MutualFundWire.com: No Further Pimco Cuts Planned For Now

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Friday, August 5, 2016

No Further Pimco Cuts Planned For Now

The Pimco [profile] layoffs are done. And Allianz smells a comeback.

Dieter Wemmer
Allianz
CFO

"We are well on track towards our cost-income ratio target and no further measures are planned for now," Dieter Wemmer, chief financial officer of Pimco parent Allianz, said today on a media call, Bloomberg's Oliver Suess reports. "We have made a lot of progress on getting non-personnel expenses down and the cuts announced in June will also help, in addition to a lower impact from the retention program."

In June a memo leaked about a 68-person layoff at Pimco. At the time, that amounted to a three-percent cut in the Newport Beach, California-based fixed income asset manager's worldwide headcount.

Wemmer's comments today are in the context of Allianz's just-released Q2 2016 earnings report, which shows a cost-income ratio (CIR) for Pimco of 62 percent, down from 64.3 percent a year ago. Allianz is aiming for below 60 percent.

Meanwhile, Reuters notes that Wemmer says that "getting to zero [net outflows] is within reach" for Pimco. Pimco suffered $20 billion in net outflows in Q2, nearly all of which were from a single client (whom Wemmer reportedly declined to name).

"Pimco is stabilizing," Wemmer tells CNBC.

Meanwhile, the WSJ reports, on the same media call Allianz CEO Oliver Baete insisted that Allianz "won't interfere in Pimco's daily business and fund management." Baete's comments after Jackie Hunt, the new asset management chief at Allianz, told the FT last month that "You'll see Allianz more involved in the asset management business than in the past."

All this comes in advance of a changing of the guard at the very top of Pimco. Last month Pimco and Allianz revealed that on November 1 Manny Roman will take over as Pimco CEO, succeeding Doug Hodge.

Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=54547

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