8278 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 36 / Monday, February 24, 1997 / Notices

performance of the functions of the

agency, including whether the

information shall have practical utility;

(b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate

of the burden of the proposed collection

of information; (c) ways to enhance the

quality, utility, and clarity of the

information to be collected; and (d)

ways to minimize the burden of the

collection of information on

respondents, including through the use

of automated collection techniques or

other forms of information technology.

Consideration will be given to

comments and suggestions submitted in

writing within 60 days of this

publication.

Direct your written comments to

Michael E. Bartell, Associate Executive

Director, Office of Information

Technology, Securities and Exchange

Commission, 450 5th Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20549.

Dated: February 14, 1997.

Margaret H. McFarland,

Deputy Secretary.

[FR Doc. 97–4388 Filed 2–21–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010–01–M

[Rel. No. IC–22514; File No. 812–10412]

Ameritas Variable Life Insurance

Company, et al.

February 14, 1997.

AGENCY: The Securities and Exchange

Commission (the ‘‘Commission’’).

ACTION: Notice of Application for an

Order Pursuant to the Investment

Company Act of 1940 (‘‘1940 Act’’).

APPLICANTS: Ameritas Variable Life

Insurance Company Separate Account V

(‘‘Separate Account V’’), Ameritas

Variable Life Insurance Company

Separate Account VA–2 (‘‘Separate

Account VA–2,’’ together with Separate

Account V, the ‘‘Applicant Accounts’’),

the Ameritas Variable Life Insurance

Company (‘‘AVLIC’’).

RELEVANT 1940 ACT SECTIONS: Order

requested pursuant to Section 26(b).

SUMMARY OF THE APPLICATION:

Applicants seek an order approving the

proposed substitution of shares of the

Index 500 Portfolio of the Variable

Insurance Products Fund II (‘‘Index 500

Portfolio’’) for shares of The Dreyfus

Stock Index Fund (‘‘Dreyfus Fund’’)

held by Applicant Accounts.

FILING DATES: The application was filed

on October 21, 1996.

HEARING OR NOTIFICATION OF HEARING: An

order granting the application will be

issued unless the Commission orders a

hearing. Interested persons may request

a hearing by writing to the Secretary of

the Commission and serving Applicants

with a copy of the request, personally or

by mail. Hearing requests should be

received by the Commission by 5:30

p.m. on March 11, 1997, and should be

accompanied by proof of service on

Applicants in the form of an affidavit or,

for lawyers, a certificate of service.

Hearing requests should state the nature

of the requestor’s interest, the reason for

the request, and the issues contested.

Persons may request notification of a

hearing by writing to the Secretary of

the Commission.

ADDRESSES: Secretary, Securities and

Exchange Commission, 450 Fifth Street,

N.W., Washington, DC., 20549.

Applicants, c/o Norman M. Krivosha,

Esq., Ameritas Variable Life Insurance

Company, 5900 ‘‘O’’ Street, Lincoln,

Nebraska 68510.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kevin M. Kirchoff, Branch Chief, Office

of Insurance Products (Division of

Investment Management), at (202) 942–

0670.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following

is a summary of the application; the

complete application is available for a

fee from the Public Reference Branch of

the Commission.

Applicants’ Representations

1. AVLIC, a stock life insurance

company organized pursuant to

Nebraska law, is a wholly-owned

subsidiary of AMAL Corporation.

Ameritas Life Insurance Corporation,

also a Nebraska corporation, owns a

majority interest in AMAL Corporation.

2. The Applicant Accounts were

established by AVLIC and registered

with the Commission as unit investment

trusts pursuant to the 1940 Act.

Separate Account VA–2 was established

on May 28, 1987, to fund group variable

annuity policies (‘‘VA Policies’’).

Separate Account V was established on

August 28, 1985, to fund variable

universal life insurance policies (‘‘VUL

Policies’’). The VA and VUL Policies

(collectively, the ‘‘Subject Contracts’’)

are issued and administered by AVLIC

and are offered exclusively by means of

separate prospectuses that describe the

applicable terms and conditions of the

respective contracts.

3. Each of the Applicant Accounts is

divided into separate subaccounts that

invest exclusively in shares of one of the

investment portfolios of certain openend investment companies (collectively,

‘‘Underlying Funds’’). The Underlying

Funds in which the subaccounts of the

Applicant Accounts may invest are: The

Alger American Fund, which currently

offers to Applicant Accounts six

investment portfolios, and MFS Variable

Insurance Trust, which currently offers

three investment portfolios. In addition,

Variable Insurance Products Fund I and

Variable Insurance Products Fund II

currently offer to Applicant Accounts

ten investment portfolios, one of which

is the Index 500 Portfolio. Applicant

Accounts offer subaccounts that invest

exclusively in the Index 500 Portfolio

(‘‘Index 500 Subaccounts’’).

4. Applicant Accounts also offered

subaccounts that invested exclusively in

shares of the Dreyfus Fund (‘‘Dreyfus

Subaccounts’’). New investments in the

Dreyfus Subaccounts have not been

accepted since May 1, 1996, and all

prospectuses relating to the Subject

Contracts have been amended to

eliminate reference to them. Subject

Contract owners who invested in the

Dreyfus Subaccounts (‘‘Affected

Contractholders’’) were permitted to

remain in the Dreyfus Subaccounts after

May 1, 1996, and to continue to reinvest

dividends paid by the Dreyfus Fund in

the Dreyfus Subaccounts. All Affected

Contractholders continue to have the

option of transferring investments

without charge from the Dreyfus

Subaccounts to the Index 500

Subaccounts or to other subaccounts,

but it is not anticipated that all Affected

Contractholders will take advantage of

this option. As of July 31, 1996, the

Dreyfus Subaccount of Separate

Account VA–2 had total assets of

$8,561,723, representing the interests of

916 owners, and the Dreyfus

Subaccount of Separate Account V had

total assets of $2,067,298, representing

the interests of 735 owners.

5. Applicants represent that the

investment objectives of the Index 500

Portfolio and the Dreyfus Fund are

identical. Both are ‘‘index funds’’ that

attempt to allocate assets to correspond

to the Standard & Poor’s Index (‘‘S&P

500’’). Each fund: (a) must invest at least

80% of its assets in securities

represented in the S&P 500; (b) seeks to

achieve a total return that reflects at

least a 95% correlation with the S&P

500; and (c) may use financial futures

for hedging purposes only.

6. Fidelity Management & Research

Company (‘‘FRM’’), which manages the

Index 500 Portfolio, is entitled to

receive an investment advisory fee at

the annual rate of .28% of the Portfolio’s

net assets. For each of the fiscal years

ended December 31, 1995, 1994, and

1993, the expense ratio of the Index 500

Portfolio, taking into account expense

reimbursements and fee waivers, was

.28% of the Portfolio’s average net

assets. During each such period FMR

voluntarily reimbursed the Index 500

Portfolio to the extent that its ratio of

expenses to average net assets exceeded
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 36 / Monday, February 24, 1997 / Notices 8279

.28%. Had this reimbursement policy

not been in place, the expense ratios for

the Index 500 Portfolio for the fiscal

years ended December 31, 1995, 1994,

and 1993, would have been .47%, .81%,

and .95%, respectively.

7. The Dreyfus Corporation

(‘‘Dreyfus’’), which manages the Dreyfus

Fund, receives a fee at the annual rate

of .245% of the Fund’s average daily net

assets. The expense ratios for the

Dreyfus Fund for the fiscal years ended

December 31, 1995, 1994, and 1993,

were .39%, .40%, and .40% of the

Fund’s average daily net assets. These

expense levels take into account

Dreyfus’s policy to voluntarily

reimburse the Fund in any year in

which the Fund’s expenses exceeded

.40% of the Fund’s average net assets.

Dreyfus has undertaken to maintain this

expense reimbursement policy absent

180 days notice to the Fund’s

shareholders of any change in the

policy.

8. The proposed substitution will be

effected by redeeming the shares of the

Dreyfus Fund held by the Dreyfus

Subaccounts, transferring the cash

values of Affected Contractholders from

the Dreyfus Subaccounts to the Index

500 Subaccounts, and then purchasing

shares of the Index 500 Portfolio. The

Dreyfus Subaccounts would then be

eliminated. All redemptions of shares of

the Dreyfus Fund and purchases of

shares of the Index 500 Portfolio will be

effected in compliance with Rule 22c-1

under the 1940 Act. The substitution

will be at net asset value of the

respective shares, without the

imposition of any transfer, sales, or

similar charge. There will be no change

in the amount of any Affected

Contractholder’s investment after the

substitution.

Applicants’ Legal Analysis

1. Section 26(b) of the 1940 Act

provides in pertinent part that ‘‘it shall

be unlawful for any depositor or trustee

of a registered unit investment trust

holding the security of a single issuer to

substitute another security for such

security unless the Commission shall

have approved such substitution.’’

Section 26(b) provides that the

Commission will approve a substitution

if it is consistent with the protection of

investors and the purposes fairly

intended by the policy and provisions of

the 1940 Act. The purpose of Section

26(b) is to protect the expectation of

investors in a unit investment trust that

the unit investment trust will

accumulate the shares of a particular

issuer and to prevent unscrutinized

substitutions which might, in effect,

force the contractholders, dissatisfied

with the substituted security, to redeem

their shares, thereby incurring either a

loss of the sales load deducted from

initial proceeds, an additional sales load

upon reinvestment of the redemption

proceeds, or both.

2. Applicants request that the

Commission issue an order pursuant to

Section 26(b) of the 1940 Act to permit

the Applicant Accounts to substitute

securities of the Index 500 Portfolio for

securities of the Dreyfus Fund.

3. Applicants submit that the

proposed substitution meets the

standard enunciated in Section 26(b),

and further that, if implemented, the

substitution would not raise any of the

concerns that Congress sought to

address when the 1940 Act was

amended to include the provision.

Applicants further submit that the

substitution will not result in the type

of costly forced redemption that Section

26(b) was intended to guard against and

is consistent with the protection of

investors and the purposes fairly

intended by the 1940 Act.

4. Applicants submit that the

investment objective, policies, and

operating expenses of the Index 500

Portfolio and the Dreyfus Fund are

substantially the same or comparable.

Applicants state that the Index 500

Portfolio is large enough to provide the

portfolio diversification necessary to

decrease investment risk and to provide

the economies of scale that may benefit

the Affected Contractholders, as well as

other Subject Contractholders.

5. Applicants represent that AVLIC

will bear the costs of the proposed

substitution, including legal,

accounting, and brokerage fees, and

Affected Contractholders will not incur

any fees or charges as a result of the

substitution. Applicants also represent

that the substitution will not impose

any tax liability on Affected

Contractholders or raise the level of fees

and charges currently paid by Affected

Contractholders. Applicants further

represent that the rights of affected

Contractholders and AVLIC’s

obligations under any of the Subject

Contracts will also not change.

6. Applicants represent that as soon as

reasonably practicable after the

requested order is issued, AVLIC will

send to the Affected Contractholders a

written notice (‘‘Notice’’) describing the

proposed substitution, including the

date on which the substitution will take

effect. The Notice will advise Affected

Contractholders that either before or

within thirty days from the date on

which the substitution occurs, they may

transfer all substituted assets to other

subaccounts. Applicants also represent

that any transfer of cash values in the

Dreyfus Subaccounts that occurs either

prior to, or within the thirty days, after

the substitution will not be treated as a

transfer that may be restricted because

of earlier transfers between subaccounts.

Applicants further represent that no

transfer charge is currently in effect, and

none will be imposed before the end of

the thirty-day period.

Conclusion

For the reasons summarized above,

Applicants assert that the requested

order approving the proposed

substitution is consistent with the

protection of investors and the policy

and provisions of the 1940 Act.

For the Commission, by the Division of

Investment Management, pursuant to

delegated authority.

Margaret H. McFarland,

Deputy Secretary.

[FR Doc. 97–4386 Filed 2–21–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8010–01–M

[Rel. No. IC–22515; International Series

Release No. 1053; File No. 812–10150]

Enron Corp., et al.; Notice of

Application

February 14, 1997.

AGENCY: Securities and Exchange

Commission (‘‘SEC’’).

ACTION: Notice of Application for

Exemption under the Investment

Company Act of 1940 (the ‘‘Act’’).

APPLICANTS: Enron Corp. (‘‘Enron’’),

Enron Oregon Corp. (‘‘Enron Oregon’’),

Enron Oil & Gas Company (‘‘EOG’’),

Enron Global Power & Pipelines L.L.C.

(‘‘EPP’’), and Enron International Inc.

(‘‘EII’’).

RELEVANT ACT SECTIONS: Order requested

under section 6(c) of the Act for an

exemption from all provisions of the

Act.

SUMMARY OF APPLICATION: Applicants

request an order that would permit

applicants and certain of their

controlled companies to engage, directly

or through subsidiaries, in certain

foreign infrastructure projects without

being subject to the provisions of the

Act.

FILING DATE: The application was filed

on May 15, 1996, and amended on

October 22, 1996 and February 12, 1997.

Applicants have agreed to file an

amendment, the substance of which is

incorporated herein, during the notice

period.

HEARING OR NOTIFICATION OF HEARING: An

order granting the application will be

issued unless the SEC orders a hearing.

Interested persons may request a

hearing by writing to the SEC’s