Private Equity Billionaires Seek to Torpedo Swiss-EU Talks

Switzerland’s efforts to forge a new deal to govern relations with the European Union have run into substantial new opposition, in the form of the three billionaire founders of Partners Group Holding AG.

Alfred Gantner, Marcel Erni and Urs Wietlisbach, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alumni who’ve built one of Europe’s most valuable private finance firms, are leading a new political campaign that could limit the Swiss government’s room for maneuver in talks due to conclude by the end of this year.

The “Kompass Europa” organization, backed by the private equity billionaires and other entrepreneurial figures is ...