Industry

Wilmington Trust of Delaware was chosen last month as investment manager of the Kiewit family of mutual funds. The name of the funds was changed to WT Investment Trust I. At the time of the change, the group of three funds had net assets of $531 million. Founded in 1884, Omaha-based Peter Kiewit Sons is one of the nation's largest construction firms.

DLJ Direct, the online brokerage subsidiary of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, has agreed to form a joint venture with Sumitomo Bank and Internet Initiative Japan to create DLJ direct Japan, DLJ Direct announced. DLJ direct Japan will be an online discount brokerage offering securities trading, investment trust and money market funds to Japanese investors. It is expected to begin operating in the second quarter of 1999. It will initially offer investors access to Japanese equities, investment trusts and money market funds. In the future, Japanese investors will be offered access to U.S. securities.

BankAmerica Corp. will take a 50 percent stake in Marsico Capital Management, the Denver mutual fund company which portfolio manager Thomas Marsico started little more than a year ago. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 1999. Marsico, a prominent portfolio manger who built his reputation with Janus funds, has gathered about $2.8 billion in assets since Marsico Capital was formed in September, 1997. BankAmerica exercised an option it held to make the purchase.

Investors Group, which built its market leading share of the mutual fund industry through a captive sales force, has gained a toehold into the insurance and independent brokerage channels.

DLJ Asset Management Group, a division of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., announced that it has hired Funds Distributor (FDI) of Boston to direct and expand the distribution of the Winthrop Mutual Funds through financial intermediaries.

Investors in the SoGen Funds will not be the only ones hurt if performance troubles continue through the end of the year.

PMC International, the financially- strapped mutual fund company which was spurned in its proposed merger with Dundee Bancorp of Canada two months ago, has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by the Ziegler Companies, a financial services holding company based in West Bend, Wisc. Ziegler will pay $3.1 million in cash for PMC.

Five months after buying Jack White & Co., Waterhouse Securities will combine Jack White's Advisor Services division with the Waterhouse Investment Adviser Services unit. The two will officially join on January 1, 1999 and be known as Waterhouse Institutional Services.

Scudder Kemper Investments has received permission from the Korea Development Bank to co-manage a corporate restructuring fund that will finance small- and medium-sized Korean businesses. Scudder Kemper Investments will invest approximately $250 million of the closed-end Corporate Restructuring Fund in equity and fixed-income securities of small and medium-sized Korean companies.

Fifth Third Bank has reached an agreement to provide custody services to Berkshire Capital Holdings of San Jose, Calif. Berkshire Capital manages one fund, the Berkshire Capital Growth & Value Fund, a start-up fund with less than $1 million in assets under management.