Money Management Executive Latest News

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Edgemont Asset Management of New York, the advisor for the Kaufmann Fund, which had $3.23 billion in net assets as of March 20, according to Federated.

Janus of Denver announced Friday that it has laid off 546 employees in shareholder servicing and operations and that it has closed its call center in Austin, Texas, which employed 400 of those employees.

Delaware Investments of Philadelphia announced today that it plans to cut 14 funds from its lineup through fund mergers and liquidations over the next couple of months, bringing the company’s total mutual fund offerings to 49.

NASD Regulation, the regulatory arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers of Washington, D.C., announced last week that it had censured and fined asset manager Stifel, Nicolaus & Company of St. Louis and two individuals in connection with the illegitimate sale of class B mutual fund shares.

Electronic business consulting firm kasina of New York will begin offering its services in Europe, the company announced last week.

Driven by the firm's move into exchange-traded municipal bond funds, the John Nuveen Company of Chicago had a record net income of $28 million for the quarter ending March 31, a seven percent increase over the first quarter of 2000, the company announced. Nuveen also announced gross sales of $3.8 billion for the quarter, which is also a record, up 20 percent from a year ago. Sales of closed-end exchange-traded municipal bond funds for the first quarter were $ 1.2 billion and sales of defined portfolios and mutual funds were $0.7 billion. Nuveen stands out because so many of its competitors have reported declines in earnings for the first quarter.

Janus of Denver is cutting 54 shareholder-service training positions from its operations division, the company announced last week. Nine of the 54 employees were placed in other parts of the company, meaning that 45 people were laid off, the spokesperson said.

First Union Corporation of Charlotte, N.C. and Wachovia Corporation of Winston-Salem, N.C. announced last week that they have agreed to merge. The combined company, which will provide corporate banking, retail banking, asset and wealth management, capital markets and securities brokerage services and products, will have $222 billion in assets under management, including mutual fund assets of $96 billion, according to the companies. The combined company will be known as Wachovia Corporation. Its headquarters will be in Charlotte.

Two high-level fund managers at Fidelity Investments have left the company to begin their own investment management firm, according to a company spokesperson.

John Carter has been promoted to executive vice president of national sales for Prudential Investments of Newark, N.Y. In the position, he will oversee the distribution of mutual funds, variable annuities, and managed accounts. Carter had been senior vice president and director of sales for Prudential Securities Financial Advisors.