New York Life, through its subsidiary Investments Group, agreed on Thursday to acquire a minority stake in Cornerstone Capital Management, Inc., a Minneapolis-based large-cap growth manager with more than $2.2 billion in assets under management.
The deal calls for New York Life to increase its ownership over a period of seven years to a majority stake. The parties expect to close the transaction on or about Jan. 13.
Cornerstone manages the Keystone Large Cap Growth Fund. The fund invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies focusing on a relatively small number of intensively researched organizations. The fund typically invests at least 80 percent of net assets in common stocks of high-growth large-capitalization companies with at least $3 billion in market capitalization.
As part of the agreement, the Investments Group of New York Life is forming a new sub-advisory partnership with Cornerstone and proposing the adoption of the Keystone Large Cap Growth Fund into the MainStay family of funds. The Keystone Large Cap Growth Fund, with $330 million in assets as of July 31, will be reorganized into the MainStay Funds and become the MainStay Cornerstone Growth Fund pending shareholder approval. MainStay Investments will become the investment manager to the new fund and Cornerstone will be sub-advisor to the fund. Cornerstone will continue to be responsible for the day-to-day portfolio management of the fund.
-Jim McConville