Bill Gross, who helped found Pimco is joining competitor Janus Capital, according to a statement released by the manager.
Gross is listed on Pimco’s website as founder, managing director and CIO of Pimco, where he has been since co-founding the firm in 1971. He “oversees the management of more than $1.9 trillion of securities”.
According to Janus’ statement, Gross will manage its recently launched Janus Global Unconstrained Bond fund “and related strategies”
“Gross’ employment will be effective September 29, 2014 and he will begin managing the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund and related strategies effective October 6, 2014.”
“Gross will be based in a new Janus office to be established in Newport Beach, California and will be responsible for building-out the firm’s efforts in global macro fixed income strategies. His concentration on such strategies will be separate and complementary to Janus’ existing and highly successful credit-based fixed income platform, built under the leadership of Janus’ Fixed Income chief investment officer, Gibson Smith.”
Richard Weil, CEO of Janus Capital Group, said: “Bill Gross has an exemplary track record with decades of success and he will offer an exceptional approach to navigating today’s increasingly risky markets with a focus on macro, unconstrained strategies. His involvement provides Janus a unique opportunity to offer strategies and products that are highly complementary to those already managed by our credit-based fixed income team. With Bill leading our global macro efforts and Gibson our credit-based fixed income team, I am confident Janus will be able to meet the needs of virtually any client.”
Gross said: “I look forward to returning my full focus to the fixed income markets and investing, giving up many of the complexities that go with managing a large, complicated organization. I chose Janus as my next home because of my long standing relationship with and respect for CEO Dick Weil and my desire to get back to spending the bulk of my day managing client assets. I look forward to a mutually supportive partnership with Fixed Income CIO Gibson Smith and his team; they have delivered excellent results across their strategies, which deserve more attention.”
Data from Pimco shows that the Total Return fund, managed by Gross, has assets of close to $222bn. Year to date it has returned 3.59%, and over five years it has returned 5.15% on an annualised basis. Returns have averaged 7.91% annually since inception.
A statement from Pimco declared that Gross would leave the manager “immediately”, and that it would “confirm shortly the election of a new CIO. Relevant portfolio management assignments will also be announced at that time.”
Pimco CEO Douglas Hodge added: “While we are grateful for everything Bill contributed to building our firm and delivering value to Pimco’s clients, over the course of this year it became increasingly clear that the firm’s leadership and Bill have fundamental differences about how to take Pimco forward.”
Pimco owner Allianz stated that succession planning meant it was confident that Gross’ departure would not cause problems.
Michael Diekmann, CEO of Allianz Group, said: “The management and investment structure put in place in January as well as the thorough succession planning gives us complete confidence in Pimco’s investment and executive leadership team.”
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