Episode summary
Episode 381: Anastasia Amoroso Chief Investment Strategist at Partners Group: The Importance of D...
The Fiftyfaces Podcast
· · 28 min · Guests: Anastasia Amoroso
Summary
Anastasia Amoroso frames her career around discipline, preparation, and the way public and private markets increasingly move together. She says an early mentor drilled into her the habit of presenting every morning at 7:00, a routine that taught her to “do the reps” and build a foundation through repetition and accountability. That experience, she argues, still shapes how she works today.
At Partners Group, she describes the chief investment strategist role as central to connecting macro views with portfolio construction and client guidance. Her core claim is that private markets are not insulated from public markets: valuations, rates, and earnings cycles all matter, even if private assets are marked less frequently and often display lower volatility. She also argues that private equity value creation should be judged over years, not on daily or monthly scorecards.
She highlights three current themes for investors: infrastructure and certain real estate assets can provide inflation pass-through; middle-market portfolio company cash flows and coverage ratios are improving; and private equity still deserves a return premium over public markets over time, even if the driver is now operational improvement rather than cheap leverage. She ends on a personal note, stressing resilience, self-trust, and the importance of taking the long game seriously.
Key takeaways
- Anastasia Amoroso says early-career repetition and accountability taught her to “do the reps” and built the discipline behind her later success.
- She argues that private markets are increasingly intertwined with public markets through valuations, rates, and earnings, even if they are marked less frequently.
- She says infrastructure can offer inflation pass-through through contractual escalators, while some real estate can benefit from supply constraints and rising rents.
- Amoroso says middle-market company cash flows are improving, with coverage ratios moving from about 1.2x toward 2x and EBITDA growth running around 5% to 6%.
- She believes private equity can still earn 300 to 500 basis points of outperformance over public markets over time, driven by operational improvement rather than leverage.
Notable quotes
“you've got to do the reps you've got to do the work you know especially early on to build the foundation for what comes later”
“the role of the chief investment strategist, probably not only at Partners Group, but anyway, is really, really central and is really, really pivotal”
“I think they have always been intertwined. I completely agree with that. And you know, I would I would agree they're probably coming closer together”
“private market investors generate value over time”
“we still expect three, four, potentially 500 basis points of outperformance of private equity over time versus public markets”
How the episode opens
When I was first starting out in my career and I you know I had my first job and you know what did I know at the time but I had a great manager boss and also a mentor and which made all the difference in the world and you know he was actually a former West Point graduate and so he applied I think a lot of what he learned at West Point to how he ran his practice and how he ran his team and so I remember you know every morning at 7:00 I would have to show up and I would have to present on a topic that was assigned to me the day before. And I think we did this for like 90 days or maybe it was beyond 90 days but it was every day 7:00 on the dot you know come ready or not. And look I was ready and you know maybe that sort of instilled a certain discipline in me and you know certain appreciation that you've got to do the reps you've got to do the work you know especially early on to build the foundation for what comes later.
So you know to this day I'm thankful for that investment because guess what I'm not the only one who had to show up he also had to show up at 7:00 and ask the questions and you know give me the grade or whatever it might have been.
I'm Eva Fernholz and welcome to the 50 Faces podcast a podcast committed to revealing the richness and diversity of the world of investment by focusing on its people and their stories. I'm joined today by Anastasia Amoroso who is managing director and chief investment strategist at Partners Group.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private markets strategy
- macroeconomic insights
- portfolio management
- public vs private markets
- long-term investing
Companies and tickers mentioned
- JPM
- Partners Group
- iCapital
- J.P. Morgan
- Merrill Lynch
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The Fiftyfaces Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Aoifinn Devitt. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
