Fidelity's Profit Up 20 Percent

Fidelity Investments says its 2007 pretax profit grew 20 percent to nearly 2.2 billion dollars as investment performance improved.

However, the nation's largest mutual fund company continued to have problems holding onto customers for its equity funds.

Investors pulled out 18 billion dollars last year.

Boston-based Fidelity reported its income before taxes rose to 2.16 billion dollars last year, up from 1.79 billion in 2006.

The privately held company, which does not report quarterly financial numbers, says revenue rose to a company-record 14.9 billion dollars, up 16 percent from 12.9 billion in 2006.

Fidelity's managed assets at year-end totaled 1.6 trillion dollars, up 15 percent from the end of 2006.

The firm says funds managed by their investment arm performed better than 73 percent of their competitors last year.