Portfolio

Newport Fund Management of San Francisco has introduced the Newport Asia Pacific Fund which will invest in companies throughout Asia. The fund will be co-managed by David Smith and Christopher Legallet. Smith will concentrate on Japan while Legallet will focus on all other countries in the Pacific Rim.

Both Credit Suisse Asset Management and Merrill Lynch have chosen 401(k) partners to give Internet-based investment advice and guidance to participants of 401(k) plans for which Merrill and Credit Suisse provide management services.

Eaton Vance of Boston has been given a green light by the SEC chief accountant's office to install a .70 percent 12b-1 "equivalent" distribution program on two of its four senior prime rate bank loan interval funds. The approval was effective May 1.

Vestek, an investment research company of San Francisco, is trying to convince mutual funds that they can build their distribution with innovative research to give their brokers.

The National Securities Clearing Corp. is in the initial stages of creating an offshoot that will service independent financial advisors. The new arm plans to computerize mutual fund processing for these independent planners who still do fund processing by mail. The venture is so new, however, a name has not yet been decided upon. The NSCC board of directors approved the creation of the new group in December.

Princeton Financial Systems of Princeton, N.J., has created a new service called PAMConnect that gives customers remote access to Princeton's PAM system. PAM is a Windows-based portfolio accounting and management system used by 300 mutual funds and other institutional investors. Through PAMConnect, clients can now connect to Princeton's data center through dial-up connections using frame relay, leased lines or the Internet. Before, Princeton Financial clients would have to install PAM software at their own site. PAMConnect permits clients to out-source their data center maintenance to Princeton Financial without clients being aware of it, said Gordon Gacek, a spokesperson for the firm.

Merrill Lynch of New York plans to offer a new growth fund run by a former Delaware Investments portfolio manager. George H. Burwell will run the Merrill Lynch Disciplined Growth Fund, according to a registration statement Merrill Lynch filed with the SEC April 20.

On June 1, Vanguard will reopen its Windsor Fund, which currently has $16.97 billion of assets under management and seeks long-term growth of capital and income. The fund was initially launched in 1958 and has been closed since 1990 when Vanguard decided the fund's assets had grown to an unmanageable level, according to a Vanguard spokesperson. Wellington Management Company of Boston will continue as lead adviser.

The Dessauer Global Equity Fund, which attracted considerable attention when it was introduced as a closed-end fund because of its commitment to open under certain conditions, has been re-introduced as an open-end fund.

Gabelli Asset Management of Rye, N.Y., is planning to launch a new fund, the Gabelli Blue Chip Value Fund, by early fall. The fund will seek long-term capital appreciation from value equity investments. Barbara Marcin, who has just joined Gabelli, will manage the fund. Marcin was previously head of value investments at Citibank Global Asset Management.