Street.Com – The alternative-investment world witnessed a far-reaching change last week when private equity behemoth Kohlberg Kravis Roberts raised $5 billiondollars through an initial public offering on Euronext for one of its investment units. Other private equity firms, including The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group and Texas Pacific Group, arereportedly interested in doing similar equity offerings.
The question that comes to mind is: Will more hedge funds follow suit and seek to raise money on the public markets? Well, to some degree, they already have. In the U.K., two hedge fund managers, Charlemagne Capital and Absolute Capital, went public in March. Granted, the public listing of hedge funds is more pronounced in Europe than it is here, particularly in the U.K., which is home of the Man Group, the largest publicly held hedge fund manager in the world. That’s partly because British exchanges, particularly the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market — a global market for smaller, growing companies — have simpler listing requirements. “Europe offers more of a tradition in investing in publicly traded companies, perhaps because of the existence of investment trusts,” says Chris Atayan, managing director of Slusser Associates, a private investment banking firm and a contributor to Street Insight.
