Oaktree Capital Management is planning to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a deal that would value the downtown Los Angeles asset manager between $8 billion and $9 billion, according to a media report that cites people familiar with the plans.

The company founded by billionaires Bruce Karsh and Howard Marks in 1995 manages around $85 billion, mostly invested in debt and distressed assets.

The Financial Times reported Wednesday that Oaktree has been working with Goldman Sachs to transfer Oaktree shares now listed on a quasi-public Goldman exchange to the New York Stock Exchange. While the earlier Goldman deal raised about $700 million from the sale of about 30 percent of shares, no new money is expected to be raised in the planned transaction, the source told the paper.

The stock originally sold at $44 a share four years ago and still trades in the same general range now, which values the company at around $6.2 billion as of the end of the first quarter. Making the shares more liquid on the NYSE is expected to significantly boost their value.

Oaktree managers have previously declined to comment to the Business Journal about plans to take the company fully public.