First Union of Charlotte, N.C. combined its institutional investment group, First Capital Group, with Evergreen Investments, also of Charlotte, and changed its name to Evergreen Institutional Asset Management Dec. 1. The action combined the retail mutual fund and institutional asset management divisions of First Union under a single name, according to Chad Peterson, spokesperson for Evergreen Institutional Asset Management.

Pilgrim Mutual Funds of Scottsdale, Ariz. has filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to merge its Pilgrim Global Income Fund into the Pilgrim Strategic Income Fund.

Talvest Fund Management of Montreal has announced that it has combined four equity funds into a single new fund, the Talvest Cdn. Multi Management Fund.

Pilgrim Baxter & Associates of Wayne, Pa., a subsidiary of United Asset Management Corp. of Boston, has filed a proxy with the SEC seeking to merge its PBHG International Fund into the PBHG Global Technology and Communications Fund. The consolidation is pending shareholder approval.

Alliance Capital Management of New York has announced that the stockholders of the ACM Government Income Fund, with over $474 million in assets under management, have approved the acquisition of three other Alliance closed-end bond funds - the ACM Government Securities Fund, the ACM Government Spectrum Fund, and the ACM Government Opportunity Fund, which have combines assets under management of over $955 million.

A hostile takeover bid for Mackenzie Financial of Toronto has put Canada's fifth largest Canadian fund company in play. What remains in doubt is whether the victor will be the opening bidder, C.I. Fund Management of Toronto. There is widespread speculation that a rival will come forward, either from within or outside Canada.

Liberty Financial Companies of Boston has announced that it has retained the investment-banking firm of CS First Boston to help review its strategic alternatives, including a "possible sale" of the company. The company also reported preliminary financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Neuberger Berman of New York has announced that it intends to acquire the private asset management business of Delta Capital Management LLC, also of New York, which has approximately $550 million in assets under management. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but it is expected to close before the end of the year. Francis L. Fraenkel and Peter K. Loeb, managers of Delta's private asset management group, will be managing directors at Neuberger Berman's private asset-management group, the firm announced. Both Fraenkel and Loeb specialize in the large-cap growth style of management.

Allianz Group of Munich, Germany will acquire Nicholas-Applegate of San Diego for $2.07 billion, $980 million of it up front and another $1.09 billion contingent upon Nicholas-Applegate achieving a 25 percent annual growth rate over the next five years, Allianz has announced.

The Pioneer Group of Boston, which currently manages $24 billion in assets, last week completed a spinoff of all of its non-investment management businesses and assets, the company announced

Franklin Templeton Investments of San Mateo, Calif. will acquire Fiduciary Trust International of New York for $825 million in stock, forming a company with $280 billion in assets under management, the companies announced last week.

New York Life Investment Management Holdings of Parsippany, N.J. announced last week that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the mutual fund and separately-managed account business of Towneley Capital Management of New York. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

InteractiveFunds.com of Dallas, the one-year-old financial services technology company and iExchange.com of Pasadena, Calif., the online investor community, have announced they will merge. The new company will be based in Dallas and will be called iExchange.com. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.

ABN AMRO Holdings of Amsterdam will acquire Alleghany Asset Management of Chicago for $825 million, the companies announced last week.

Zurich On-Line Financing, a subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services Group of Zurich, Switz., plans to form a new investment management company and introduce an interval fund exclusively for wealthy investors, with Thomas Weisel Partners, a merchant bank in San Francisco. Zurich Financial is also the parent of Scudder Kemper Investments of New York.

It is likely that more mutual funds will be liquidated this year than ever before, according to a study by Wiesenberger, Thomson Financial of Rockville, Md., a mutual fund tracking service. The record for the number of funds liquidated in one year, set in 1998, is 222. If the pace set so far this year is sustained, over 260 funds will be liquidated in 2000, according to the study. This assumes that as has occurred in the past ten years, over fifty percent of fund liquidations will occur in the last quarter of the year, according to the study. Wiesenberger is a division of Thomson Financial, the publisher of this newsletter.

In an unusual joint proxy statement filed Oct. 11, Credit Suisse Asset Management of New York, the adviser to the closed-end Indonesia Fund and NAM-USA, the manager of the closed-end Jakarta Growth Fund, announced plans to seek shareholder approval to merge the two geographically related but separately-managed funds. NAM-U.S.A. is the U.S. subsidiary of Nomura Asset Management of Tokyo.

Liberty Financial of Boston is asking shareholders of its Liberty Newport Global Equity Fund to approve plans to liquidate the fund and merge it with the Liberty Newport Global Utility Fund, according to a preliminary proxy statement filed with the SEC Oct. 12.

The Bank of New York has completed the acquisition of Ivy Asset Management of Garden City, NY., the bank announced last week. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Firstar Corporation of Milwaukee has agreed to merge with U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis through an exchange of shares valued at $21.2 billion, Firstar announced last week. The transaction, in which Firstar will exchange 1.265 shares of common stock for each share of U.S. Bancorp common stock in a tax-free exchange, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2001, Firstar said.