AT THE BELL

UIT expected to swoosh

Sponsor Nike Securities LP projects the REIT Value Trust to be offered Wednesday could generate as much as $500 million in sales — making it the biggest unit investment trust offering ever, according to the Lisle, Ill.-based firm. The UIT will contain stock in eight to 12 publicly traded real estate investment trusts. According to figures released earlier this month by the Investment Company Institute, sales of UITs — illiquid securities portfolios with maturity dates — soared 67.5% in 1997, to $38.5 billion.

Watch those dominoes

The beleaguered Templeton Vietnam Opportunities Fund, managed by globetrotting J. Mark Mobius, may get a new lease on life. Its board will send out a proxy this week asking shareholders to expand the $104 million closed-end fund’s ability to invest in other Southeast Asian countries. A final vote will be taken at the annual shareholders’ meeting on March 31. In January, investors redeemed just under half of the fund’s shares during a tender offer, a sign that they aren’t quite ready to bail out. The three-year-old fund has been stymied by economic reforms that didn’t take place as fast as Templeton anticipated, not to mention the regional bloodbath.

Pru’s view: You gotta bereave

Guess what Prudential Insurance Co. of America and Ernst & Young LLP are unleashing on widows and the terminally ill: a “national network of survivor specialists who are trained in bereavement issues” and happen to be financial planning experts, too. The group life and disability unit of Newark, N.J.-based Prudential announced it has hooked up with the New York accounting firm to offer financial advice to recipients of death benefits and policyholders who are terminally ill. If anyone is a survivor specialist it’s Prudential. The $178.62 billion-asset insurer said this week it wants to convert itself into a public stock company to compete better amid industry mergers — a process that could take two years. This follows Pru’s agreement to pay at least $410
million to policyholders after being accused of misleading sales practices. In the early 1990s, Prudential Securities, Pru’s brokerage unit, paid $1.5 billion in fines, compensation and legal fees for selling unsuitable high-risk limited partnerships to customers, many of them elderly.

Education IRA hike on its way

By an 11-8 vote, the Senate Finance Committee last week approved legislation that would raise the limits on contributions to education IRAs to $2,000 from $500. In addition, education IRA accounts could be used to save for elementary and secondary school educational expenses, for both public and private schools. Democrats on the committee, except Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), voted against the bill, which doesn’t include money for school construction that President Clinton called for in his budget. In addition, a staff member says, many Democrats on the committee believe the bill is an end-run attempt to institute school vouchers. Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., also voted against the bill.

China on the cheap

Matthews International Funds hopes to pick up some bargains on the Chinese stock market with the launch of the Matthews Dragon Century China Fund. Since Chinese equities have declined by 60% since their peak last summer, the San Francisco fund company maintains it’s a good time to buy. And this year, according to portfolio manager Paul Matthews, China is embarking on its first attempt at banking reform. The two most significant risks: unemployment and currency devaluation.

Etc.: Dow still a wow

The Dow Jones industrial average finished the week up 180 points at a record level 8370.10. Tuesday the Dow broke through its August peak, finishing at 8295.61 and didn’t look back. . . . Blaming international regulatory issues, Big Six accounting firms Ernst & Young and KPMG Peat Marwick called off their planned merger. The regulatory approval process, with investigations in the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan, would have taken months. . . . After months of negotiation, Lockwood Finan
cial Advisors Inc. of Malvern, Pa., will offer its Managed Account Link program of individually managed accounts to the 5,000 Schwab Institutional financial advisers. (InvestmentNews, Aug. 11). Lockwood joins Denver-based PMC International, which also provides an individually managed account program to Schwab’s advisers. Lockwood’s money managers include several which are not otherwise available through Schwab, including Pitcairn Trust Co. and 1838 Capital Advisors.