MutualFundWire.com: Hunting For Pimco's Future, Without an Allianz Global Investors Merger

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Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Hunting For Pimco's Future, Without an Allianz Global Investors Merger

M&A, quants, alts, and an Asian expansion might be in Pimco's [profile] near future, under a new CEO and a new boss at its parent company Allianz. But that new boss insists that Pimco and its sister asset manager will remain distinct.

Jackie Hunt
Allianz
Head of Asset Management and U.S. Life Insurance

Jackie Hunt, head of asset management and U.S. life insurance for Munich, Germany-based multinational Allianz, likes the new Pimco CEO Manny Roman for, as Bloomberg tells it, four key things: "that he brings expertise in quantitative investing, machine learning, dealmaking, and managing a complex company." Last summer Hunt praised Roman as "subtle and discreet".

Given that Roman hails from hedge fund giant the Man Group, alternatives could be another logical area of expansion for Pimco in the Hunt-Roman era. And one unnamed source tells Bloomberg that Roman has his sights set on a Chinese expansion, too.

Bloomberg also wonders if Allianz wants to merge Pimco with its sibling, Allianz Global Investors [profile]. Yet Hunt insists that "Pimco is the exact opposite" of Frankfurt, Germany-based AGI's multi-boutique approach.

"We are committed to the two-pillar strategy," Hunt tells the publication.

The full article offers a broader picture of Hunt, "the $2 trillion woman who's turning around Pimco". Hunt, a South African and a former top executive at Prudential plc, joined Allianz on July 1, 2016. Roman joined Pimco on November 1, reporting to Hunt.

Bloomberg also offers some updated statistics on Pimco and Allianz. Pimco now has $1.47 trillion in AUM, down from a 2013 peak of about $2 trillion after "three years of bleeding," and its cost-income ratio is 57.5 percent. AGI now has $511 billion in AUM, after net inflows in 14 of the last 15 quarters, and a cost-income ratio of 67.3 percent, reflecting a smaller AUM base for spreading costs across.

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