Oaktree Capital Files For $100M IPO

Distressed debt and real estate investor Oaktree Capital Group has filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its class A units, the latest buyout shop to seek a public listing, according to sister news service Reuters. The firm, which listed shares four years ago on a quasi-public exchange set up by Goldman Sachs, manages more than $80 billion, rooted mostly in debt investments.

Oaktree will use part of the proceeds from the offering to acquire Oaktree Operating Group units from its affiliate Oaktree Capital Group Holdings LP, it said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The planned listing of Oaktree follows the debut of another private equity asset managing firm, Apollo Global Management LLC, on the New York Stock Exchange on March 30.

Private equity firm Carlyle Group CYL.UL is also planning an IPO. It is expected that JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group Ltd will lead Carlyle’s IPO, two sources familiar with the process said. Los Angeles, California-based Oaktree, which was formed in 1995, has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to underwrite its offering.

The company did not reveal how many shares it planned to sell or their expected price. It plans to list its Class A units on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “OAK.” The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO can be different.

(Aditi Sharma is a correspondent for Reuters news service in Bangalore; additional reporting by Megan Davies in New York.)