
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995                   TAG: 9507140026
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SIGNET BUYS MUTUAL FUND FIRM

Signet Banking Corp. on Wednesday completed its purchase of Sheffield Management Co. and Sheffield Investments Corp., the New York-based managers of the Blanchard group of mutual funds, which total about $1 billion in assets.

The acquisition, part of the Richmond-based bank's effort to identify and reach specific types of customers directly, will about double its mutual fund assets.

``We have not been particularly successful in national mail marketing of mutual funds,'' Signet's chief executive, Robert M. Freeman, said Wednesday. ``Here is an organization that has been very successful at that, and therefore [will be] very complementary to our kinds of strategies.''

Terms of the deal, which was announced in February, were not disclosed.

Sheffield, a small company with 47 employees in New York and Vermont, has no sales force but mails information to potential customers directly - much as Signet sells student loans.

``People will use a coupon or 800 number to reach us, and we will send out a prospectus,'' said Michael Freedman, former president and chief executive of Sheffield and now an executive vice president in Signet's financial services division. ``Direct marketing, if you know how to do it, is a very cost-effective way of delivering funds.''

- Washington Post

by CNB