ANB Investment Management was sold for about $50 million in cash to Northern Trust, in an agreement that is expected to close by the end of the year. Northern will run ANB as a separate unit, tentatively named Northern Trust Global Investments.
First Chicago NBD decided to sell ANB, which has $31 billion under management, including $29 billion in index funds, six weeks ago, said J. Stephen Baine, president of First Chicago Investment Management, which continues to manage $50 billion.
Northern already has some $11 billion in index investments and $160 billion in total. Northern invited all 75 ANB staffers to continue in their current jobs, but Susan O. Jones, ANB's COO, will stay with First Chicago NBD after leading ANB's transition team.
New York City Teachers' Retirement System trustees will consider Oct. 9 distributing $273 million long-term government bond assets managed by WR Lazard to other existing managers, said Soneni Smith, assistant press secretary for the New York City comptroller's office. The teachers' fund has $30 billion in assets.
The $45 billion New York City Employees' Retirement System will consider dropping WR Lazard and redistributing $223 million in long-term government bond assets later in October. The comptroller's office has recommended the retirement systems drop WR Lazard.
CypressTree Investments, a subsidiary of Cypress Holding, acquired the North American Funds from North American Security Life. Terms were not disclosed. The series fund, with 13 portfolios, has about $500 million under management. About $120 million of the family's assets are from institutional investors and about 70% is in equity portfolios. CypressTree manages about $650 million in institutional separate accounts.
Merrill Lynch proposed an agreement to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from losses in its Short-Term Global Income Fund and Short-Term World Income Portfolio.
Without admitting wrongdoing, Merrill Lynch agreed to pay $50 million to shareholders. It also will distribute $40 million in coupons redeemable in cash for 50% of the money shareholders paid in sales charges or for 100% of face value in sales loads.
The mutual funds were hit in 1992 by strong volatility affecting the currencies of some countries in the European Monetary System. About 15% of investors suffered losses then in the two funds, which totaled $7 billion. The settlement requires district court approval.
