PIMCo to Launch Up to Five New Equity Strategies

(September 13, 2010) — Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCo), the world’s largest bond fund with $1.1 trillion in assets under management, is planning to launch four or five more actively managed global equity strategies in the next few years.

According to Reuters, the firm launched its first active equities fund, Pathfinder, in April 2010. The fund, the asset manager’s first actively managed global equities mutual fund, has performed strongly, catching interest from a variety of investors, and the firm will continue its expansion into the fixed-income area. The US and European versions of Pathfinder have about $1 billion in assets combined.

“The total strategy has under $1 billion…We are exceeding our expectations…” Kashkari told Reuters in an interview. “We are very pleased with the Pathfinder both the performance that it has achieved and attraction it has received with clients.”

PIMCo revealed that it plans to release the additional equities funds in early 2011 that will focus on the emerging markets. The firm will start other global equities investment strategies, such as global income and global growth.

So far, PIMCo’s equity fund has attracted greatest interest from Japan and views Japan as a big opportunity due to the large amount of individual savings. “They (Japanese investors) have historically focused on the Japanese market but are increasingly open-minded in investing abroad, and that is consistent with our strategy to investing globally as well,” Kashkari told Reuters.

In July, the firm hired Maria Gordon in July 2010 as an executive vice president and emerging market equity portfolio manager to run the new emerging markets strategy.