Pioneer Investment Management has cut two deals in less than a week that will bring it another $164 million in assets. On Tuesday afternoon the Boston-based fund firm said it will take over as the advisor to two Oak Ridge funds. Last Thursday it inked a similar deal with L. Roy Papp & Associates to advise four of its funds.

Osbert Hood, CEO of Pioneer Investments, said that the integration of the funds into the Pioneer complex is part of a strategy intended to enhance the firm's product line.

Today's deal with Oak Ridge, which covers two funds with $24 million in assets, is the smaller of the two. In last week's deal Pioneer agreed to take over as the advisor to four funds with a combined $140 million in assets. The four Papp funds are: Papp Small & Mid Cap-Growth Fund, Papp America-Pacific Rim Fund, Papp Stock Fund and Papp America-Abroad Fund.

Both Oak Ridge and Papp & Associates will stay on as subadvisor to the funds.

Steve Graziano, executive vice president of Strategic Marketing for Pioneer Investments, said the firm plans to distribute both the mutual funds and Oak Ridge's separate accounts through broker-dealers.

The structure of the deals is similar to those now being pursued by a number of firms with strong distribution. As memories of the stock boom of the nineties fade, more investment specialists are finding that they lack the resources and wherewithal to handle the marketing and distribution for their fund. By cutting this type of deal with a distribution specialist, they can focus on their portfolio management.

In the case of the Oak Ridge funds, David M. Klaskin will remain the portfolio manager of both the Oak Ridge Large Cap Equity Fund and Oak Ridge Small Cap Equity Fund. Meanwhile, Roy Papp and Rosellen Papp will continue to act as the portfolio managers for the four Papp funds.  

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