Europe’ third largest hedge fund manager, GLG Partners is to go public by merging with New York-based special purpose vehicle Freedom Acquisition Holdings Inc. The London-based alternative asset manager will sell a $1 billion minority stake to Freedom, plus 230 million shares, worth $2.4 billion in a reverse takeover. The new company, GLG Partners Inc., will trade on the New York Stock Exchange. GLG’s three managing directors - Noam Gottesman, Pierre Lagrange and Emmanuel Roman – will split $630 million between them. Freedom’s shareholders will own about 28 per cent of the merged entity, while existing GLG shareholders will own 72 per cent on a fully diluted basis. Freedom will fund the acquisition using the proceeds from its initial public offering and borrowing up to $570 million from a third party lender. The transaction should be complete near the beginning of the fourth quarter this year. GLG was founded in 1995 by three former partners at Lehman Brothers, which retained a 15 per cent stake in the hedge fund and which has agreed to reinvest some of the proceeds from the listing. Mr Gottesman, who is current co-chief executive at GLG, will keep his current role and become chairman of the combined company's board. Mr Roman, also co-chief executive, will retain his current position in the new company. Paul Myners, chairman of Land Securities and author of a report on fund management transparency, is also to become a director in GLG. Mr Myners is also the former chairman of UK retail giant Marks & Spencer.