New York City-based Alpine Management & Research and Purchase, New York-headquartered Saxon Woods Advisors have agreed to merge. The deal brings together a father (Stephen A. Lieber of Saxon Woods) and son (Samuel A. Lieber Alpine) team to act as co-CEOs. The merged entity will operate as Alpine Woods Investments starting on January 1, 2003.

The new firm will be headquartered in Purchase and will manage six mutual funds and 300 private accounts. One of its initial initiatives will be to continue to grow both its fund and its separate account product lines. Alpine expects to add its first two fixed-income mutual fund offerings, both of which are currently in SEC registration, to its fund group in December. Steven Shachat, who joined Alpine Management in September 2002, will manage both the Alpine Municipal Money Market Fund and the Alpine Tax Optimized Income Fund.

The elder Lieber founded Saxon Woods in 1999 after a successful stint in the fund business as the head of Lieber & Company. That firm created the Evergreen Funds in 1971. First Union acquired the fund firm in 1994 and Lieber stayed with the firm until 1999.

The younger Lieber founded Alpine Management in 1998. That firm currently offers three real estate funds, a balanced fund, and also manages separate accounts. Sam is also a veteran of Evergreen, having joined that firm in 1985. He also played a key role in launching its international real estate mutual fund in 1989. Alpine purchased both that fund and a second (Evergreen U.S. Real Estate Fund) in 1998 from Evergreen.

"This business combination will produce a stronger, broader and deeper organization, overseeing close to $1 billion dollars in assets across a distinctive array of investments vehicles." stated Stephen Lieber in a statement. "The combination will allow investors to select among a variety of asset classes, investment options and vehicles for managing their assets."  

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