“Private markets will outperform public ones by 10%,” Steffen Meister of Partners Group says.

Investment management firm Partners Group is bullish about the prospects of private market investments, namely private equity, private real estate and private infrastructure. “Over the course of the next five years, private market investments will outperform those in public markets by up to 10%,” CEO Steffen Meister says. As non-listed companies are traditionally orienting their management strategy towards the long term, short-term market fluctuations, such as those currently resulting from the euro zone debt crisis, are having fewer effects on their business. However, challenges remain for private companies as well, Meister says. “In emerging markets, reporting, controlling and transparency are still big issues,” he says. In developed markets, however, it is often hard to replace members of the management team, even if necessary and warranted. Nevertheless, Meister says that Partners Group has no problems finding interesting investment opportunities even in the current macro-economic environment.