Reuters/New York
Bill Gross, one of the bond market’s most renowned investors, yesterday quit Pimco, the huge investment firm he co-founded more than 40 years ago and with which his name has been effectively synonymous, for Janus Capital Group, a distant rival in the asset management arena.
The surprise development, which rattled the US bond market, came the day before Pimco and its parent, German insurer Allianz SE, planned to dismiss Gross, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Gross, who had been Pimco’s chief investment officer, had been clashing with the firm’s executive committee and had threatened to quit multiple times, the source said.
The committee had planned to accept his latest resignation today.
“Pimco and Bill Gross are synonymous,” said Todd Rosenbluth, director of mutual fund research at S&P Capital IQ.
“It will be extremely hard to think of Pimco and Bill Gross as separate, and it will take time for investors to realize that he no longer is going to play a role at one of the world’s largest fixed income managers.”
The departure is the latest twist in a tumultuous year for Gross, long dubbed “the bond king” for his prowess in fixed-income investing, and for the investment firm he helped build into a $2tn powerhouse since co-founding it in 1971.