Blaylock & Partners L.P., a New York City-based investment banking and research firm, is positioning itself to be a leading player in the institutional asset management arena with its recent addition of Chicago-based Abacus Financial Group, a woman- and minority-owned money management firm specializing in fixed-income assets. Blaylock is No. 1 on the BE INVESTMENT BANKS list with $214.2 billion in senior/co-senior managed issues.
“The pension management assets that need to be funded and managed throughout the country are still growing and it’s still a high-growth industry,” says CEO Ronald E. Blaylock. “Despite a shaky economy, pension market assets bring new opportunities to the newly formed Blaylock-Abacus Asset Management.” Blaylock-Abacus has nine staff members and about $250 million in assets under management.
Blaylock has also ventured into credit research, hiring veterans Stephen Lockman, chief investment officer of fixed income, and Jeffrey Martin, head of credit research (both formerly of Stein Roe & Farnham). Blaylock feels their capabilities will help Blaylock-Abacus with credit-sensitive products such as high-yield and distressed debt, which come from defaulting bank loans and bonds.
This transaction is the latest in a series of moves. In the last 18 months, Blaylock has broadened its equity and fixed-income research and its sales and trading operations, and opened offices in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Blaylock-Abacus’ expansion strategy emphasizes acquiring three additional minority-owned asset management firms.