Industry

The Managers Funds LLC of Norwalk, Conn., will pay up to $7 million to acquire the retail mutual fund business of Smith Breeden Associates of Chapel Hill, N.C., according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The Managers Funds LLC of Norwalk, Conn., will acquire the retail business of Smith Breeden Associates of Chapel Hill, N.C., for an undisclosed amount, said Peter M. Lebovitz, president of Managers. Smith Breeden shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal in July.

Executives at the Pioneer Group of Boston are hoping that the firm's planned sale to one of Italy's largest banks will expand Pioneer's distribution abroad and its services in the U.S.

In Baltimore, a city where Legg Mason and T. Rowe Price Associates are the standards in money management, a lesser know fund family is trying to make some noise.

TORONTO - AMVESCAP's $1.8 billion deal to acquire Trimark Financial of Toronto, the biggest fund-company takeover in Canadian history, changes the industry's pecking order and accelerates the trend toward increasing foreign ownership.

The Pioneer Group of Boston issued a proxy statement last week saying the firm had received a second round of bids from prospective buyers and urging shareholders to support the existing board in a proxy vote May 16, to insure that a newly elected board does not jeopardize a sale.

ND Holdings is acquiring ARM Securities Corp., a mutual fund and annuities broker dealer filing for bankruptcy, for an undisclosed amount of cash.

The Pioneer Group of Boston has issued a letter to its corporate shareholders to update them on the firm's efforts to sell the company. The April 18 letter, signed by 73-year-old Pioneer president John F. Cogan, Jr., alerts shareholders that the Pioneer "board is very encouraged by the expressions of interest received to date," and attacks Lens Investment Management of Portland, Maine, a beneficial owner of 4.1 percent of Pioneer's stock.

T. Rowe Price Associates of Baltimore will pay $780 million in cash to buy out Robert Fleming Holdings, Ltd., of London in the firm's joint venture, Rowe Price-Fleming International of Baltimore.

Pioneer Group of Boston has purchased five mutual funds in the Czech Republic currently owned and operated by Credit Suisse Asset Management's investment management unit in the Czech Republic, Pioneer Group has announced. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.