In a move which could lead to an increased activity in the Initial Public Offering sector by firms which are backed by private equities, fund manager Gartmore, which is partly-owned by San Francisco based Hellman & Friedman, a private equity company, has confirmed its plans to enlist its shares on the London Stock Exchange before Christmas rolls in. The offering is most likely to value the fund at ?1 Billion.

Through the offering, Gartmore is pegging at selling a 30-50% stake to investors, raising as much as ?500 Million to ?550 Million in the process. The firm currently has nearly ?21.8 Billion worth of funds under management.

Gartmore's listing will be the London Stock Exchange's biggest and most prominent IPO for the current year, and would be the first IPO of a private equity backed fund since 2007, as has been confirmed by data shared by the Centre for Management Buyout Research.

"The market has been recovering. We had been talking to our bankers and there are a lot of companies likely to come to the market next year. We didn't want to get caught in the queue so we thought we would open up the gateway", shared Gartmore Chief Executive Jeff Meyer.