(March 3, 2014) — PIMCO, the world’s largest fixed income investor, slipped out of the top 25 in the European sales charts in 2013, after having held the number one slot in 2012, data has shown.
It is widely believed that fixed income has fallen out of favour with many large institutional investors over the last 12 months, due to equity market rallies and a sustained low interest environment. Despite this, Lipper said just shy of a net €100 billion flowed into the asset class over 2013 on the continent. Indeed the top two funds, in terms of inflows, were bond funds run by Franklin Templeton and Prudential/M&G, with a combined €12.2 billion in net sales.
Additionally, the second largest inflow across a wide range of asset classes poured into global currency-denominated bond funds, which received a net €26.8 billion across the year.
Two of PIMCO’s funds ranked in the top 25 for individual net sales, but investor outflows more generally meant the trillion-dollar investment house scored poorer net sales figures in Europe than some smaller bond firms. The company posted estimated group net sales of lower than €2.9 billion.
In contrast, Babson, a US fund house with just five funds available to European investors, took in a net €3 billion over the 12 months.
Lipper cited poor performance, outflows, and management changes at PIMCO for investors to have so abruptly turned their backs on PIMCO. An additional blow may occur this year as former CEO and Co-CIO Mohammed El-Erian announced his departure in January.
Overall, the Lipper group sales chart was topped by BlackRock, with €32.5 billion in estimated net sales—a spot it has held for some time—but due to its predominant passive approach, the data monitor claimed JP Morgan Asset Management should be seen as the actively managed winner. The asset management arm of the investment banking giant brought in estimated net sales of more than €21.3 billion in 2013.
Overall, the top five groups active in Europe took almost half of all net sales in 2013. The remaining three were Franklin Templeton, Vanguard, and Prudential/M&G, which is also a leading bond fund manager in Europe.
PIMCO had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.
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