Blackfriars Asset Management, a London based fund management boutique, is reportedly planning to further expand into UK investment marketplace following the completion of BDT Invest takeover.
Blackfriars, which specializes in equities investment within global emerging and frontier markets, purchased Asian equity boutique BDT in June, which has already given Blackfriars access to the retail market through the Establishment Investment Trust as reported by FT Adviser.
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The integrated firm will also utilize the expertise and contacts of BDT’s client relationship and marketing director Steven Simmons.
Blackfriars was spun out of BNY Mellon after the financial crisis of 2008. The company plans to increase its assets to over £1 billion over the next one year leveraging its emerging market and Asia expertise, according to the publication.
Blackfriars chief executive Tom Waring told FT Adviser that a big step in that expansion was likely to be a move to start selling its funds to discretionary managers, something which the institutionally-focused firm had yet to attempt.
"Blackfriars has traditionally not engaged with the DFM space in the UK – we are, by history, more institutionally focused," Waring added.
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By GlobalData"But having BDT opens the door to beginning to think about operating more in the DFM space in the UK, he further added.
He said while the Blackfriars wants to bring a different type of product which the managers had been running institutionally.
"Our old products were mainly institutional and benchmark constrained mandates, but that trend is changing," he told the news portal.
"People want more focused products. We have been running these [focused] products for some clients but we are not well known for it, so it has taken us a bit of time to build up a track record."
In order to boost its market presence, the company is planning to expand its product range by unveiling a concentrated specialist developing markets product in the third quarter of 2014 which will be domiciled in Dublin.
