-enabled provider of cutting-edge solutions and services in all areas of the integrity process chain. Since its beginnings as a one-man business in 1981, Rosen has grown rapidly and is today a technology group that operates in more than 110 countries with over 4,000 highly qualified employees. Or maybe a little bit easier explained, for example, they send robots called pigs through pipelines to inspect for preventive maintenance. So they try to repair a pipeline before they break or before they leak. On the next slide, I wanted to show you how we create value once we own an asset. So as mentioned, our approach is very hands-on and entrepreneurial. We don't just invest. We want to transform businesses. We typically deploy three main levels. operational improvements, platform building, and sustainability initiatives. Let me give you three examples, one of each. Operational improvements. At PCI Pharma Services, our largest portfolio company, we have achieved a 40% plus cap capacity increase and 97% on-time delivery, driving efficiency and growth. Platform building for foundation risk partners a US-based insurance broker, we've executed over 70 add-on acquisitions, expanding scale and capabilities. Sustainability, at international school partnerships, we rolled out green campus initiatives, improving energy efficiency and water and waste management across 111 schools in 25 countries. Now we covered the theory, but now let's bring to life with more examples from our goods and products vertical. So on this slide, you see three of our top 10 portfolio companies represented. In this vertical, we focus on two broad sectors, consumers and industrials. Our investment thesis here is driven by long-term structural trends that are reshaping demand and creating opportunities for value creation, such as supply chain, onshoring and reshoring, in industrial digitization and automation. First, Vishal Megamart, leading retailer in India, which we call internally the action of India. Since its last listing in December, Vishal has delivered strong share price performance and is now included in the FTSE Global Mid Cap Index. In its latest quarter results, ended in June, Revenue grew 21% year-on-year, supported by 11% adjusted same-store sales growth, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 34%. The company's QuickCommerce initiative now spans 670 stores across 445 cities, serving a 10 million registered user base. Overall, Visual Store Network has expanded to 717 stores in 472 cities, reaching nearly 150 million loyalty customers. Next, Diversitech, a leading manufacturer of components and supplies for the U.S. residential HVAC market. I mentioned on the last call what an HVAC exactly means. It's these machines which the U.S. population loves, which cool in summer and heat in winter. Despite tariff-related cost pressures, Diversitech maintains strong performance through margin expansion, cost optimization, and proactive sourcing strategies. Recently, Diversity Tech acquired Cielo Thermostats, adding Energy Star certified smart technologies to its portfolio and strengthening its position on the connected HVAC and smart home market. Parts Group continues to work closely with the board and management to transform Diversity Tech from a US-focused leader into a global HVAC champion. Near-term priorities include scaling supply chain capabilities and accelerating acquisitions, to broaden the product portfolio, position the company to capture incremental wallet share, and reinforce leadership in a fragmented off-the-market. Finally, Omega, a global leader in lightweight conveyor and power transmission solutions, serving over 50 markets worldwide. While the company is navigating soft trading conditions in global distribution channels and moderate demand in the U.S., It has demonstrated resilience through direct consumer sales and improved delivery performance across its 170 service centers globally. With a strong global footprint and an ongoing focus on commercial excellence and cost leadership, Omega is well positioned to regain momentum and capture market share as industry conditions improve, providing a solid foundation for long-term value creation. So that's in a nutshell, my message was that much more activities were going on this year in the 70 portfolio companies than the NAS performance shows so far. This one I hand over to Federica.

speaker
Federica Cataniga
Portfolio Manager

Good morning, everyone on my side also. As usual, I will take you through portfolio composition as well as notable activity and performance drivers. You might be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu on this slide, as the pie chart and top 10 companies have not changed much quarter on quarter versus last quarterly call. And long-held names in the top 10 will be familiar to their current listeners of our quarterly update. Indeed, optically, the portfolio appears very similar to the end of Q2. The reality, however, tells a very different story. With sales agreed for four of our top 10 portfolio companies, there is significant movement going on beyond the quarter-end reporting date. And amongst our top 10, just as a reminder, we have agreed sales for PCI, ISP, Techem, and Clario. Indeed, I will expect PCI and Techem to leave the top 10 by the end of Q4, with IFP and Clario likely following in the coming quarters. And based on current portfolio composition, I anticipate these four companies will be largely replaced in our top 10 by 2021 and 2022 vintage companies, where our value creation is now fully underway. If we look at performance, our top tens also remain drivers of returns within the portfolio. And Vishal was the main contributor to Q3 performance, as well as the largest year-to-date value driver. The company continues to report solid operating results for the second quarter of 25, and stock price was up over 40% during the first three quarters of the year, also as Cyril just mentioned. Importantly, beyond Vishal, younger assets like Emeria, Diversity Tech, Foundation Risk Partners, and Fortero also contributed to performance with positive revaluations in Q3. Cyril just touched on strong performance from Diversity Tech despite tariff-related cost pressures, but one I'd like to mention also is Emeria, our French real estate services company, which contributed strongly to Q3 returns for PGP Limited, and its performance is also expected to continue to benefit from recovering in the French real estate brokerage market more broadly, as well as turnaround initiatives in the business in Switzerland and Germany. Notably, during the quarter, Emeria also appointed a new CEO, and Partners Group remains closely engaged with the leadership team of this company on strategic initiatives to further strengthen the company leadership as well as technology position to continue to drive returns in this very important position within our portfolio. I will definitely spend more time discussing portfolio changes during our next call, but for now we can turn to the next slide and take a look at performance. With overall stable portfolio composition, operating metrics also remains largely unchanged quarter on quarter. As a reminder, the metrics you see at the top of this slide are reported on top 20 holdings that represent closely to 80% of the portfolio NAV. And we continue to exclude listed holdings to provide a better picture of our privately held assets. These overall results in valuations that are stable, just below the 18 times mark, and leverage that is also stable, just below the six times net debt to EBITDA. Loss of monthly EBITDA growth also remains stable at 10%, as companies continue to successfully protect their profitability while navigating more turbulent and uncertain markets. This translates in contribution to portfolio performance that remains very similar again to what we observed in previous quarter. Notably, EBITDA growth remains the main contributor to overall portfolio returns, partly offset by net debt change, which, however, mostly took place in late 2024 and early 2025 and effectively remained flat over the past two quarters. The main change in this picture is indeed the increase in the overall last 12 months performance if we exclude the currency effects and this you can see in the brown bar in the chart as performance continues to take up from 6% in Q1 to 8% in Q2 and now over 10% on a last 12 months basis. Specifically the quarter on quarter increase in Q3 is driven by a broad recovery in multiples with a more positive market sentiment and lower rates supporting broader valuations. And this you can really see also in the EV, EBITDA change column. Public market re-rating also supported performance for Vishal and Galderma, who continue to report solid financial and operational results and whose stock price drives the listed holding contribution in column number four. Talking about our listed holdings on the next slide, I take this time a different look at our vintage portfolio composition, tying it to the portfolio liquidity profile. I've talked about vintage composition in the past and how a mature portfolio was supportive to realizations, and we're now seeing this really coming to fruition. While not visible just yet in the chart on the left, the pie chart on the right shows the percentage of September NAV, which was held in assets that were either listed or for which the sale has been now agreed and not yet executed. And you will see this amounts to roughly one third of portfolio NAV as of September, which coincidentally is also the amount held in assets that have been in the portfolio for over five years. So really we're talking about realization of our more mature positions. This hopefully gives you a glimpse of the portfolio changes that are to come. As more mature assets get realized, we expect a more balanced vintage exposure towards younger growing assets. Notably, as average holding periods continue to extend across the private equity industry, TGP Limited's average holding period has remained stable overall, just over the five-year mark through Q3 2025. and anticipated to move down more towards the four and a half years in the coming months as some of these exits that are now signed get fully executed. Looking at this in historical context on the next slide, we announced exits and gradual monetization of listed holdings reinforce the positive trend in distribution that we've seen starting earlier this year. The trading 12-month distribution rate as percentage of NAV has picked up to circa 10% as at the end of the quarter. And this figure is anticipated to double in coming months, realigning us with our long-run average of approximately 18% to 20%. Importantly, this is not based on sales processes that are still open and ongoing, but on signed and agreed exits for which in some cases proceeds have been already received after the end of the Q3 reporting period. Among the four signed exits expected to close in Q4, I'd like to flag Apex Logistics, an integrated global logistics solution provider, which PGP Limited invested in in 2021. During the hold period, Apex EBITDA increased over 150%, and PGP Limited already received significant distributions from this asset by means of dividends over the holding period. Now a full sales of partners group stake was agreed in October 2025, valuing the company at approximately $4 billion and anticipated to bring total distribution from Apex Logistics to PGP Limited to over 25 million euros. driving total 2025 realization proceeds for the company closer to Euro 200 million. Importantly, beyond APEX, we see continued monetization of listing holdings, most recently, for example, another sale in Galderma, as well as a number of additional sales whose closing is anticipated in the early months of 2026, subject to the usual regulatory approval. This provides us clear visibility on future distribution drivers, further and then pinned by new exit processes that are now currently underway. This is really material for two reasons. On the one hand, it allows us to realize performance, reinforcing confidence in our assets and in the valuation process we hold at Partners Group. On the other hand, it also allows us to reinvest these proceeds. continue to get exposure to new vintages, strengthening portfolio construction for the company, and planting the seeds for future performance. As we talk about new assets, we also stand ready to execute and onboard new companies to maintain the investment level we promise our shareholders. We do so by leveraging the partners group sourcing and underwriting processes, which currently have an approximately $50 billion in first training pipeline. I just list here the more actionable opportunities we see in the pipeline, and some of them, as you can see, have already been executed during Q4 2025, with others in very advanced stages of the underwriting processes, These opportunities are anticipated to realign our annual investment levels with historical averages of approximately 10% of NAD per annum. Notably, our pipeline remains anchored in our long-term thematic research process, which guides our sourcing and due diligence. And here, a great recent example is our investment in InfinityFin Corp, which will enter the portfolio during the last quarter of 2025. This is a non-bank lending institution which provides formal financial access to underserved micro enterprises in unbanked and underbanked communities across India. With over 30,000 customers serving across 125 branches, Infinity enables small businesses and entrepreneurs to unlock their growth potential. supports the highly underserved in access to credit, with 35% of Infiniti's customers being first-time formal borrowers. This investment fits really into our strong thematic focus on non-bank lending in India, and will leverage our expertise working with Ava Financier, a market-leading affordable housing finance provider in India. The partners group acquired in 2016 and was fully exited in 2025. We will use this experience to implement transformational value creation initiatives at Infinity, working to accelerate the branch rollout to reach more customers, investing in technology to enhance customer experience, and improve operational efficiency. While today we paid a lot of attention to realizations, as the industry has been brightly focused on liquidity generation and DPI, Rest assured, we continue to work on sourcing, screening, and diligence in new assets, with renewed focus on quality of earnings, as well as clear and actionable transformational business plans. We look forward to telling you more about these new investments in coming quarters. For the time being, I'll hand it back over to Andrea to summarize.

speaker
Andrea Matteiescu
CEO, Partners Group Private Equity Limited

So before we wrap up, let me highlight a few things about BGP Limited. We've been around for quite some time, listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007, and recently included in the FTSE 250. So it's fair to say we've navigated multiple market cycles. Today, our portfolio includes over 70 direct investments diversified across industries, geographies, and vintages, which I believe is a key strength in today's environment. Backing all of this is Partners Group, one of the world's largest private market firms, which manages more than 174 billion US dollars in assets, of which 83 billion dollars is in private equity. And so, an investment in PGP Limited means investing alongside partners group global client base and gaining access to private companies that aren't available in public markets. This year, we expect to distribute around 52 million euros to shareholders through dividends. translating into a prospective dividend yield of about 7.5%. And that's a strong differentiator in the European listed private equity space. Now, 2025 hasn't been without challenges. Trade tensions, fiscal shifts, and geopolitical uncertainty weighed on markets and contributed to a weaker US dollar. But despite those headwinds, PGP Limited has delivered consistent long-term performance with an average annual NAV and share price total returns of over 9% for the past decade. And looking ahead, while at the 30th of September these distributions haven't been yet received, we've been very active in the second half of the year. We've announced the exit for four of our top 10 investments, PCI, Tech Chem, Clario and ISP. These transactions are expected to drive significant distributions over the next three to nine months, which is great news for liquidity. So in short, we have strong visibility on liquidity, M&A markets are normalizing, and we're well-positioned to capture compelling opportunities as the global economy reshapes. Now, over the years, we've experienced both bull and bear markets. Historically, during bull markets, our discounts to NAV ranged from 0% to 10%, and in more stable years, between 10% to 20%. Now, today, the discount is around 25% to 26%, compared to a 10-year average of 19%. and this is a notable deviation from historical levels. From a historical perspective, this level of discount is unusual and may be of interest to investors evaluating long-term opportunities. What's also important is how the portfolio has evolved over the last decade. Ten years ago, about a third consisted of fund-to-fund investments. Today, 99% are direct investments where we have more control, better transparency, and stronger value creation levers. That context matters when considering the company's current market valuation. And we're not standing still. Our capital allocation policy prioritizes dividends and share buybacks under specific terms linked to the discount and available free cash flow. With portfolio activity increasing and 2025 distributions expected to exceed last year's €140 million, and also noting that the share will trade at a discount, The board has raised the buyback limit from €2.7 million up to €50 million. The program is already underway. Following proceeds from the PCI Pharma transaction. With that, I'd like to open the floor for your questions. So, as I mentioned, we will group similar questions, and I have to say there is one recurring theme to all your questions. Thank you very much for having asked them. And that would be, Cyril, for you. This is around the uplifts and the valuation uplifts, in particular with a decrease in the expected uplift more than in the last year. How can you comment on this? Could you please provide a bit more information on your view?

speaker
Dr. Cyril Visli
Managing Director, Private Equity

Yeah, thanks for that question. So you all know I really love the valuation topics. I think this is actually a good thing. Nowadays, you really try hard to be true and fair value. I think it makes no sense to under-promise and over-deliver, kind of, so that whenever you have an exit, you have an uplift. Because nowadays, Partners Group has over 50 billion in evergreens. And if you have a semi-liquid fund, for example, a Luxembourg stick-off structure, which has a monthly liquidity, and every month you can go in and out, In the same companies which we have in PGP Limited, which is listed as the longest stock exchange, the same investments we also have in our Luxembourg seek-off structures. And of course, if you are redeeming in September and then somebody is buying in September, then it's not good if in September we publish an NED and then we sell a company in October for 30% higher. So that's why we really try hard to have a valuation approach which looks at the loss of Montevideo multiplied by a multiple, which is benchmarked by a dozen of public comparables. And so then we try hard to be as close to the correct value as possible. Now, a lot of times the exits are a process which takes six months or longer. A lot of times other general partners approach us already one or two years ago, before we want to sell an asset, the fact that they would like to buy an asset. And of course, these factors also go into the valuations. So in other words, whenever we have prepared an exit for longer term, then we are even better. And this year, if I look at the last 10 exits year to date, all have been at NVE or at the 5% to 10% premium to NVE, which I think is actually a good thing. I mean, we traded a 25% discount to NEVs, and clearly we can say that's not where we sell our assets. Sell the assets at NEV or 5% to 10% above NEV. But there was also a question saying why it was higher last year. I think last year we had three IPOs, of which we saw which doubled actually after the IPO. Of course, IPOs are more difficult to then estimate how the share price will develop. And we also had SRS distribution, which was bought by Home Depot at 30% uplift, which was honestly a surprise for us, because we were expecting this asset to sell only in one or two years later. But for me, in short, the message is, if we sell at any rate, that's actually a good thing. That's a compliment to our valuation guys.

speaker
Investor Relations
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Cyril.

speaker
Andrea Matteiescu
CEO, Partners Group Private Equity Limited

Federica, I see also a question for you, and that is about Vishal. Do you plan to sell more and when?

speaker
Federica Cataniga
Portfolio Manager

Yeah, I mean, good segue to Cyril's point here, right? This leasing has been incredibly successful. The stock is up approximately 35% year to date. Just as a reminder, we executed already a block sale in June 2025. And upon that block sale, we have agreed to a 150-day commercial commercial lockups, which will expire in coming weeks. So up until then, we cannot execute any more sales. Should stock performance remain where it is or even continue this strongly? I do see a case for more realizations coming from this position. I cannot comment on timing or on quantum. But I would expect this to remain a distribution driver for the portfolio into 2026. Thank you.

speaker
Andrea Matteiescu
CEO, Partners Group Private Equity Limited

Then maybe also on this note, Federica, what about the distributions you expect for next year? Maybe also if you can touch base on the pipeline of the investments.

speaker
Federica Cataniga
Portfolio Manager

Yeah, sure. Well, on distributions, as I mentioned, we expect to to revert to our sort of 20% NED run rate by the end of 2025. So we're talking approximately 200 million in total. And current guidance points to achieving a very, very similar number in 2026 as well. And again, part of these 200 million have already been contracted with announced sale. Plus, for example, again, going back to potential realization of listed holdings, just as a reminder, we still hold over 70 million in the Shell stock and also Galderma, another position that we can monetize over 2026. So I would very much guide towards sort of the 20% annualized run rate in some current conditions. And on pipeline, I would also guide to a more normalized environment coming in 2026. So roughly 10 to maximum 15% new investments in percentage of NAV again. That will bring us very much in line with what we've observed historically.

speaker
Investor Relations
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you.

speaker
Andrea Matteiescu
CEO, Partners Group Private Equity Limited

So we have another question in the webcast, and that is about having done very well on the exit. Thank you for this. However, Marco specifically has acted as a headwind on the NAV. And through this cycle, and considering those challenges, what kind of NAV return phenomenon should investors expect from such a product? Maybe, Cyril, this is something you would like to answer?

speaker
Dr. Cyril Visli
Managing Director, Private Equity

Yeah, I mean, this year is very unusual with the ethics impact. I mean, that the US dollar crashes so much against the euro. So if we exclude that this year and we just look a little bit across the cycle of six years, last 10 years, I mean, the last six years and the last 10 years were actually 10% net of fees, total return, so double digits. And if we look at 10 years ago, The portfolio was different. Ten years ago, we still had a significant share of the portfolio in funded funds, and the direct includes those of infrastructure, real estate, and debt, which actually come at a lower return. If we look at the private equity direct investments only, at the last ten years, then they were at the 15% net return, which is actually in line with the expectations our clients have who invest in our closed-ended limited partnership structures. So in the long run, this product targets double-digit returns.

speaker
Investor Relations
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you.

speaker
Andrea Matteiescu
CEO, Partners Group Private Equity Limited

So we thank you also, you, the participants, for having joined our call today and also to the ones who will be listening to the recording. And as mentioned in the beginning, if we didn't manage to answer your questions or you have follow-up questions, please reach out to us. We're more than happy to continue the discussion. And this being said, we wish you a wonderful rest of the day. Thank you for joining us.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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