New Value Manager at Evergreen

In a bid to beef up their Value Equity Team, Evergreen has lured Walter McCormick back to the firm as a managing director and head up the team, which oversees $7.4 billion in assets for retail and institutional clients.

The team manages portfolios within large cap, multi cap and small cap strategies.

Evergreen is the asset management component of Wachovia.

In addition to his team leadership role, McCormick will also serve as the lead portfolio manager for the $745-million Evergreen Growth & Income Fund and the $559-million Evergreen Value Fund, according to a news release from the company. Also:

• Jim Tringas, portfolio manager of the Wachovia Special Values Fund will join McCormick as co-manager of the Evergreen Value Fund.
• Sujatha Avutu will continue as co-manager of the Evergreen Growth & Income Fund.

Prior to his new position, McCormick headed up David L. Babson and Company’s Large Capitalization Value Team. Before this he spent nearly 15 years at Keystone Investments, a mutual fund company acquired in 1996 by Wachovia Corporation, where he headed the Core Equity Team and ran the Evergreen Balanced Fund, then known as Keystone Balanced

In other news, shareholders are scheduled to vote next week on a measure to merge Wachovia Funds into Evergreen’s operation – a process that should be complete within three months, according to Evergreen.