National City Investment Management Co. said it plans to assimilate a family of portfolios acquired in a 1998 merger into its Armada Fund family.
The Cleveland-based investment products arm of National City Corp. said that, when melding the Parkstone family of funds is completed on June 16, Armada will have 28 funds and $16.5 billion under management.
Herbert R. Martens Jr., president of the Armada Funds, said the board unanimously approved the move in November. "The trustees found the merger would benefit both groups of shareholders, offering a broader, deeper set of products," he said.
The reorganization has been in the works since March 1998, when National City bought First of America Corp. of Kalamazoo, Mich. Kathie Barr, managing director of National City Investment Management, said 11 of the 16 Parkstone portfolios would be merged into Armada funds and the other five would be added to the Armada roster.
She said the Parkstone funds that are being folded into Armada portfolios are similar in composition to the Armada funds and have been producing comparable returns in recent years, making it impractical to market them side-by-side in the same channels.
