Pimco saw $14 billion outflows amid bond selloff

A Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO) advertisement is displayed on a building in Hong Kong, China. Photographer:Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

Pacific Investment Management Co. saw clients pull 13.6 billion euros ($14.3 billion) from its funds last quarter, as investors fled fixed-income securities amid rising interest rates.

The outflows contributed to a 4.5% drop in outside money overseen at Allianz SE’s asset management business in the first quarter, the Munich-based insurer said in a statement Thursday.

The results reflect a challenging start to the year for asset managers, as a global market rout saw the S&P 500 Index post its worst first four months of a year since 1939, while the bond market selloff continued amid aggressive monetary tightening. At the same time, Pimco’s smaller sister unit Allianz Global Investors saw outside clients add 4.6 billion euros, in a sign that high-profile hedge fund losses at the business haven’t hurt investor demand.

Allianz has set aside an unprecedented 5.6 billion euros to resolve investor lawsuits and regulatory probes after the collapse of AGI’s Structured Alpha hedge funds. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are still looking into the matter, the company has said.

Allianz’s total third-party assets under management stood at 1.88 trillion euros at the end of March, down from 1.97 trillion at the end of December.