One of the backers of DoubleLine Capital Management just placed another piece in its initial public offering puzzle, but when will the IPO happen?

Last week Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Group updated its S-1 with the SEC [see filing] without listing an IPO date or a target offering size, and the LA Times wonders if Oaktree might delay its up-to-$100-million IPO until 2012, in light of current market woes.

Fundsters may not be surprised if Oaktree opts to stall. Old Mutual has already pushed back the IPO of its U.S. asset management business to 2013 or beyond, and Manning & Napier's IPO on November 18 received a lukewarm reception with a barely noticeable bump in its share price on the first day, despite a significant drop in the IPO price in the week prior.

"They're waiting for the right market conditions," Francis Gaskins, editor of IPOdesktop.com, told the LA Times. "Oaktree wants to be on deck, but now is not a good time."

The filing revealed that Oaktree, which boasted about $73 billion in assets under management as of September and specializes in distressed debt, earned $351.7 million in the first three quarters of 2011, down from $512 million in the same quarters last year. Oaktree allowed its shares to be traded on a private Goldman Sachs exchange in 2007.

Oaktree owns a minority stake in DoubleLine, and it also sub-advises almost $2.7 billion in mutual fund assets, about four percent of its total AUM. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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