QSuper will invest up to $500 million in a global private equity program orchestrated by Swiss funds manager Partners Group, say people familiar with the matter.

Partners Group will invest in a selection of primary and secondary private equity managers, plus co-investments, through a discrete mandate signed in recent weeks with QSuper, sources say.

At June 30, 2011, QSuper held about $360 million in global private equity investments managed by Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), according to Rainmaker Group.

QIC, which manages $2.1 billion in global private equity investments, is also listed by Rainmaker as the manager of QSuper’s $100 million in domestic private equity assets.

QSuper recently gave its internal investment team the power to set asset allocation exposures, with oversight from the investment committee and board, and appoint external funds managers to execute these exposures.

However, Brad Holzberger, QSuper chief investment officer, told Investment Magazine in August that the fund would continue to hire external investment managers to find and execute investments in illiquid alternatives such as private equity and infrastructure.

QSuper was unavailable for comment before deadline, and Partners Group declined to comment.