New York City pension funds moved $4.9 billion out of Pimco in 2014

By Luciana Lopez

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's pension funds last year pulled $4.9 billion from asset manager Pimco, the latest big investor to yank money from Pimco after the acrimonious exit of the firm's top bond investor, Bill Gross, in September

"The New York City Pension Funds recently transitioned out of $4.9 billion in Pimco accounts due to concerns over recent organizational changes," Eric Sumberg, a spokesman for New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, said in a statement.

Gross shocked bond markets in September by leaving Pimco, which he co-founded, for smaller rival Janus Capital, where he now manages the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund (NASDAQ:JUCAX - News).

The assets pulled from Pimco by the city pension funds were distributed to the city's existing asset managers, Sumberg said.

Existing managers include BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - News), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News) and State Street (NYSE:STT - News), among others.

According to Morningstar, the Pimco Total Return Fund, formerly managed by Gross, had record outflows of $103 billion in 2014. Investors pulled $150 billion from Pimco's U.S. open-end mutual funds for 2014, Morningstar data also showed.

The New York pension funds still hold $2.4 billion in Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) accounts with Pimco.

"At this time the Systems are in the midst of a search for TIPS mangers," Sumberg said in the statement.

The city pension funds had assets of $158.7 billion as of Sept. 30, 2014.

The news was originally reported by The Wall Street Journal.