Industry

Two fund groups whose advisers are owned by Irish Allied Bank of Dublin, Ireland have merged. Four funds offered by Govett Funds of San Francisco have been merged into four funds offered by ARK Funds of Oaks, Pa., the companies announced last week.

J.P. Morgan Investment Management of New York is selling its 50 percent share of DKB Morgan, a mutual-fund joint venture with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank of Tokyo, according to Chris Cosentino, spokesperson for J.P. Morgan. The company declined to disclose the asking price for its share.

First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C. has formed a partnership with Stephen Dalton, current manager of the Evergreen Select Secular Growth Fund, to form ForeFront Capital Advisors, a minority-owned institutional money management firm that will be based in Philadelphia.

Firstar Funds of Milwaukee has filed a proxy statement with the SEC to merge three fund families. The directors of Firstar Funds, Mercantile Mutual Funds, and the Firstar Stellar Funds approved a plan this summer to combine the three fund families to form Firstar Funds, according to the filing.

Putnam Investments of Boston has struck an alliance with a Toronto-based money manager to enable it to pick up the pace of its expansion in the Canadian market.

Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co.'s increased buyout price of Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn., from $12.50 to $15.75 a share, may not have been enough to stop a class-action lawsuit filed against both firms, according to E.F. Goulart, a spokesperson for Phoenix Investment Partners.

Asset management buyers beware. The high premiums that acquirers have been willing to pay for growth-style or publicly-traded firms may soon prove to be too high, as these two brands of asset management firms may soon be out of favor.

American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo., could land a windfall of 401(k) business as a result of the merger between J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chase Manhattan Corporation, both of New York, said a spokesperson for American Century.

MAXFunds.com of Ann Arbor, Mich., an online mutual fund analysis firm, has acquired the mutual fund information site, Findafund.com of Los Angeles, for an undisclosed price, according to MAXFunds.com. The sites will be combined into one that will provide comprehensive fund coverage, said Rick Baggenstoss, director of marketing at MAXFunds.com.

Credit Suisse Group of Zurich, Switzerland has agreed to purchase Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette of New York for $11.5 billion, or $90 a share, the companies announced last week.