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UK Asset Manager Plans Stock Exchange Float
Stephen Harris
19 October 2006
UK-based Bluebay Asset Management is planning to float on the London Stock Exchange by the end of November. The company, which manages long-only and hedge funds, is expected to be valued at about £500 million, valuing the stakes of Hugh Willis and Mark Poole, the two founders, at about £87.5 million each. Bluebay currently has around $8 billion in assets under management. Mr Poole and Mr Willis founded the group 2001 after working together at JPMorgan. Both hold about 17.5 per cent of the group and have said they would sell no more than 5.25 per cent of their stakes to increase the free float of the group. Bluebay has recruited Tom Cross Brown, a former chief executive of ABN Amro Asset Management, and Terence Eccles, vice-chairman of JPMorgan Cazenove, as non-executive directors. The IPO will give an exit to Barclays and Shinsei banks, the founding institutional shareholders, which each hold 15 per cent of the company.