Rajiv Jain’s GQG Partners Seeks $955 Million From Australian IPO

(Bloomberg) -- GQG Partners Inc., the investment boutique started by fund manager Rajiv Jain, plans to raise as much as A$1.3 billion ($956 million) from an initial public offering in Australia, joining some of the largest new local listings this quarter.

The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based money manager, which had about $89 billion in assets under management at the end of August, plans to issue 593.5 million shares at A$2 to $2.2 each, according to a document sent to potential investors and seen by Bloomberg News on Friday. The company is looking at an enterprise value of as much as A$6.5 billion.

A deal of that size would rank it among the largest new listings this quarter. Australia hasn’t had a new public float bigger than GQG’s proposed offering since the 2018 debut of another money manager, L1 Long Short Fund Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The October-December period is historically the busiest for IPOs down under.

GQG Partners is planning an institutional bookbuild beginning Oct. 21 and looking to start trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Oct. 26, according to the document obtained by Bloomberg News. 

Jain was a star fund manager at Vontobel Holding AG before resigning from the Swiss wealth and asset manager in 2016 to start GQG Partners. 

Under the terms of the planned IPO, Jain would keep a 68.8% stake after the listing, while chief executive officer Tim Carver would own 5.6%; Australian asset manager Pacific Current Group would retain a 4% stake. New investors would ultimately hold 20.1%, according to the document.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG are joint lead managers and bookrunners for the IPO, according to the document.

Separately, New Zealand metals distributor Vulcan Steel Ltd. also set the share price on Friday for an IPO that it expects will raise A$371.6 million. 

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