AT THE BELL

Second top exec quits Pru unit

Mendel Melzer, chief investment officer of the mutual fund unit of Prudential Insurance Co. of America, has resigned to take a job at New York investment management and venture capital firm Weiss Peck & Greer LLC, a Pru spokesman confirms. Prudential Investments’ president Brian Storms left three weeks ago for Paine Webber Group Inc.’s much smaller asset management business (InvestmentNews, March 15). Mr. Melzer, a 15-year veteran, was unavailable for comment, as were Weiss Peck & Greer officials.

Fidelity wants more of IPOs

Fidelity Investments is negotiating to raise the ceiling in a two-year-old deal under which it buys up to 10% of initial public offerings underwritten by Salomon Smith Barney Holdings Inc. The contract expires Dec. 31. “Our main goal is to get more product,” says Robert P. Mazzarella, president of Fidelity’s Institutional Brokerage Group. “There is such a huge appetite for these things.”

Goldman, AmEx in annuity deal

American Express Co. Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group LP will begin selling a joint variable annuity through brokers this month and later through AmEx’s Financial Advisors subsidiary, according to an internal memo. Goldman will manage the portfolio, dubbed Goldman Sachs Variable Annuity, and hawk it to brokers, while two AmEx insurance units, American Enterprise Life and American Centurion Life, will provide the insurance components. Though declining to discuss the annuity, a Big Green spokesman says the two companies are exploring the development of other products.

Fleet sharpens $650 million ax

The merger of Fleet Financial Corp. and BankBoston Corp. will result in a $650 million post-tax charge against the combined bank’s earnings, according to a Good Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Termination of an undisclosed number of workers will cost $300 million, branch closings another $200 million and combining technology the rest.

Anti-Yacktman insurance

ICI Mutual Insurance Co. is offering independent directors of mutual funds greater protection from potential lawsuits by managers in response to proxy fights at Yacktman Asset Management in Chicago and Navellier & Associates in Reno, Nev., in which directors were ousted. ICI Mutual is the Investment Company Institute’s insurance arm.

Manager under investigation

The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the role of a portfolio manager at Boston’s Oechsle International Advisers in a stock manipulation case brought by the London Stock Exchange. Oechsle, which manages $13 billion in international investments for institutional clients, confirmed the SEC’s inquiry, but declined to name the manager involved.

Sources familiar with the investigation identified the manager as Andrew S. Parlin, 38, a managing principal. Mr. Parlin, who is on administrative leave, could not be reached for comment.

Goodbye, Columbus retail biz

Newport Beach, Calif.-based Pimco Advisor Holdings Inc., with $45 billion in fund assets, will transfer its $600 million Renaissance Fund to the new Pimco Equity Advisors unit next month, says CEO William D. Cvengros. It’s the last of five retail stock funds run by subsidiary Columbus Circle Investors being sent to the new $6 billion New York-based growth shop. Mr. Cvengros calls it his “platform for expanding retail equity funds.” Columbus will continue to manage institutional money for the firm.

Advisers: We’re ready for 2000

Financial advisers and money managers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission have a plan in place for dealing with problems arising from the millennium changeover in computers next year. A questionnaire answered in December by some 6,000 advisers who manage at least $25 million found that 93% say they have such a plan. Only 47% of them, however, consider a company’s Y2K readiness in making investment decisions.

$5 billion pension fund surplus

The booming economy, strong investment returns and lack of big claims have helped the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to a record $5 billion surplus, reports InvestmentNews sister publication Business Insurance. The surplus is expected to rekindle calls for Congress to cut the agency’s premium rate, but its executive director, David Strauss, notes that three years of surpluses were preceded by 21 years of deficits. He’s concerned about $15 billion to $17 billion in unfunded liabilities in pension plans of companies with junk bond credit ratings.

Waterhouse aims offline

Waterhouse Securities Inc., No. 2 in online brokerage to Charles Schwab Corp., plans to hire 1,000 brokers by the end of October as part of an effort to boost offline business, reports InvestmentNews sister publication Crain’s New York Business. The move will increase the firm’s sales staff by almost a third.