SECURITIES

Hotchkis & Wiley Bond Team Resigns: Managers of several top-ranked bond funds are leaving the Los Angeles-based investment firm to take jobs at money management firm Metropolitan West Securities Inc. The team of managers, led by Laird Landmann, Tad Rivelle and Stephen Kane, will help form a new asset management group for L.A.-based Metropolitan West that will focus on bond investments. Among the funds they managed were Hotchkis & Wiley’s Low Duration Fund and the Total Return Fund. The decision by the managers comes about six weeks after Merrill Lynch & Co., the biggest U.S. securities firm, agreed to buy Hotchkis & Wiley, which is a closely held firm managing about $10 billion.