Lehman Brothers is to take a 4.99 per cent stake in London-based alternative asset manager, BlueBay Asset Management as part of its IPO, val...

Lehman Brothers is to take a 4.99 per cent stake in London-based alternative asset manager, BlueBay Asset Management as part of its IPO, valuing the company at £524 million.

BlueBay was established in 2001 by two former JP Morgan traders, and specialises in fixed-income and credit strategies. It has $8 billion under management across a range of both hedge fund and long-only strategies as of 30 September 2006.

Last year, Lehman took a 20 per cent stake in Ospraie Management, a New York-based commodities asset manager.

Investment banks have shown considerable interest in asset managers recently. Last week, Morgan Stanley purchased FrontPoint Partners, a US asset manager, along with 20 per cent stakes in hedge funds, Avenue Capital and Lansdowne Partners.