Finally—someone's going public. In a year that's been typified by a lack of IPOs and businesses going public, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a well-known private equity firm, is planning to go public on the New York Stock Exchange, the company announced Sunday.

What's most interesting about the deal, though, is not that they're the first to go public this quarter—it's the way they're doing it. Instead of an IPO, the company has maneuvered a complicated deal where they will enter the market by purchasing KKR Private Equity Investors, its publically traded affiliate, for $3.9 billion. What that means is that the company's partners won't be cashing out—at least for now. The actual IPO isn't planned until later this year, and it's expected that that move will value the firm from $12 to $15 billion.