Industry

Legg Mason of Baltimore, Md. has agreed to acquire Perigee, the ninth largest Canadian-based money management firm, based in Toronto. The acquisition will be structured as a stock swap. The firm's principals will remain. Perigee will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Legg Mason.

Conseco Capital Management, the money management arm of Conseco, the insurance, mutual fund and financial services company of Carmel, Ind., will buy the adviser to the StockCar Stocks Index Fund, according to a proxy statement the fund filed with the SEC March 1. Conseco will pay up to $5 million over four years to buy the fund's adviser, StockCar Stocks Advisors, LLC of Mooresville, N.C., according to the proxy statement. The exact purchase price will be determined by future fund sales, according to the proxy statement.

Waddell & Reed Financial of Overland Park, Kan., has announced it plans to acquire The Legend Group, a mutual fund distribution and retirement planning company based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for $61 million in cash and contingent cash payments of up to $14 million over three years.

For the second time in less than six months, ReliaStar Financial Corp. of Minneapolis has shown that it is intent on building up its mutual fund business.

Merrill Lynch Asset Management of Princeton, N.J. is reshuffling its international funds lineup to merge out of existence three comparatively small funds.

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh, Pa. has purchased InvestLink Technologies from United Asset Management Corp. of Boston. InvestLink of New York is a software developer and marketer of systems for the record-keeping, administration and servicing of defined contribution plans. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

It is a small part of a big deal but Charles Schwab Corp.'s announcement that it would acquire U.S. Trust Corp. of New York means Schwab will wind up doing something it has tried to avoid.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America of Newark, N.J. announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a majority interest in Hochman & Baker of Northbrook, Ill., a firm that trains accountants to offer investment products to its clients.

Deutsche Bank of Frankfurt, Germany announced last week it will combine the no-load funds from its subsidiaries, Morgan Grenfell of New York and Bankers Trust of New York, to create a new no-load fund family under the Deutsche name.

Prudential Insurance Company of Newark, N.J. has purchased a majority stake in the third-largest independent fund management company in Mexico. Prudential last week acquired a 51 percent interest in Apolo Operadora de Sociedades de Inversion of Mexico City. The new company will be named Prudential Apolo Operadora de Sociedades de Inversion. Both companies declined to disclose how much Prudential paid for Apolo Operadora.