Goldman Sachs plans London IPO for £3.6bn Petershill Partners

Portfolio of alternative asset managers aims to take advantage of boom in private equity market

Last modified on Mon 6 Sep 2021 10.10 EDT

Goldman Sachs is preparing to list a new investment vehicle, Petershill Partners, on the London Stock Exchange in a move that could value the unit at £3.6bn thanks to a boom in the private equity market.

Petershill Partners is expected to raise about $750m (£542m) through an initial public offering (IPO) that will give institutional investors such as pension funds a chance to share in the profits of private equity firms and hedge funds without having to take direct stakes in those firms.

The vehicle holds minority stakes in 19 alternative asset managers – including hedge funds, private equity and venture capital firms – with combined assets under management of $187bn, and is expected to be valued at $5bn (£3.6bn) after the IPO, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Goldman Sachs declined to comment on the valuation.

It comes after Bridgepoint – the private equity group behind the restaurant group Itsu, online cycling specialist Wiggle and the UK arm of Burger King – announced plans for a £2bn IPO on the London Stock Exchange in June.

Petershill Partners will be composed of assets that have been managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management since 2007. The listing will involve its existing institutional investors selling down 25% of their stakes in the firm and offering them up for sale on the public market. Goldman is not selling any shares as part of the IPO, but will continue to manage the portfolio on investors’ behalf.

“Through a London listing, Petershill Partners would make available to public market institutional investors a unique opportunity to access stakes in a number of leading privately owned alternative asset managers,” said Naguib Kheraj, the chairman of Petershill Partners.

The decision to float the portfolio comes amid a boom in appetite for private equity investments, as investors hunt for stronger financial returns amid low interest rates.

The boom has been driven in part by those same low interest rates – which have made it cheap for private equity firms to borrow money to fuel their takeovers – as well as cheaper-than-usual price tags for companies. British firms, for example, have become popular targets in recent months, since their value has been hit by both the pandemic and Brexit. There were 785 private equity deals in the UK alone in the first half of 2021 worth a combined £74bn, according to KPMG.

The private equity market will continue to grow, according to data firm Prequin, which expects assets under management across the so-called alternatives industry to surge in value by 9.8% by 2025 to $17.5tn. That compares with $10.7tn in 2020.

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