BankAmerica's Institutional Equity Unit Redesigned, to Operate Under

BankAmerica Corp. has restructured and renamed its institutional equity management division.

The name change this month, to Chicago Equity Partners, partly represents an effort by the Charlotte, N.C., banking company to encourage profit sharing within the division, said James D. Miller, president and chief investment officer of the new group.

The new moniker also reflects the registered investment adviser's location and its equities focus, Mr. Miller said.

After the Sept. 30 merger with NationsBank Corp., Mr. Miller said, his group and executives of the new BankAmerica met to decide how the division would be run.

"We structured our own subsidiary and had no resistance throughout the whole thing," he said.

Chicago Equity Partners' organization fosters entrepreneurship through a merit-based profit-sharing plan but lets BankAmerica keep ownership, Mr. Miller said.

"We control what we do. We control how we get paid," he said.

Chicago Equity Partners will pay BankAmerica a revenue stream, which will decrease over time. Mr. Miller declined to outline details of the contract.

The division manages $8.04 billion of assets in 11 domestic equity products for institutional clients such as pension plans, endowments, and foundations.

It takes a quantitative investment approach incorporating a range of styles, including value and growth as well as small- and mid-cap strategies, Mr. Miller said.

BankAmerica Institutional Investment Management, as the unit had been known, was acquired through the company's purchase of Continental Bank Corp. of Chicago in 1994.

Mr. Miller said no employees had threatened to leave because of the merger with NationsBank. However, he said, the new division "was designed to keep the talent there." It employs 37 people.

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