Recent Blog Posts
-
The Times' Rorshach Geithner Story
Apr 27 20099:04am EDT -
Sinking Animal Spirits
Apr 27 20098:04am EDT -
Counter-cyclical Urban Policy
Apr 26 200910:04am EDT -
Be Your Own Counterfeiter
Apr 26 20099:04am EDT -
Being Tim Geithner
Apr 25 200912:04pm EDT -
Notes From a Press Conference Naif
Apr 25 20099:04am EDT -
What Good is the News?
Apr 25 20098:04am EDT -
Stressful Enough
Apr 24 20092:04pm EDT -
Not Regretting the Pound
Apr 24 20091:04pm EDT -
Introducing the New Ford Squeeze
Apr 24 20099:04am EDT -
Non-Economic Questions of the Day
Apr 24 20099:04am EDT -
The Stress Test Blind Alley
Apr 24 20098:04am EDT -
Happy Hour
Apr 23 20099:04pm EDT -
Recovery Without Rebalancing
Apr 23 20096:04pm EDT -
The Shape of Your Recession
Apr 23 20095:04pm EDT
Links
- Felix Salmon
- DealBreaker
- Ryan Avent: The Bellows
- The Epicurean Dealmaker
- Chris Anderson
- Ultimi Barbarorum
- MarketBeat
- Michelle Leder
- John Quiggin
- The Panelist
- Andrew Leonard
- Streetsblog
- Brad Setser
- Michael Mandel
- Financial Crookery
- Kash Mansori
- Dean Baker
- Calculated Risk
- Free Exchange
- Curbed
- Lance Knobel
- Econospeak
- Carbon Tax Center
- Overcoming Bias
- Mark Thoma
- Naked Capitalism
- Alphaville
- Barry Ritholtz
- Alexander Campbell
- The Bayesian Heresy
- Brad DeLong
- DealBook
- Greg Mankiw
- Deal Journal
- FP Passport
- Carl Bialik
- Marginal Revolution
- A Fistful of Euros
- Dan Gross
Equity Offerings, Private and Public
What's halfway between public equity and private equity? Goldman Sachs is trying to fill that gap, with a new system called GS TRuE -- short for Goldman Sachs Tradable Unregistered Equity. Institutional investors can use the platform to trade equity in unlisted companies, starting with Oaktree Capital Management LLC, an alternative-investment manager. So long as there are fewer than 500 shareholders in all, there are no SEC listing requirements -- which, of course, means that investors have no SEC protection.
This certainly looks like it's the equity equivalent of loans without covenants, and other signs of the impending apocalypse. On the other hand, if there's demand for this product, it would be rude for Goldman Sachs not to meet that demand.
Interestingly, GS TRuE was launched on the same day that Australia's Platinum Asset Management went public, catapulting founder Kerr Neilson into the ranks of Australia's richest men. While Goldman concentrates on institutional investors, however, Platinum restricted participation in its IPO to retail investors – a strategy which seems to have paid off in spades.
Increasingly, retail investors are being locked out of some of the most exciting investment opportunities in the world. If Kerr Neilson can find a way to help those people out, he deserves his billionaire status.
