Trian Fund Management, the activist hedge fund run by Nelson Peltz, acquired an additional 9.3 million shares in Bank of New York Mellon Corp. as of March 31, according to a 13-F filing with the SEC released Monday.
Trian's request to the Securities and Exchange Commission to keep the holding confidential expired Monday.
Funds managed by Trian now hold about 2.5% of BNY Mellon, or 28.9 million shares, valued at about $1.05 billion.
A source close to Trian who asked not to be identified said the firm “has recently contacted Bank of New York Mellon to express its interest in discussing its ideas and initiatives to drive long-term growth and enhance shareholder value with the company's management and its board.” The source would not elaborate.
“Trian is a respected investment firm,” said Kevin Heine, BNY Mellon spokesman. “We look forward to engaging with them as we do all our investors.”
BNY Mellon had $27.9 trillion in assets under custody and administration as of March 31, up 1% from Dec. 31 and 6% higher than March 31, 2013; while assets under management for its BNY Mellon Investment Management and wealth management businesses totaled $1.62 trillion, up 2% from three months earlier and 14% higher than a year earlier, the company reported in its first-quarter earnings statement April 22.
In 2011, Trian had urged custodian State Street Corp. to adopt a multistep plan for raising the custody bank's profit that included a possible sell-off of its State Street Global Advisors money management unit, and two years later Trian sold its 1.86 million-share holding in State Street after the bank's shares had doubled in value.
