Short Takes: Mass. Financial, Tokai In Subadvisory Pact

Massachusetts Financial Services has reached a subadvisory agreement with Tokai Bank in Japan.

The Boston fund company will subadvise a Tokai clone of MFS' Massachusetts Investors Trust, said Arnold D. Scott, a senior vice president with the $86 billion-asset fund company. The fund is to be launched Dec. 1, the date when foreign companies can begin selling mutual funds to Japanese investors.

Tokai is aligning with another Japanese banking company, Asahi Bank, and Mr. Scott said he hopes that relationship will also benefit MFS. "We're assuming that anything we do with Tokai will spill over into Asahi," he said.

MFS has a distribution relationship with Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Japanese arm.

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