Merrill Lynch Investment Managers formed the Mercury Funds, a new...

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers formed the Mercury Funds, a new brand name for its line of 25 mutual funds, which includes institutional and retail investment offerings from Mercury Asset Management, Hotchkis and Wiley, Quantitative Advisors and Merrill Lynch; the funds will have a total of about $6.5 billion in assets. The name switch is expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter, said Mark Cone, managing director at Mercury Funds, which will be based in New York. He said the Mercury Fund family was created to establish a single brand name that can be offered to third-party distribution channels.