BNY Mellon's [profile] asset management team is taking advantage of "a strategic opportunity for advancement" for one of its boutiques.

That's how Ralph Studley, director of investment strategy in the New York City-based bank's investment management arm, explains the recent launch of the Dreyfus Global Infrastructure Fund. The fund is subadvised by BNY Mellon boutique CenterSquare Investment Management, which dates back to 1987 and manages about $7.5 billion in public real estate and infrastructure securities and about $1.6 billion in debt and private equity real estate investments through another arm. CenterSquare's Maneesh Chhabria and Joshua Kohn PM the fund.

"It's a natural progression for CenterSquare as a firm," Studley tells MFWire. "They've proven themselves as a player in the global real estate space."

"We expect that there will be tremendous global demand for infrastructure assets over the next few decades," states Todd Briddell, CEO and chief investment officer of CenterSquare. "As in listed real estate, the return and risk characteristics of global infrastructure securities are based on the underlying real assets."

Studley describes a three-part test that the firm applies to evaluating potential new investment products: is it something that a BNY Mellon boutique "can do well," something that BNY Mellon doesn't already have, and "most importantly does it fill an investor demand."

"We're always evaluating opportunities that are good fits for our boutiques," Studley says. "We're very actively working on development of new strategies all the time. We're always trying to make sure that we're on the forefront of development and innovation."

"There will be more this year," Studley adds, while clarifying that there are no more products "coming down the road" immediately from CenterSquare in particular.

Worldwide, BNY Mellon Investment Management works with $1.7 trillion in assets under management, including more than $270 billion in mutual funds "and other cash management vehicles" under its Dreyfus arm. Studley says that BNY Mellon has "the world's largest global network of autonomous institutional boutiques."

 

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