Mutual fund briefs

BOSTON - State Street Global Advisors will launch the SSgA Large-Cap Growth Opportunities and Large-Cap Value funds, according to SEC filings. The actively managed domestic equity mutual funds will be team-managed and benchmarked to the Russell 1000 Growth and Russell 1000 Value indexes, respectively.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Evergreen Investment Management launched the Evergreen Mid-Cap Value Fund and the Evergreen Merger & Acquisition Fund. The mutual funds will be managed by J.L. Kaplan Associates, which Evergreen acquired last year. Evergreen also acquired a third fund earlier this year, Evergreen Small Cap Value II, from Undiscovered Managers Funds, where it had been subadvised by Kaplan.

DENVER - Mutual fund investors moved record amounts into fixed income in 2002, while equity fund outflows exceeded inflows for the first time since 1988, according to a Lipper study. About $132 billion of net new money flowed into bond funds, topping the record of $120 billion set in 1986. Conversely, equity funds experienced a net outflow of $12 billion. Overall, mutual funds had $75 billion in net inflows, the lowest since $45 billion in 1990.

Separately, overall mutual fund assets shrunk 7.6% to $5.89 trillion in 2002, the first overall decline in assets since 1983. The average annual expense ratio, however, jumped 1.4% to 1.26% in 2002. There were 1,198 new mutual funds or share classes in 2002 and 1,145 fund liquidations or mergers. There also were 87 money manager acquisitions in 2002, worth $4.8 billion, down from 93 deals worth $9.4 billion in 2001.

Lipper expects merger and acquisition activity to rise in 2003 as cash-strapped boutiques are acquired by larger firms that need the investment management expertise.