PIMCO, one of the world’s largest fixed-income management companies, said its Dublin-based PIMCO Funds Global Investors Series PLC has been given regulatory approval for distribution in six European countries: United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany.
Approvals are also pending in Austria and Luxembourg, PIMCO said.
The funds were launched in 1997 and had reached $1.6 billion by mid-2002. Today, the GIS Funds have attracted close to $6 billion in investment funds; this amounts to nearly 30% of PIMCO Europe’s total assets under management.
In 2003 alone the GIS complex grew by 151% as European institutional investors recognized the benefits of specialized-pooled investment strategies, PIMCO said.
PIMCO’s GIS Funds provide European institutional investors with access to a range of specialist fixed-income strategies which have been structured to provide simplified administration, it said.
Investors can choose from the simplest cash and cash-enhanced strategies to the more specialized emerging-market debt and portable bond alpha strategies, thereby giving them the required diversification to suit their individual needs, the company said.
The three most popular funds within GIS have each attracted more than $1 billion as of December 31, 2003. The Total Return Bond Fund, Global Bond Fund and High Yield Bond Fund have attracted $1,276 million, $1,046 million and $1,314 million respectively. Also, the Euro Fund grew by over $500 million in 2003 alone, PIMCO said.
“We have spent considerable time listening to what clients want and have developed the Series to reflect those requirements,” said Peter Paul Pardi, Head of European Institutional Remarketing for the GIS funds. “The simplified administration means that clients can choose their favored strategies in a range of currency share classes including (the) U.S. dollar, euro, sterling, and Swiss Franc, hedged or unhedged.”
With PIMCO’s London office now responsible for over $21 billion of U.K. and continental European client assets, and more than $374 billion globally as of December 2003, PIMCO is one of the world’s leading fixed-income fund management companies.