Unitholders of Partners Group Global Income Fund have backed a move by the fund’s responsible entity to remove it from the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange and continue operating as an unlisted unit trust. The fund invests in a global portfolio of more than 300 private debt investments. Since listing in September 2019 it has achieved its goal of producing an annual distribution of the RBA cash rate plus 4 per cent, net of fees. However, the timing of the listing meant it was hit by market volatility at the onset of the pandemic and suffered further instability as markets anticipated a global recession as rising inflation triggered monetary policy tightening over the past 18 months. At the end of May the fund had net assets of A$491.1 million and a market capitalisation of $464.9 million – a discount of 5.3 per cent. The fund returned 5.4 per cent a year since listing but lost 3 per cent of its capital value. It has traded at a discount to NTA for 90 per cent of the time since listing. Delisting will allow investors to sell their units at net asset value. There is nothing new about listed trusts trading at discounts to their NTAs and over the years many have traded at much deeper discounts then the Partners Group fund. But Partners Group said there has been a lack of liquidity in the fund, making it hard to see it trading back to NTA in the foreseeable future.  Some commentators have suggested that the fund’s problems indicate that the listed private debt sector as a whole faces similar difficulties. But the fund had a significant proportion of US and European high yield debt securities, which appeared particularly risky to investors assessing the likelihood of a recession. Other funds have quite different portfolios and are not exposed to the same volatility. Partners Group has effectively locked in unit holders for a year after delisting by imposing a transition fee that will operate for 12 months. The fund will be delisted in November.