Investors pulled €11.2 billion from Pimco’s European funds in September and October on the heels of Bill Gross’s departure, according to new figures from investment research firm Morningstar.
Of the total, €8.7 billion flowed out of Pimco’s fund range in Europe during October, the highest ever level of outflows in a one-month period in the region, according to Morningstar.Morningstar’s figures factor in net flows across all share classes in Pimco’s European-domiciled funds. The data provider tracks net flows at a slight lag to figures from the firm itself, which typically reflect redemption requests as they are logged.
A spokeswoman for Pimco in Europe declined to comment.
In the US, investors withdrew a net $73.8 billion from Pimco mutual funds in September and October. Of that total, a net $48 billion left in October.
Ali Masarwah, a researcher at Morningstar in Germany, said: “If you take the outflows relative to the size of the Pimco fund range [in Europe] it’s much higher than the figure you get in the US. If you take it as a percentage share of assets under management, it’s quite large.”
The firm issued a statement earlier this month on October outflows from its Global Investor Series Total Return Bond Fund in which it said outflows had “slowed considerably” and that “all redemptions from the fund are being managed without issue”.
It said of the Dublin-registered GIS fund range at the time: “Flows across the GIS range in aggregate have normalised and are quickly returning to historic levels experienced prior to Bill Gross’s departure with several consecutive days of positive net inflows at the end of October.”
Morningstar analysts said in a recent note that until September, when investors pulled €2.5 billion from Pimco in Europe, the firm had stemmed outflows from its range in the region. August 2014 marked the first month of net inflows since May 2013.
Last week Janus Capital, where Gross now manages a global unconstrained bond fund, opened Gross’s fund to European investors.
The figures offer an early glimpse of the regional outflows at the firm following its co-founder’s decision to step down on September 26.
