Calamos Asset Management thinks $100 million might do the trick. The Naperville, Illinois-based asset manager submitted a filing for an initial public offering to raise a maximum of $1 million on Monday.

The offering price and the number of shares offered were not listed.

Calamos' total and mutual fund assets have grown exponentially since 1999, when one of the asset manager's key funds, the Calamos Growth Fund, started outpacing benchmark indices. Total assets have grown by more than 600 percent and mutual fund assets have grown by more than 8,000 percent.

Too Big for Its Britches?
Year	Total AUM ($ mil)	Y-Y % Change	MF Assets ($ mil)	Y-Y % Change
12/31/1999	4,522	--	265	--
12/31/2000	5,668	25%	596	125%
12/31/2001	9,335	65%	2,241	276%
12/31/2002	12,892	38%	5,712	155%
12/31/2003	23,840	85%	14,651	156%
6/30/2004	32,262	35%	22,290	52%
Source: Calamost S-1 filing

Officials noted precisely that fact in the section of the S-1 reserved for risks. They noted that 31 percent of assets under management at June 30, and 37 percent of revenues as of June 30 were from one fund only -- the Calamos Growth Fund.

The Growth Fund had $10.1 billion in assets in 204 holdings at the end of June.

Total revenues for the six months ended June 30 were $139.5 million, $92.7 million of which were investment management fees.

Taking it Public
Assets by Product	6/30/2004 ($ bil)	% of Total
Open-end mutual funds	16.47	51.0%
Closed-end mutual funds	5.81	18.0%
Managed accounts	6.78	21.0%
Institutional accounts	2.91	9.0%
Other	0.32	1.0%
Total	32.3	100%
Source: Calamost S-1 filing

Officials also discussed that Merrill Lynch acts as the intermediary for 15 percent of total assets under management as of June 30, and Citigroup accounts for another 9 percent. Intermediaries control distribution of "substantially all" of the firm's assets.

Coincidentally, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch will run the book on the offering. Goldman, Sachs and UBS Investment Bank will co-lead.

At the end of June, Calamos managed 51 percent of assets in open-end mutual funds and 18 percent of their assets in closed-end funds.

John Calamos is the chairman, chief executive officer and co-chief investment officer, and Nick Calamos is the senior executive vice president and co-chief investment officer of the firm.

The company plans on being listed under the ticker "CLMS" on the Nasdaq, the filing noted. 

Edited by: Theresa Sim


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