Mellon sizes up Aussie equities arm
The US$4 trillion Mellon Financial Corporation is sizing up a plan to establish an Australian equities funds management arm.
The president of the Pittsburgh-based group’s asset management division, Ronald O’Hanley, was in Australia last week to discuss the move with its local partner, Advance Asset Management.
Advance has been distributing Mellon’s global funds management products since the two signed an exclusive distribution deal last year. Mellon’s funds under management in Australian have grown from $150 million to $400 million since the deal.
“To the extent that we could bring something of value to the market we would do that,” O’Hanley said.
“It would most likely be quantitative focussed. We probably have as big a quantitative focus as anybody in the world. We would probably also look at long/short funds.”
Mellon, which last week offloaded its investment consulting business in Australia to Mercer, owns 13 separate fund managers worldwide. Two of those managers — Mellon Capital Management and Franklin Portfolio Associates — have been earmarked for the potential move into Australian equities.
“Our view of this market is that it is amongst the most sophisticated in the world, but that ... it has a very highly developed set of planners between the retail providers and the client.”
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