BNY Mellon Acquires Stake In Siguler Guff

BNY Mellon Asset Management is boosting its private equity exposure with the acquisition of a 20 percent minority interest in international private equity firm Siguler Guff & Company. The deal builds on an alliance between the two firms in which BNY Mellon offers Siguler Guff products to its clients.

Siguler Guff has approximately $8 billion in assets under management, gleaned from approximately 400 institutional investors, including endowments, foundations, corporate pension funds and public pensions. Its investment activity is focused across three categories: funds of funds, advisory work and direct investment funds. Its specialties include distressed security investing, small-cap buyout funds and emerging market investments in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Funds of funds managed by Siguler Guff include the Distressed Opportunities Funds I, II and II, which respectively closed at $595 million in July 2002, $988 million in July 2005 and $2.4 billion in November 2007; the Small Buyout Opportunities Fund, which closed at $500 million in September 2007; BRIC Opportunities Funds I and II, which respectively closed at $610 million in April 2005 and $893 million in December 2007. The firm also manages Venture Lending and Leasing Funds I, II and II, which respectively closed at $94 million in July 1994, $220 million in September 1997 and $434 million in May 2000.

BNY Mellon Asset Management and Siguler Guff formed a strategic alliance in January 2009, when Siguler Guff engaged BNY Mellon to distribute its products and services globally. In May 2009, the relationship grew even closer when a subsidiary of Siguler Guff became the investment advisor of the private equity fund-of-funds previously advised by WestLB Mellon Asset Management, a company jointly and equally owned by WestLB AG and The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation.

BNY Mellon Asset Management is the umbrella organization for BNY Mellon’s affiliated investment management firms and global distribution companies. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and wealthy investors. It has $22.1 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $966 billion in assets under management, services $11.9 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day.

Founded in 1991 within brokerage and asset manager Paine Webber, Siguler Guff became an independent firm four years later in 1995.