Investment Fund

Enterprise Community Partners, the affordable-housing brainchild of Columbia founder James W. Rouse, launched an investment fund yesterday with Deutsche Bank to reach beyond usual sources of capital for revitalization efforts and attract new blood - and money - to the cause. They hope to raise and invest $15 million. The bank will target corporations and well-off individuals who like the idea of investing in the redevelopment of lower-income neighborhoods but don't have experience doing it. That would expand the circle of funding beyond financial institutions, the traditional lenders.

THE BOARD responsible for managing the federal government's retirement plan will oppose the addition of a real estate investment fund because it would cost too much and duplicate other investments in the plan's portfolio, the agency announced this week. In testimony submitted to a congressional subcommittee Tuesday, the board's executive director, Gary A. Amelio, said that the Thrift Savings Plan already holds $1.1 billion in real estate investment trusts, called REITs, making it the nation's 13th-largest investor in such funds.

Maryland officials plan to shop for a better deal for parents and others who have invested in the state's college savings plan, now managed by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. of Baltimore. The College Savings Plans of Maryland board will solicit bids this month from the financial services industry to manage more than $600 million in assets in its 529 plan, which is projected to grow to $1 billion in two years. Individuals and families can invest in the plan and enjoy tax breaks as long as the money goes to pay for tuition and related expenses.

Once the toast of Wall Street, Alan B. Bond still speaks in the imposing voice in which he commented on stock market trends as a television personality during the 1990s. Yesterday that voice was heard in a far different venue - a federal courtroom in Baltimore where the convicted swindler described several years of using other people's money to benefit himself and Baltimore investment banker Nathan A. Chapman Jr. Bond, 42, is a star witness in federal prosecutors' effort to prove that Chapman committed fraud by using his position as a money manager for the Maryland pension system to have state pension funds invested in companies he controlled.

NEW YORK - The National Association of Securities Dealers suspected 20 investment funds of paying kickbacks in return for shares of initial public offerings, according to testimony in the trial of former Credit Suisse First Boston banker Frank Quattrone. "These were some of the accounts that we suspected may have been involved in what we were investigating," Roger Sherman, who runs the enforcement division at the NASD, told a Manhattan federal court jury yesterday. Quattrone is accused of obstructing justice by urging his colleagues to destroy documents sought in a probe of the bank's IPO allocation process.

A former Annapolis investment counselor convicted of swindling clients out of millions of dollars will return to court for sentencing next month, but on the least serious of alleged probation violations. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth will decide April 3 what to do about the failure of Joshua Fry, 67, to pay restitution on more than $3.5 million due from cheating 131 clients out of $4.7 million in the early 1990s. "He has not written one check, not one money order," said Carolyn H. Henneman, chief of the criminal investigation division of the Maryland attorney general's office, noting that Fry has not made significant efforts to find work.

The heads of the city's two major pension boards accused Mayor Martin O'Malley yesterday of abusing his authority in a tense dispute over investing money in the local economy. O'Malley, in a display of his power, said yesterday that he is blocking pension system requests that come before the Board of Estimates until the pension boards comply with his demand that they adopt guidelines for plowing money into local firms. "I think the mayor is overstepping his bounds," said Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, chairwoman of the Employees Retirement System board and a past critic of O'Malley.

MAKING THE MOST of your 401(k) early on gives you a better shot at retirement," says the July issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. "However, many young adults don't do nearly enough to save for retirement 40 years hence. Suggestions: Get in early, investing as much of your salary as you can. ... Maximize the match; contribute up to the company match level so you don't leave money on the table. ... Invest boldly; even with current market uncertainty, young people should invest heavily in stocks.

Igen International Inc. of Gaithersburg said it raised $9.5 million yesterday by selling 789,075 shares of common stock to an investment fund that focuses on investments in life sciences companies. The stock purchased by Acqua Wellington North American Equities Fund Ltd. was part of the 3 million shares Igen registered in January to set aside and sell from time to time. Acqua Wellington has an agreement with Igen to buy up to $60 million of the company's shares at a discount. Yesterday's sale was made at about $12.04 a share, a discount of about 10 percent to Igen's closing price.

Igen International Inc., a Gaithersburg maker of biological detection systems, said yesterday that it will sell 211,900 shares of common stock for $3 million to an investment fund as part of an equity agreement that will help finance its corporate activities. Under the agreement, Acqua Wellington North American Equities Fund Ltd. will acquire with the Igen shares a stake of about 1 percent. Potentially, Igen could sell up to $60 million in stock to the investment fund over the next 28 months.