Real Silk Investments, Inc.
445 N. Pennsylvania St.; Suite 500
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 632-7359
For Immediate Release
June 24, 1999
Indianapolis, Indiana
Real Silk Investments, Incorporated, announced that it has reached an
agreement to merge with and into Lord Abbett Affiliated Fund,Inc., an
open-end mutual fund with approximately $10 billion in assets. The merger
is subject to Real Silk shareholder approval.
Daniel R. Efroymson, president of Real Silk, stated that he and the Board
of Directors thought a merger with Lord Abbett Affiliated Fund presented
an excellent opportunity for Real Silk shareholders. He noted that the
two funds have similar investment objectives, seeking long-term growth of
capital through investing in value stocks.
Mr. Efroymson stated that Lord Abbett & Co., the investment advisor to
Affiliated Fund, is an investment management firm which has been in the
advisory business for 70 years. According to information available to him,
Lord Abbett has approximately $32 billion of assets under management and
the Lord Abbett family of funds consists of 35 mutual funds designed to meet
a wide variety of investment needs.
Mr. Efroymson indicated that the definitive merger agreement should be
executed in the next few days, and that the Real Silk Board of Directors
would be calling a special shareholders meeting to vote on the merger
agreement after certain regulatory requirements are satisfied.
U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, Inc. acted as investment bankers for Real Silk.
