Why Golding Capital Partners Is Betting on Switzerland
A Munich-based asset manager picks its moment to enter one of Europe's most capital-rich institutional markets.
Golding Capital Partners announced a distribution partnership with Bank J. Safra Sarasin, giving the Munich-based asset manager access to the bank’s Swiss institutional network. The structure is simple: Golding brings the private markets expertise, J. Safra Sarasin brings the relationships. But the more interesting question is why Switzerland, and why now.
The Market Behind the Move
Switzerland is one of the largest institutional investor markets in Europe relative to its size. Swiss pension funds alone manage over CHF 1.4 trillion in assets, and appetite for private markets is growing globally. According to the Natixis 2026 Institutional Outlook Survey, 39% of institutions plan to increase private equity allocations, 38% infrastructure, and 35% private debt. More broadly, 65% say private assets offer higher return potential than public markets, and 65% project a portfolio diversified with alternatives will outperform the traditional 60:40 mix.
The challenge for an outside manager is access. Swiss pension funds are relationship-driven, move carefully, and prefer counterparts who understand local regulatory and reporting requirements. As Beat Frühauf, Head of Switzerland at Golding, put it: the partnership “allows us to address institutional investors in Switzerland even more precisely and to leverage our strengths in implementation, from structuring to reporting”.
What the Partnership Actually Does
J. Safra Sarasin has been in Switzerland since 1841 and manages over USD 460 billion in client assets across the group. For Golding, which already has a Zurich office but is not yet a household name among Swiss pension allocators, attaching to that network is a meaningful shortcut. Daniel Graf, Head of Institutional Clients Switzerland at the bank, framed it as “opening up access for our clients to a broad spectrum of investment solutions, including selective co-investments and secondary opportunities”.
The Timing
Switzerland’s near-zero interest rate environment is pushing institutional capital further into alternatives. At the same time, the private markets industry is bifurcating between large generalist platforms and focused specialists. Golding, with EUR 15 billion under management across private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and secondaries, sits in an interesting position: large enough for complex mandates, specialized enough to offer genuine expertise. As Hubertus Theile-Ochel, Managing Director at Golding, noted, the partnership “underscores the strategic importance of the Swiss market” for the firm.
The Swiss market rewards exactly that positioning. The J. Safra Sarasin partnership gives Golding the local infrastructure to make the case.