For what interest it holds, I had a chance to chat with Mike Roos who handles media relations for Artisan. Despite the fact that his office mate continues to gloat over his alma mater's (one) athletic victory over Augustana, it was a pleasant and interesting chat.
Highlights:
because the IPO filing is under SEC review, they can't say anything to anybody right now. When they can, they'll be happy to.
the Artisan folks know of, and followed, FundAlarm -- they seemed to respect our efforts.
with luck, I'll have a chance to talk near the end of the month with Messrs. Samra and O'Keefe about their still-tiny Global Value fund. Morningstar recently designated it as a star "global allocation" choice. My original profile of the fund is here:
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/archive/artis02.htm.
What I gather from the 26 page IPO filing is that Artisan took on substantial debt several years ago. Much of that debt was shareholder-friendly, in the sense that it helped make the founding partner's holdings liquid. As such, it was a tool for facilitating a greater ownership stake on the part of the newer managers. That stake is important in helping tie their long-term interests to the firm's. It seems that nearly 90% of the IPO revenue would be used to restructure that debt, and the remainder for "general corporate purposes." I'll work through a more-detailed explanation in the May cover essay.
As ever,
David
Comments
Thanks for the update.