North Cove said it will commence operations with 15 investment professionals, with focus in high-quality, market-leading companies in partnership with company management.

North Cove will continue to manage more than $6bn of private equity investments on behalf of Bank of America and other investors, with plans to raise a new private equity fund in the near future while continuing to manage the Bank of America portfolio.

The independent firm will be led by managing partners Chris Birosak, Brian Gorczynski and Angel Morales, who have more than 40 years of combined private equity investment experience.

These managing partners have been working together for the past eight years, initially as managing directors of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity (MLGPE) and subsequently for BAML Capital Partners, the successor to MLGPE upon the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch & Co. in 2009.