Pimco has moved swiftly to replace Bill Gross as group chief investment officer following his surprise departure on 26 September after 43 years with the Allianz-owned firm. Gross has taken a new role at the much smaller fund manager, Janus Capital, starting 29 September.
Pimco has elected Daniel Ivascynas group CIO and announced a new CIO team.
Ivascyn has been a deputy CIO since February and has shone managing Pimco's $30bn income fund with Alfred Murata.
"Dan is an outstanding investor, team player and leader," said Jay Ralph, member of the board of management, Allianz SE, and chairman of Allianz Asset Management. He noted "the deep bench and brand that Pimco has built up."
"He is a great group CIO for Pimco", added Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser, Allianz SE, and until January chief executive of Pimco.
The new CIO team includes Andrew Balls, CIO global; Mark Kiesel, CIO global credit; Virginie Maisonneuve, CIO equities; Scott Mather, CIO US core strategies; and Mihir Worah, CIO real return and asset allocation.
Douglas Hodge, Pimco's CEO, and Lew "Jay" Jacobs, president, will continue to spearhead Pimco's business strategy, client service and operations.
Allianz CEO Michael Diekmann pointed out that since becoming part of the Allianz Group in 2000, "Pimco has grown enormously and contributed consistently to Allianz's success." He recognised "Bill Gross for his work over the 43 years since PIMCO's founding" and wished him good luck. "The management and investment structure put in place in January, as well as the thorough succession planning, give us complete confidence in Pimco's investment and executive leadership team."
Ralph stressed to the Financial Times: "We have the exact same control over Pimco as we have had for 10 years. We have no desire to change that. Bill's departure will have absolutely no impact on the Allianz relationship with Pimco. We have no plans to sell Pimco."
The firm has also appointed Mather, Kiesel and Worah as portfolio managers for the total return fund, the fund run by Gross where $71bn of assets have defected in the past 16 months (still leaving $221bn). It also emerged last week that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Pimco inflated the returns of its total return exchange-traded fund, run by Gross until he left the firm.
As group CIO, Ivascyn will continue to oversee the firm's alternatives strategies, structured credit and income strategies. Saumil Parikh, Mohsen Fahmi, and Ivascyn will serve as portfolio managers for the unconstrained bond fund.
Balls, a former Financial Times journalist and brother of Ed Balls, the UK's shadow chancellor of the exchequer, will have additional managerial responsibility for Pimco's portfolio management group and trade floor activities globally along with Worah. Balls is based in London, Worah in Newport Beach, California.
