The newly-appointed managing director of Tyndall Asset Management, Mike Davis, wants to expand the business beyond its traditional equity and fixed-income operations.

Davis, who joined Tyndall a few weeks ago from private debt firm Causeway Asset Management, is seeking to add an alternative investment team to the firm.

"There are certainly areas that can be added to those products," he said in an interview with Investor Weekly.

"As you know, my background with Causeway has been in alternative assets, predominantly bank loan, private debt, senior secured debt and also real assets. Certainly that kind of area, alternative assets, is an area that we do want to develop."

Davis also wants to expand the firm's income capabilities, potentially developing a range of annuities.

"There are opportunities in terms of annuities and guaranteed income products. That is something we are looking at," he said.

He would not only like to expand the range of activities of Tyndall, but is also aiming to penetrate new client markets, including the self-managed superannuation fund industry.

"We have a multi-manager platform within the business and that has been predominantly facing Suncorp as the client," he said.

"What we want to do now is provide that service externally.

"There are clearly parts of the market where that will work and part of the market where that won't, but one area that I think is certainly untapped is the self-managed super fund market.

"It is a very interesting area; it is sort of a hybrid between institutional and retail.

"You have similar means via which to get to self-managed super funds as some of the retail shops do, but there is also more of an institutional, high net worth side about it."

Although Charles Beazley, the chief executive of Nikko Asset Management, Tyndall's parent company, has been on the record as saying the firm would be open to acquisitions, Davis, who has been only a few weeks in the top seat at Tyndall, is somewhat hesitant to confirm the expansion plans include any acquisitions.

"There isn't anything on the horizon at the moment that I can point to," he said.

If the firm did decide to go down that path it would be spoilt for choice, as several asset managers have recently advertised their availability for a takeover, including Pinnacle Investment Management, Ausbil Dexia and Deutsche Bank Asset Management in Australia.