Industry

A small mutual fund with a strong track record - orphaned from its distributor because of troubles in the insurance industry - appears to have found a new home.

Aegon, the insurance giant with $147 billion in assets which recently announced plans to acquire Transamerica, has just reported that its 1998 net profits rose 25 percent to $1.36 billion, from $1.1 billion a year earlier. Aegon forecasts further growth this year, although at a slower pace of 18 to 20 percent, the company said in a statement.

Liberty Financial Companies and Societe Generale Asset Management have called off Liberty Financial's planned $216 million purchase of the adviser to the SoGen Funds because of declining assets in SoGen funds. Liberty said that SoGen had failed to meet minimum asset requirements for the deal to occur. The SoGen funds, with approximately $3 billion in assets, lost roughly 25 percent of their assets in the last six months of 1998, according to Financial Research Corp., a fund tracking firm in Boston. SoGen's four funds had total net redemptions of approximately $1 billion from July 1 through Dec. 31, according to FRC.

It has not yet been determined whether Aegon's acquisition of Transamerica will mean Aegon's IDEX mutual funds and Transamerica's Premier Funds will be marketed together or if the two companies' sales teams will be merged, according to company spokespersons. But, the well-known Transamerica name will continue to be used after the deal closes sometime between June and August, a Transamerica spokesperson said. And, the Transamerica brand name and logo will probably be extended to Aegon products, the spokesperson said.

Analytic Investors, the quantitative money manager in Los Angeles with roughly $1 billion in assets under management, is renewing efforts to expand sales of its retail mutual funds.

Affiliated Managers Group of Boston, an asset management holding company, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase The Managers Funds, the advisor to a $1.8 billion no-load fund family of ten funds. The Managers Funds will continue to operate from its offices in Norwalk, Conn. The acquisition is expected to close in the spring.

T. Rowe Price Associates plans to join the growing list of mutual fund companies entering the money management business in Japan.

SSB Citi Asset Management Group of New York, a division of Citigroup, announced that its two Australian investment operations, Salomon Smith Barney Asset Management Australia (SSBAM Australia) and Citibank Global Asset Management (CGAM) will be combined.

Freedom Capital Management, an asset management firm based in Boston with $7 billion in assets under management, announced that it has formed a partnership with Essex Corporation of New York, a distributor of mutual funds, annuities and life insurance to banks. Under the partnership, Essex Corporation will provide Freedom Capital's family of six FundManager Portfolios, which are funds-of-funds, to more than 150 banks and broker/dealers across the country.

Alliance Capital Management and Hanwha Securities announced the signing of a letter of intent for Alliance Capital to assume full control of Hanwha Investment Trust (HITCO), a Korean investment management company.