Goldman Sachs aims for £3.6bn listing of alternative investment firm

Goldman Sachs has announced plans to list a new business on the London Stock Exchange, consisting of companies under its alternative investment division.

Petershill Partners is expected to be valued at around £3.6 billion and bosses say it will allow stock market investors to tap directly into returns from alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity.

The company owns minority stakes in 19 alternative firms which have a combined 187 billion US dollars (£135 million) assets under management.

The group’s assets will be packaged up as a new entity and listed on the stock exchange in an initial public offering (IPO), expected to complete in the next few months.

Launched by Goldman Sachs in 2007, the business took stakes in a series of private equity firms and alternative investment managers to take advantage of the high returns the sectors generated.

Investors have turned to alternative investments in record numbers in recent years due to low interest rates from banks.

But some models have collapsed due to the complexity of the investments or unrealistic returns not being made.

Petershill said its model would create a highly diversified business, focusing on the fastest-growing parts of the alternative investment industry, and would provide support to the funds it has invested in with a strong stream of cash from the stock market.

The listing is expected to raise around £542 million in new shares being issued, alongside around 25% of the business being sold on the open market.

During its 14-year history Petershill has raised and deployed around 8.5 billion dollars (£6.1 billion) of capital across a broad range of businesses, with new acquisitions expected to be in private capital managers focusing on technology, healthcare and ESG.

Petershill Partners’ new chairman, Naguib Kheraj, said: “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.”

He added: “Through Petershill Partners, investors would benefit from the expertise of Goldman Sachs as its operator, both in terms of managing the existing portfolio and developing opportunities to make additional future investments in this rapidly growing industry.”

Ali Raissi, co-head of the Petershill group within Goldman Sachs, said: “Over the past 14 years, the Petershill group within Goldman Sachs has established itself as a partner of choice in the private capital sector.

“This IPO would be a natural next step in the evolution of the offering to partner firms, establishing a permanent capital source, and demonstrating long-term strategic alignment and partnership.”