Goldman's Petershill Partners slides after being valued at $5.5 billion in IPO

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in Goldman Sachs' Petershill Partners fell on Tuesday, as the firm which invests in alternative investment managers sold 1.2 billion pounds ($1.64 billion) of stock in an initial public offering.

The company, which takes minority stakes in private equity, venture capital and hedge funds, was valued at 4 billion pounds. It plans to use the proceeds to make more investments.

Petershill set its IPO price at 350 pence per share. Trading started flat but then fell in late morning trade to be down around 3% at 1106 GMT.

Naguib Kheraj, Petershill's chairman, said the listing would give "public market investors a unique opportunity to gain diversified access to the rapidly growing alternative investment industry".

Petershill currently holds stakes in firms including Accel-KKR, Caxton Associates, Clearlake and Riverstone Holdings.

Private equity funds have soared in value over the past year as money pours in from investors looking for higher returns when interest rates are so low.

Petershill had earlier set a range for its listing of between 320 and 380 pence.

($1 = 0.7311 pounds)

(Reporting by John O'Donnell; editing by Jason Neely and Louise Heavens)