NEUBERGER PLANNED AN IPO LAST SUMMER, BUT BACKED AWAY.
The on-again, off-again initial public offering plans from Neuberger Berman Inc. are on again.
The executive committee of the big asset manager and mutual fund firm met earlier this week and agreed to recommend an IPO to the 90 partners who currently own the company.
The partners have been called to attend a special meeting on Monday at which they will discuss the proposal. A vote is expected later next week.
“The executive committee approved the plan, and now it goes to the partners,” said Jeffrey Lane, chief administrative officer and member of the firm’s executive committee.
Lane declined to offer any other details, and said the company would not file an offering document with the Securities and Exchange Commission unless the partners decide to move ahead with the plan.
Neuberger Berman, which manages $57 billion, planned an IPO last summer, but backed away at the last minute, when financial services stocks tumbled after the Russian devaluation of the ruble.
In the document filed with the SEC last year, Neuberger Berman had planned to raise as much as $250 million, by selling 10 percent of its shares to the public. That would have given the firm a market value of $2.5 billion.
Analysts say they expect a similar market capitalization this time round.
The stocks of publicly traded mutual fund and asset management firms are doing well this year. The Lipper Mutual Fund Management Company Index, which tracks the stock prices of these firms, grew 13 percent so far this year, ahead of the S&P 500 index.
Some of them are doing much better. Eaton Vance, for example, is the leader of the index, with a year-to-date gain of 69.46 percent.
Neuberger Berman would be expected to join the Lipper index if it goes ahead with an IPO. The stocks of mutual fund firms closely track the returns of the funds managed by those firms. When the funds are doing well and posting above-average returns, the stocks do well.Neuberger Berman funds are doing well this year, especially compared to last year’s disastrous performance.