BoNY Mellon buys Lloyds' Insight Investment unit

Lloyds Banking Group said today that it will sell its Insight Investment Management business to Bank of New York Mellon for £235 million as part of a restructure of its asset management business.

The Insight business being sold to Bank of New York Mellon will comprise Insight's external fund management operation, which manages assets of £80 billion. This includes its latest fund offering, the Absolute Insight Credit Fund, which was announced in September 2008 and launched on 2 June this year with an initial £60 million size. The Dublin based credit fund, whose portfolio is managed by credit head Alex Veroude, follows a multi-strategy investment approach targeting opportunities across the credit spectrum, including investment grade and high yield corporate debt, structured credit and credit default swaps on single names and indices.

Lloyds said responsibility for managing funds sourced from its Halifax and Bank of Scotland businesses will be transferred from Insight to its Scottish Widows Investment Partnership division. The restructure will lift the assets under management at Scottish Widows to around £125 billion from £83 billion.

Based in London, Insight Investment specialises in liability driven investment solutions, active fixed income and alternatives.