Pimco Can t Stem Outflows Loses $ in January
Post on: 16 Март, 2015 No Comment
![Pimco Can t Stem Outflows Loses $ in January Pimco Can t Stem Outflows Loses $ in January](/wp-content/uploads/2015/3/pimco-says-now-is-time-to-buy-emerging-market-debt_1.jpg)
The bleeding may have slowed at Pimco, but outflows of $11.6 billion from the firm’s flagship fund in January made it clear that the bond giant’s wounds haven’t healed yet.
Pimco cofounder Bill Gross shocked the fixed-income world when he joined Janus Capital in September, opening the flood gates to a deluge of redemptions that have since totaled more than $91 billion, according to the International Business Times. The Pimco Total Return Bond Fund absorbed the majority of the impact, seeing $68.5 billion flee its management in the four months since Gross’s move.
Reuters reports that the portfolio’s continued outflows may seem counterintuitive given that it’s outperformed similar funds by 111 basis points since September. However, Reuters points out, Gross’s departure and the internal strife that preceded it highlighted concerns about the portfolio’s longer-term performance. Morningstar data shows that the fund trailed its benchmark by 65 basis points over the one-year period.
That concern sparked a stampede out of Pimco, which Bloomberg reports is a continuing problem for the firm. While the withdrawals from the Total Return Fund in January were down from December’s $19.4 billion, they still represented the 21 st straight month in which the fund family has failed to net new money.
According to Reuters, which quotes S&P Captial IQ’s Todd Rosenbluth, Pimco can’t expect to see a turnaround until its flagship portfolio starts to routinely trade in the green again.
When that will happen isn’t clear yet, as Bloomberg reports that members of the firm’s top echelon continue to leave. According to an anonymous source, one executive, Ana Dhoraisingam, left to pursue “other opportunities,” while two more are expected to retire in the coming months. Those are Pimco Asia CEO Brian Baker and Suhail Dada, head of U.S. consultant relations.
Bloomberg quotes Angeles Investment Advisers CIO Michael Rosen, who warns that Pimco can’t rest easy yet. While the worst of the fallout from Gross’s jump to Janus has passed, he says, it could pick back up again if the firm can’t produce consistently strong returns.
And according to Bloomberg, attracting new money is different than staunching outflows. Rosen says that most of the investors who were harried by Gross’s move have already left Pimco and taken their money elsewhere. Their new homes include total return funds at Jeff Gundlach’s DoubleLine Capital. which took in $3 billion in January, and TCW. which took $5.2 billion into its flagship fund last month.
The fiasco at Pimco was the end result of prolonged internal strife between Bill Gross and his colleagues. Then-CEO Mohamed El-Erian set moved investors to the edge when he left the firm in frustration early in 2014, and Gross pushed them over when he was picked up by Janus.