MSN Money – Mellon Financial, which has agreed to merge with the Bank of New York, will sell its HBV Alternative Strategies hedge fund business to Mickey Harley, HBV’s founder and chief executive.
Mellon said on Tuesday that the sale would be finalised by the end of December. HBV would be renamed Fursa Alternative Strategies, and focus more on activist strategies, Mellon said.
The deal runs against the trend for institutions to buy stakes in hedge fund outfits. It effectively creates an independent hedge fund group, focused on activist strategies. Mellon bought HBV from Mr Harley in 2002.
Mellon has more than $20bn in hedge fund and alternative assets, and has pushed much of it into liquid strategies such as market-neutral and currency funds.
However, HBV – which manages about $700m – has under Mr Harley operated as an activist investor, especially outside the US. Recently, it used its 7.8 per cent stake in Dutch semiconductor group ASMI to push for a break-up of ASMI.
