Australian equities specialist, Ankura, sees growing interest in its Australian Equity High Yield strategy

LONDON & SYDNEY, 23 November 2010 — Ankura Capital Pty Ltd, the Australian equities specialist for BNY Mellon Asset Management, has been named to manage an Australian equity mandate for Russell Investments. Ankura's mandate forms part of Russell Investments' newly launched Australian Shares Enhanced Income Fund.

This is the second mandate Ankura has been awarded as part of its Australian Equity High Yield strategy. In May, IPAC awarded Ankura a high yield mandate within their new diversified High Yield fund, AXA Generator.

"This strategy has been developed to recognise both the increase in demand for income focused strategies, and as a response to the lower growth investment environment that is likely to prevail for some time," said Greg Vaughan, CIO and Managing Director of Ankura Capital. "Particularly as investors move from wealth accumulation to retirement, income from equity investment becomes more important.

"The essence of this strategy is to focus on sustainable yield, including franking credits. The preference for yield generally excludes resource stocks. It boils down to filtering the market on quality of yield, excluding those with deficient free cash flow or high leverage."

In recent research undertaken by Ankura, investing for real income via such a strategy was shown over the medium term to lift income generation while maintaining income growth when used as a substitute for all or part of the Australian equity allocation of a diversified fund. Such an income focus can maintain a level of growth return that matches or beats inflation while at the same time paying consistent and reliable income streams to underlying investors.

Ankura, based in Sydney, specialises in Australian and Japanese equities and has an outstanding long-term track record managing institutional funds since 1995. Ankura manages approximately AUS$1 billion in Australian and Japanese equities and has a primarily Australian client base.

BNY Mellon Asset Management is the umbrella organisation for BNY Mellon's affiliated investment management firms and global distribution companies. Information about BNY Mellon Asset Management is available at www.bnymellonam.com.

BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets. BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has $24.4 trillion in assets under custody and administration, $1.14 trillion in assets under management, services $12 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day. Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.

Founded in 1936, Russell Investments is a global financial services firm that serves institutional investors, financial advisers and individuals in more than 40 countries. Over the course of its history, Russell's innovations have come to define many of the practices that are standard in the investment world today, and have earned the company a reputation for excellence and leadership. Through a unique combination of wide-ranging and inter-linked businesses, Russell delivers financial products, services and advice. A pioneer, Russell began its strategic pension fund consulting business in 1969 and today is trusted by many well-known worldwide institutions for investment advice. The firm has US$176 billion in assets under management (as of 12/31/09) in its investment funds, retirement products, and institutional funds, and is well recognized for its depth of research and quality of manager selection. Russell offers a comprehensive range of implementation services that helps institutional clients maximize their assets. Russell provides leading administration and member services to over 220,000 individuals through its Australian Member Administration Centre. The Russell Indexes calculates over 50,000 benchmarks daily covering 65 countries and more than 10,000 securities.

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