WestLB and Mellon Financial plan to set up an asset management joint venture mostly targeting institutional investors. The new venture, whic...

WestLB and Mellon Financial plan to set up an asset management joint venture mostly targeting institutional investors. The new venture, which has yet to be named, will start with €40 billion ($49 billion) of assets under management, according to WestLB. The project is due to launch operations in early 2006, beginning with about 220 employees. Of the €40 billion under management at the start, about €30 billion will come from German institutional customers. The joint venture company will include WestLB's asset-management activities in Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, the US, Australia and Japan and will be the exclusive distributor of Mellon products in Germany. WestLB's French banking subsidiary, Banque D'Orsay, will be the joint venture's exclusive distributor in France and will become a distributor of Mellon's asset-management products in France. Mellon will distribute both the joint venture company's and Banque D'Orsay's asset-management products globally. WestLB is not expected to incorporate its recent acquisition of German private bank Weberbank in the new asset management company, although products of the company are likely to be distributed through branches of Weberbank. As such, the asset management company will provide a major component of WestLB’s desire to target the German private banking market. Weberbank is expected to open an office in Düsseldorf by the end of the year and further new offices are planned.