Why Swiss billionaires are fighting against the EU framework agreement

A new generation of EU critics is taking off. On Monday, the Compass Europe Committee launched a new popular initiative: the Compass Initiative. It is intended to mobilize the population against an institutional framework agreement with the EU. Her goal is that international treaties must be presented to the people and the states – in this way she wants to prevent a possible agreement with the EU. The signature collection has begun.

Behind the initiative is a diverse group of entrepreneurs, artists and celebrities such as the TV presenter Kurt Aeschbacher and the former ski star Bernhard Russi. But the driving forces are three lesser-known people: the financial entrepreneurs Alfred Gantner, Urs Wietlisbach and Marcel Erni. They are the founders of the Zug-based private equity group Partners Group.

Their success made the three of them billionaires at a young age. This gives them the means to finance the Compass campaign today. According to their own statements, they have so far contributed the majority of the campaign budget of 1.5 million francs. Now more and more members are also contributing financially.

And the financial professionals are now also trying their hand in the political arena. “Eight out of ten entrepreneurs are highly critical of the framework agreement,” claim Gantner and Wietlisbach – although without naming a source. They don’t care about the Partners Group, which has to comply with EU laws anyway. It’s about location advantages and “about the broad, working people in Switzerland”.

 

The financiers make it clear that they would not be the ones who would suffer from a possible agreement: “I could go on the autumn holidays now instead of wandering around Switzerland and going on a roadshow,” said Wietlisbach, one of the Partners Group founders, at the media conference .

“No relevance for the Partners Group”

Since its founding in 2021, Kompass Europa has mobilized a group of around 2,500 members. Among them are many former managers and financiers such as the former DKSH boss Jörg Wolle, the former airport director Andreas Schmid, the Leonteq founder Jan Schoch and the Swiss Life President Rolf Dörig, who has previously made critical comments about the EU. Pierre Mirabaud, once president of the Swiss Bankers Association, which is now committed to negotiations for better market access to the EU, is also there.

It is rare for the main shareholders of a billion-dollar SMI group to expose themselves politically. Anyone who expresses their opinion as an entrepreneur accepts reputational risks. The three founders of the Partners Group emphasize that Kompass Europa is a personal commitment. The financial company might even benefit slightly from a framework agreement with the EU. The company itself is very sober in its comments on the political commitment of its founders: “The framework agreement has no relevance or influence at all on the global business of the Partners Group,” it says when asked.

 

The ties between the Partners Group and its founders are nevertheless close. Although Erni, Gantner and Wietlisbach withdrew from operational business years ago, they all still sit on the board of directors. With shares of 5 percent each, they are also the largest shareholders. They are also active in the field as board members, for example in customer care. They devote the rest of the time to their own topics, such as art (Erni), charitable projects (Gantner) or Compass Europe (all three).

Brilliant rise

With their financial group, Gantner, Wietlisbach and Erni have written one of the biggest success stories in the Swiss financial center. For a long time this took place virtually behind closed doors. The Partners Group is not located in the Zurich financial center, but in Zug. The headquarters is located on the outskirts of town, between the gas station and McDonald’s.

The three founders met at the Goldman Sachs branch in Zurich. In 1996 they left the American investment bank and founded the Partners Group. The IPO followed in 2006, as one of the first private equity companies ever.

The company gained greater notoriety in 2020 when the Partners Group forced the personnel service provider Adecco out of the SMI, the leading index of the Swiss stock exchange. Today, Partners Group’s market capitalization is around 34 billion francs, which is almost as much as the reinsurer Swiss Re.

In the almost twenty years since going public, it has increased customer assets under management from $11 billion to almost $150 billion. It is significantly leaner than the reinsurer. The Partners Group employs just 1,800 people, while Swiss Re has 15,000. At the end of October, the company will move to new headquarters near Baar in Zug. The building, which cost several hundred million, will officially open next spring.

The three founders started out as asset managers for companies. Only over time have they specialized in unlisted investments, so-called private market investments (private equity). In addition to investments in companies, these also include investments in real estate (private real estate), corporate financing (private debt) or infrastructure.

Depends on interest

Like other private equity companies, Partners Group has benefited massively from the low interest rates of recent years. During this time, typical private market investors such as pension funds, insurance companies or wealthy individuals were looking for diversification and additional returns.

For their services, they pay the private equity houses a fixed management fee and a performance fee. This will be due when the investments received are sold again.

When it comes to corporate investments, the Partners Group, unlike the large American private equity houses such as Blackstone or KKR, specializes in medium-sized companies; This week, Partners Group sold its stake in the German energy service provider Techem. It is easier for the investment specialist to achieve an increase in value with companies of this size, for example by opening up new export markets. The best-known investments include the stake in the valve manufacturer VAT, which was sold in 2018, and the stake in the watch manufacturer Breitling, which Partners Group acquired in 2022.

The turnaround in interest rates has slowed down the rapid rise of the Partners Group somewhat from 2022 onwards. The reason is the higher costs of borrowed capital, which is why fewer sales are currently taking place. The group earned 39 percent less from performance-related fees in the first half of 2024. This is also relevant for the founders and employees of Partners Group, as up to 40 percent of these fees are distributed to employees. Now the management of Partners Group hopes that the environment will improve in the coming year. Interest rates are expected to continue to fall and the number of transactions to increase again.

Financial independence

With assets of around 2.8 billion francs each, Erni, Gantner and Wietlisbach belong to the “Balance sheet” list of the richest Swiss. They have reduced their participation over the years. But the roughly 5 percent that everyone holds corresponds to 1.7 billion francs. In addition, the trio has private assets amounting to 3 billion francs managed in the joint family office PG3, where another 30 people work.

It was not a given that the three founders would one day be among the very richest in the country. Fredy Gantner, for example, grew up in simple circumstances in Neuenhof, Aargau. He came to the financial industry through a banking apprenticeship at UBS. He obtained an MBA from Brigham Young University in the USA via the second educational opportunity. There he met his wife and joined the Mormons – a Christian religious community in which success and disciplined living are the guiding principles.

Wietlisbach has a more straightforward CV. After studying at the HSG and starting his career as a broker at Credit Suisse, he joined Goldman Sachs. He doesn’t feel like he belongs to any party, but describes himself as a “social capitalist”. His involvement alongside his wife in the “Healthy and Free” committee, which campaigned against the Covid-19 law, made headlines. In doing so, he is opposing Gantner, who supported the Federal Council’s policies during the pandemic.

Marcel Erni is the most discreet of the group. He became a private equity expert after completing a doctorate at the HSG and a trip to McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. Erni’s wife Nicola is better known because of her art museum in Steinhausen. Erni is considered the investment guru among the three, Gantner as the organizer and general, Wietlisbach as the salesman.

On a collision course

Politically they are not easy to pin down. “We are not an SVP that wants nothing to do with Europe,” says Wietlisbach. Gantner, for his part, is not an economic liberal, he leans towards the center and is socially committed. He believes that taxes in the canton of Zug are too low and is against increasing the retirement age. Nothing is known about Erni’s political beliefs.

But one thing is certain: With the Compass Initiative, the trio and their prominent supporters are confronting the “official stance” of the major business associations. Both Economiesuisse and Swissmem as well as the financial sector with the bankers’ association and the asset management association Amas are positioned against the initiative’s concerns.

The Swiss private banks also find clear words. The Federal Council’s efforts to reach a framework agreement with the EU are supported. “We will resolutely reject this initiative,” says Grégoire Bordier, President of the VSPB private banking association. With politics, the billionaires who are used to success have found a new market that they want to conquer. They still have to prove whether they can master the rules of the game.