New Mountain Finance Corp down nearly 6 percent in NYSE debut

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BANGALORE/NEW YORK (Global Markets) - Shares of New Mountain Finance Corp (NMFC.N) fell in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday after its initial public offering raised less than expected.

Shares closed at $13, or 5.5 percent below the IPO price, on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The closed-end investment company on Thursday raised about $100 million, selling 7.3 million shares for $13.75 each. It had planned to sell 8.3 million shares at $14 to $15 each, according to a regulatory filing.

New Mountain's stock had touched an intra-day low of $12.80, down 7 percent on Friday.

The business development company said its only business and sole asset will be owning common membership units of New Mountain Finance Holdings LLC, another business development company in turn managed by New Mountain Finance Advisers BDC LLC.

The company will use all of the proceeds from this offering as well as the proceeds from a concurrent private placement, to acquire common membership units from New Mountain Finance Holdings, LLC, which would then be used for new investments in portfolio companies.

As of March31, 2011, the company's portfolio had a fair value of about $460million in 45 companies, with software and healthcare services making up nearly half of the investments.

In a regulatory filing, New Mountain said it expected to primarily look at catering to U.S. middle market businesses, through both primary originations and open-market secondary purchases.

Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Securities and Morgan Stanley led underwriters on the IPO.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh in New York and Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Prem Udayabhanu)