News Briefs:Frost sub to create 13 funds

Frost National Bank created a new institutional investment subsidiary, Frost Investment Advisors, which will introduce 13 equity and bond mutual funds, said Tom Stringfellow, president of FIA. Twelve new institutional mutual funds will be launched April 28 and one fund will begin in July, Mr. Stringfellow said. Also in July, the firm will add retail classes to all the funds, he said.

Frost National Bank already runs the 13 mutual fund strategies through proprietary commingled funds with $1.7 billion in combined assets. As mutual funds, San Antonio-based FIA can market the products, he said.

NEW YORK — Asset Management Finance made an investment in PHH Investments Ltd., a provider of financial management services to airline crew members, in return for a limited-term share of PHH’s revenues. Terms weren’t disclosed. Norton Reamer, AMF’s CEO, said the investment is AMF’s first to facilitate an acquisition; PHH will use the investment to acquire RAA Wealth Management, another firm that provides financial services to airline crews, from E*Trade Financial Corp. Combined, PHH and RAA will have roughly $2 billion in assets under management. Berkshire Capital Securities advised PHH Investments. It is AMF’s ninth deal over the past two years, Mr. Reamer said.

BOSTON — Babson Capital Management acquired the distressed debt management business of Murray Capital Management. Terms weren’t disclosed. Marti P. Murray, founder and president of Murray Capital, will become managing director at Babson. In a telephone interview, Ms. Murray said her firm’s investment and trading team of nine professionals, overseeing a distressed debt portfolio of $500 million in mostly institutional client money, will move to Babson’s offices in New York. William B. Murray, Murray Capital’s business manager and director of client services, will remain to run Murray Capital as a family office. Ms. Murray said the acquisition will provide “a great growth opportunity … getting our business on a platform, with the resources of a much larger firm, that will allow us to grow.” Babson did not previously have a distressed debt unit.

NEW YORK — Warburg Pincus closed the $15 billion Warburg Pincus Private Equity X, a global growth-oriented buyout fund, confirmed spokesman Chuck Dohrenwend. The fund will invest in early-stage, growth and late-stage businesses in North America, Europe and Asia. Investors include the $84.8 billion Washington State Investment Board; Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the $64.9 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund; $60 billion Minnesota State Board of Investment; $16.5 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems; $16 billion Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana; and $14.1 billion Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.

NEW YORK — Commercial real estate prices were up 7% for the year ended Jan. 31, according to Standard & Poor’s/GRA Commercial Real Estate indexes. However, commercial real estate grew by only 0.3% in January and by 1.9% in December. Among the real estate sectors, warehouses exhibited the greatest one-year growth through Jan. 31, with prices rising 10.1%, though the increase was only 1.9% in January and -0.2% in December. Office prices increased 9.9% in the year ended Jan. 31 but decreased in January by 0.2%.The S&P/GRA indexes measure the change in commercial real estate prices by property sector and U.S. geographic region.

WASHINGTON — Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, Bridgeway, TIAA-CREF and Lazard were named as leading supporters among mutual fund companies of corporate climate-change shareholder proposals, according to an analysis by Ceres of 2007 proxy voting records for mutual funds. Schwab supported 10 of 18 climate-change proposals; Goldman Sachs, 23 of 47; Bridgeway, 12 of 26; TIAA-CREF, 32 of 77; and Lazard, seven of 18.Identified in the report as mutual fund companies most opposed to climate change proposals are ING funds, voting against 283 proposals; Morgan Stanley, 106; Wells Fargo, 60; MFS, 55; Federated, 50; and Van Kampen, 44. Wells Fargo voted in favor of one proposal and MFS four, while ING, Morgan Stanley, Federated and Van Kampen didn’t vote in support of any proposal. Ameriprise/AXP and Fidelity ranked highest in abstentions with 93 and 92, respectively. Ameriprise/AXP also voted against eight proposals and Fidelity, 10. Neither company supported any of the proposals. Overall, opposition to climate-change proposals by mutual fund companies studied fell to 65.1% in 2007 from 77.8% in 2004, the report found. “But we didn’t see an increase in support” for the proposals over the four years, Jackie Cook, an author of the report, said in an interview. “We saw an increase in abstentions,” to 24.4% from 11.9% in the same four-year period. The rise in abstentions could indicate that a change in proxy-voting policy is under consideration, Ms. Cook said.