Och-Ziff, Hedge Fund IPO Debuts Today (OZM)

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) is set to see its IPO trade Wednesday.  The giant hedge fund operator priced 36,000,000 Class-A shares at $32.00 per share, for proceeds of about $1.15 billion.  The expected price range had been $30.00 to $33.00. The hedge fund company granted the underwriters the option to buy up to an additional 5.4 million Class A shares to cover any overallotments.

As previously noted, Och-Ziff is selling another $1.15 Billion in shares to Dubai International Capital LLC, a subsidiary of Dubai Holding LLC, and they will own a 9.9% stake in Och-Ziff after the offering.

Och-Ziff plans to use proceeds from the IPO and from Dubai International to buy interests in the company from its existing owners, which includes members of senior management. Och-Ziff’s existing partners will reinvest all their proceeds into the company’s funds.

Och-Ziff’s underwriting group is massive.  Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros. are tagged as the lead underwriters, and other key underwriters are Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and J.P.Morgan.  Co-managers with smaller allocations are listed as Credit Suisse, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Bear Stearns, Macquarie, Nomura, BOC International, Ramirez & co., and Utendahl Capital Partners.  While some of the key European investment banks are not listed in here, it looks like the hedge fund operator is giving an allocation to every investment banker in its rolodex.

More detailed information on this and other IPO’s is previewed on our open email distribution list, and there we often cover spin-offs, break-ups, reorganizations, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
November 14, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the more detailed 24/7 Wall St. subscriber-based Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.