mutual fund

Boston mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments has agreed with New York private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. to sell shares of KKR IPOs to retail customers. In such a way they are hoping for a comeback in the frozen market.

KKr has invested in 50 companies with revenue equal to $200 billion. It hasn’t had IPO since 2006. According to Renaissance Capital, an IPO research specialist, just 10 IPOs have been completed this year, comparing to 97 ones in the previous year at the same point. IPO tend to be riskier investment.

According to report by research firm Lipper Inc mutual funds expense ratios are decreasing during 4 consecutive years with average reduction of 0.036% industrywide. The decline in 2008 was the largest reduction beginning from 2004, when the firm started to report.

As Lipper said an expense ratio of the average actively managed mutual fund fell to 0.712% in 2008 comparing to 2007’s 0.748%.

Two Wachovia Corp. units were fined by the FINRA more than $4.5 million for their selling mutual funds and unit investment trusts in breach of the respective regulations. Usually a unit investment trust issues redeemable securities, such as a mutual fund. Then the trust will repurchase an investor’s securities at the investor’s request, at their approximate net asset value.