Skadden and Sullivan bag key roles on Och-Ziff IPO

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has secured a key role on the latest flotation of an alternative investment group.

New York-headquartered hedge fund group Och-Ziff yesterday filed its intention to list as a publicly traded partnership on the New York Stock Exchange in a deal that could value it at as much as $20bn (£10bn).

Skadden is advising Och-Ziff while Sullivan & Cromwell has also been gifted a lead role advising the underwriters on the IPO. At Skadden the team is being led by head of corporate finance Matthew Mallow and corporate finance partner Jennifer Bensch, while Sullivan is fielding a team led by corporate partner Jay Clayton and corporate associate Glen Schleyer.

Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have been named as co-lead managers on the float.

Och-Ziff was founded 13 years ago by Danny Och, formerly of Goldman Sachs. In the UK the hedge fund has a good relationship with Allen & Overy for its M&A work. It also retains close ties to Schulte Roth & Zabel in New York.

Skadden's instruction follows the Times Square-headquartered firm's key role on the IPO of the Blackstone Group last month, which raised a total of $4.13bn (£2.07bn). In that flotation Skadden advised the banks, while Blackstone turned to longstanding adviser Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (www.thelawyer.com, 22 June).