NEW YORK. Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — BNY Mellon Investment Management announced today that it has partnered with Amherst Holdings, LLC, a leading financial services provider to institutional investors in the mortgage and structured finance sectors, to launch Amherst Capital Management LLC (ACaM), a real estate credit investment management platform that will offer a wide range of both traditional and alternative strategies. BNY Mellon and Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company (Texas Trust) have made significant capital commitments to the platform.

ACaM is being launched as a majority-owned subsidiary of Standish. BNY Mellon’s fixed income focused investment boutique, and will be co-owned by Amherst Holdings. ACaM will utilize Amherst’s proprietary data, analytics and market insight, giving the platform a unique perspective on the fundamental elements driving asset performance. As a result, Standish will be able to leverage ACaM’s significant real estate and mortgage expertise and proprietary analytics to support its multi-sector investment strategies. ACaM will initially be focused on direct lending opportunities, with plans to launch additional strategies in the future.

Sean Dobson. a seasoned veteran of the real estate finance markets will serve as CEO of ACaM. Upon completion of the transaction, Amherst Holdings will continue to operate subsidiaries specializing in mortgage and residential real estate assets.

Combining Amherst’s expertise and proprietary analytics with BNY Mellon’s existing real estate strategies, underpinned by the support from a world-class investor in Texas Trust, allows us to deliver a greater range of customized real estate investment options to our clients than ever before, said Curtis Arledge. CEO, BNY Mellon Investment Management. The changing regulatory landscape has created new opportunities for investors to meet the demand for what has become an underserved real estate credit market. We see a great opportunity for ACaM real estate investment solutions as a result.

Sean Dobson. Chairman and CEO, Amherst Holdings. said, We are thrilled to be launching a real-estate-debt-focused asset management platform with such distinguished partners. The BNY Mellon boutique model provides an ideal environment for ACaM to focus on investment opportunities, while leveraging a global management infrastructure. With the added financial support of BNY Mellon and Texas Trust, we can react with scale and in a timely fashion, to the many evolving opportunities in the post-crises real estate capital markets.

Des Mac Intyre. Chairman and CEO, Standish. said, Standish is constantly evaluating opportunities to expand its product offering and has found the ideal partner in Amherst. From direct lending to credit investment opportunities, we are excited about the prospect of adding Amherst’s real estate expertise to Standish’s multi-asset strategies.

Paul Ballard. CEO and CIO, Texas Trust, added, We couldn’t be more impressed with the combination of BNY Mellon’s world-class investments platform and Sean Dobson’s deep understanding of the real estate market. We are very excited to be a part of the founding team and participating in ACaM.

The addition of ACaM is a natural complement to BNY Mellon Investment Management’s broader array of global real estate investment solutions currently offered by its CenterSquare, Insight, Siguler Guff[i] and Alcentra investment boutiques.