UK Hedge Fund Manager Plans Fund IPO

Stephen Harris

14 September 2006

UK hedge fund manager, Marshall Wace, is to float a hedge fund product by the end of the year. Marshall Wace has $7 billion of assets under management, and was founded by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace. The company’s Tops Fund, which was launched in 2001, picks and uses the best investment ideas of brokers and analysts. Marshall Wace’s proposed fund flotation follows a growing trend. Boussard & Gavaudan Asset Management, founded by Emmanuel Gavaudan, a former Goldman Sachs partner and managing director, and Emmanuel Boussard another ex-Goldman employee, recently announced their intention to list the Sark Holding fund later this year. Other alternative investment funds that have listed this year include Guernsey-based fund of hedge funds CMA Global Hedge and New York-based private-equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts which raised $5 billion through a fund listing in Amsterdam in May.