|
 While the cash withdrawal from the Pimco Total Return Fund is a
notable reduction from December's net outflows of $19.4 billion,
monthly outflows have remained elevated since Gross’ exit on Sept.
26.
Pimco has seen $68 billion of cash withdrawals from the Pimco Total
Return Fund in the four months since the end of September. There has
been a rush of withdrawals from Pimco after management turmoil last
year spooked investors, including the shock resignation of Gross in
September from the company he helped co-found. Gross' exit came only
eight months after his top deputy, Mohamed El-Erian, quit amid
acrimony.
For all of 2014, investors pulled $150 billion from Pimco's U.S.
open-end mutual funds, according to Morningstar data.
"It is Bill's departure that is playing a huge factor in the net
outflows ... this is a slow, drawn-out bleed where institutions
change managers after much debate," said Todd Rosenbluth, director
of ETF & Mutual Fund Research at S&P Capital IQ. "Outflows for Pimco
are likely to continue in early 2015 given its performance record
and that decisions for some were put off from pension funds,
foundations and endowments."
Rosenbluth said the Pimco Total Return Fund has had a good start to
the year, but on a one- and three-year basis the fund is still
lagging peers and the Barclays Aggregate. "Investors are unlikely to
get too excited based on one-month and one-day of performance
success. They need to continue to perform well under new management
for a longer period of time," he said.
The Pimco Total Return Fund delivered a net after-fee return of 3.99
percent in the four months since the end of September, or 1.11
percentage points greater than the Morningstar Intermediate-Term
Bond Average during that period. Last month, the fund returned 2.64
percent, net of fees, and excess returns of 0.54 percentage points
above its benchmark and 0.89 percentage points above the Morningstar
category.
The Pimco Total Return Fund had assets under management of $134.6
billion at the end of January, down from a peak of $292.9 billion in
April 2013.
[to top of second column] |
In a statement on Tuesday, the head of Pimco was quick to highlight
the quick comeback in performance since Gross’ exit.
"As long-term investors, Pimco's primary focus always is to deliver
consistent outperformance over an entire market cycle. The strong
performance of the Total Return Fund since Scott Mather, Mark Kiesel
and Mihir Worah took over management of the fund is a reflection of
the talent of our seasoned portfolio management team, the
effectiveness of PIMCO's investment process, and the depth of our
resources," said Douglas Hodge, Pimco's chief executive officer.
In a telephone interview, Mather said: "We are a team of people and
100 percent focused on performance. We’ve got the right structure,
risk-adjusted performance. Increasingly, we know that that is what
(clients) will focus on."
Pacific Investment Management Co, a unit of Allianz SE, had $1.68
trillion in assets under management as of Dec. 31.
DoubleLine Funds, an investment firm that has been a major
competitor to bond fund Pimco, on Monday reported a monthly record
net inflow in January of $3.04 billion.
(Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Christian Plumb, Bernard
Orr)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
