BNY Mellon Asset Management, part of The Bank of New York Mellon, is to launch two investment boutique subsidiaries, one focused on managing domestic Australian equities and the other on global emerging markets equities and fixed income.

The launch of Ankura Capital and Blackfriars Asset Management follows BNY Mellon’s purchase of two investment subsidiaries from its joint venture with German banking group WestLB in December 2008.

Ankura Capital is headquartered in Sydney and as at 31 December managed approximately A$1 billion ($674 million) in Australia equities for a largely domestic client base.  The firm will retain all its investment staff and its current management team, with Greg Vaughan continuing as managing director and chief investment officer.

London-based Blackfriars Asset Management focuses on global and regional emerging markets equity, debt, and global fixed income, and at the end of 2008 had over $2.3 billion in assets under management. Blackfriars will continue to be lead by chief executive Hugh Hunter.

"Accelerating the already significant growth of our asset management business in Australia and the Asia Pacific region as a whole is a key strategic priority for us. In addition, many emerging markets economies are in a position of relative strength compared to their Western counterparts. We see increased investment opportunities in this area, and in our dialogues with clients globally many of them are looking at these types of strategies to drive the growth of their investment portfolios, " said Jon Little, vice chairman of BNY Mellon Asset Management.

Bank of New York Mellon provides financial services across 34 countries, and as at 31 December 2008 had assets under management totalling $928 billion.  WestLB Mellon Asset Management was established as a joint venture between the WestLB group and BNY Mellon in April 2006.