Mlim is embracing BlackRock identity

Confident Merrill Lynch prepares for future iconic status under BlackRock guise by focusing on its lacklustre areas and making hires to improve performance

When a company has put as much effort into building its brand as Merrill Lynch Investment Management did in the UK, it would be easy to assume having that name swallowed up through a merger would be a considerable blow. But the company formerly known as Mercury Asset Management is embracing its new identity as BlackRock Investment Management wholeheartedly. "Come May 2008 we will be completely BlackRock," said Alex Hoctor-Duncan, retail managing director of BlackRock Investment Management, whose 12 years at the firm began in the Mercury days. "We are doing it earlier than we had planned...