Goldman Sachs to Take Specialty Lender Public in 6 Million Share IPO

By Katy Burne 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it plans to sell six million shares in its specialty lender as the New York firm gears up to list the two-year-old unit in the coming weeks.

The firm has already begun pitching shares to potential investors, a person familiar with the matter said. In an announcement late Tuesday, Goldman said it would offer the shares in Goldman Sachs BDC Inc., but didn't detail the proposed price or date for the initial public offering.

Goldman unveiled the lender in early 2013 as a so-called business-development company, a type of tax-advantaged entity that is managed similarly to mutual funds, with a finite number of shares that can trade privately or publicly on stock exchanges.

At the time, Goldman was the first bank to launch a BDC. Since then, Credit Suisse Group AG has introduced one and Morgan Stanley also is considering one, as reported in The Wall Street Journal.

The moves come as researchers at Goldman predicated regulation would "continue to shift activities from banks to non-banks" and that nontraditional lenders could eat into $11 billion worth of the $150 billion in annual profits across the banking system over the coming years.

Shares in Goldman BDC have been approved for trading on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol "GSBD." The lender is targeting U.S. borrowers with no credit ratings and earnings by one measure of between $5 million and $75 million annually.

Goldman plans to manage the listing alongside joint book-runners Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Credit Suisse AG and Wells Fargo Securities. Raymond James and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey will co-manage the offering.

Underwriters may also be granted an option to purchase up to 900,000 additional shares of the BDC's stock in the IPO, Goldman said.

Write to Katy Burne at [e-mail]

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