Stephen Foley
Pimco has accounted for half of the 10 funds with the
biggest outflows so far this year - bleeding more than $100 billion - as
rivals snatched market share from the world's largest bond manager
while it struggled to contain management infighting.
Five of the 10 funds with the heaviest customer redemptions so far this year are run by the California company, and several more have suffered multibillion-dollar outflows.
The data highlight how Pimco's weak performance began before the resignation in September of founder Bill Gross and extends beyond the funds that he personally managed.
Mr Gross's former Total Return and Unconstrained Bond funds top the list of biggest redemptions in 2014 so far, with Pimco funds investing in high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and equities also suffering heavy withdrawals.
Read More Morningstar cuts Pimco Total Return on Gross exit
The league table of US fund flows, by research group Morningstar, paints a stark picture of how savers have shifted money to other managers, led by Vanguard, MetWest and Goldman Sachs.
It also reveals how longer-term trends in the mutual fund industry have continued to play out in 2014, including the vast asset accumulation of tracker funds from
Vanguard, the low-cost market leader, and the decline of traditional active management funds by Fidelity and Capital Group's American Funds.
Mr Gross quit as chief investment officer at Pimco as other executives plotted to oust him. Institutional clients, financial advisers and individual savers began questioning their relationship with the firm earlier in the year, after a period of poor performance by its main funds and amid mounting headlines about internal discontent.
The Pimco Total Return fund has shed $75 billion because of client withdrawals this year, according to Morningstar, whose data run to the end of October. Five Pimco funds - four previously managed by Mr Gross - are in the bottom 10 performers in terms of outflows so far this year.
Other Pimco funds not run by Mr Gross that have suffered redemptions of more than $1 billion this year include its High Yield fund, which suffered withdrawals of $5.1 billion, and its EqS Pathfinder value investing fund, whose clients redeemed about $1.6 billion. Pimco's Floating Income fund has suffered withdrawals of $1.5 billion, or 61 per cent of its assets at the start of the year.
Read MorePimco may suffer over $200B in outflows: Deutsche
Pimco said outflows had slowed dramatically since their peak after Mr Gross's resignation: "The performance of our flagship Total Return fund is among the best of its peers in November and, longer-term, we've delivered alpha in the majority of our US mutual fund assets over the last three years."
Five of the 10 funds with the heaviest customer redemptions so far this year are run by the California company, and several more have suffered multibillion-dollar outflows.
The data highlight how Pimco's weak performance began before the resignation in September of founder Bill Gross and extends beyond the funds that he personally managed.
Mr Gross's former Total Return and Unconstrained Bond funds top the list of biggest redemptions in 2014 so far, with Pimco funds investing in high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and equities also suffering heavy withdrawals.
Read More Morningstar cuts Pimco Total Return on Gross exit
The league table of US fund flows, by research group Morningstar, paints a stark picture of how savers have shifted money to other managers, led by Vanguard, MetWest and Goldman Sachs.
It also reveals how longer-term trends in the mutual fund industry have continued to play out in 2014, including the vast asset accumulation of tracker funds from
Vanguard, the low-cost market leader, and the decline of traditional active management funds by Fidelity and Capital Group's American Funds.
Mr Gross quit as chief investment officer at Pimco as other executives plotted to oust him. Institutional clients, financial advisers and individual savers began questioning their relationship with the firm earlier in the year, after a period of poor performance by its main funds and amid mounting headlines about internal discontent.
The Pimco Total Return fund has shed $75 billion because of client withdrawals this year, according to Morningstar, whose data run to the end of October. Five Pimco funds - four previously managed by Mr Gross - are in the bottom 10 performers in terms of outflows so far this year.
Other Pimco funds not run by Mr Gross that have suffered redemptions of more than $1 billion this year include its High Yield fund, which suffered withdrawals of $5.1 billion, and its EqS Pathfinder value investing fund, whose clients redeemed about $1.6 billion. Pimco's Floating Income fund has suffered withdrawals of $1.5 billion, or 61 per cent of its assets at the start of the year.
Read MorePimco may suffer over $200B in outflows: Deutsche
Pimco said outflows had slowed dramatically since their peak after Mr Gross's resignation: "The performance of our flagship Total Return fund is among the best of its peers in November and, longer-term, we've delivered alpha in the majority of our US mutual fund assets over the last three years."
Brent Lewin | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A Pacific Investment Management Company advertisement is displayed on a building in Hong Kong, China.
Vanguard's index tracker funds dominate the rankings for
most inflows this year, in part because they include contributions to
the firm's popular multi-asset retirement funds. Its Total Stock Market
Index Fund, which overtook Pimco Total Return Bond fund last year to
become the largest mutual fund in the world, took in $30 billion.
More from the FT:
Bill Gross to manage $500m for Soros
Pimco fund monthly outflows reach $27.5bn
Fund manager hangs up his apron and returns to Pimco
The most popular US actively managed funds of 2014 are all bond funds, confounding expectations at the start of the year for a "great rotation" of investor assets out of fixed income and into equities, in anticipation of rising interest rates, which hurt the value of bonds.
The single biggest beneficiary of the rebound in active fixed income flows and the turmoil at Pimco has been the MetWest Total Return bond fund, run by Tad Rivelle and Laird Landmann, which had inflows of $14 billion in the first 10 months of the year. However, with $40.5 billion in assets, it remains less than a quarter the size of the Pimco Total Return Bond fund.
Read MoreBill Gross wants to 'whip the pants' off Pimco
The non-Pimco fund suffering the largest redemptions this year was the Thornburg International Value equity fund, which reshuffled its portfolio management team amid poor returns. Clients have withdrawn the equivalent of 44 percent of its assets at the start of the year.
Amid doubts over whether large active equity managers can outperform the market, Fidelity switched some large institutional holders of its big mutual funds into cheaper collective investment trusts.
More from the FT:
Bill Gross to manage $500m for Soros
Pimco fund monthly outflows reach $27.5bn
Fund manager hangs up his apron and returns to Pimco
The most popular US actively managed funds of 2014 are all bond funds, confounding expectations at the start of the year for a "great rotation" of investor assets out of fixed income and into equities, in anticipation of rising interest rates, which hurt the value of bonds.
The single biggest beneficiary of the rebound in active fixed income flows and the turmoil at Pimco has been the MetWest Total Return bond fund, run by Tad Rivelle and Laird Landmann, which had inflows of $14 billion in the first 10 months of the year. However, with $40.5 billion in assets, it remains less than a quarter the size of the Pimco Total Return Bond fund.
Read MoreBill Gross wants to 'whip the pants' off Pimco
The non-Pimco fund suffering the largest redemptions this year was the Thornburg International Value equity fund, which reshuffled its portfolio management team amid poor returns. Clients have withdrawn the equivalent of 44 percent of its assets at the start of the year.
Amid doubts over whether large active equity managers can outperform the market, Fidelity switched some large institutional holders of its big mutual funds into cheaper collective investment trusts.
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