By Kirsten Grind
Bill Gross isn't yet attracting investors in droves to his new
home.
Mr. Gross's new mutual fund at Janus Capital Group Inc.
attracted $364 million in investor money in October, his first full
month at the firm, but the amount trails the inflows into rival
funds over the same period, according to new data Monday from
research firm Morningstar Inc.
The amount, in addition to the $66.4 million Janus saw in
inflows into the fund in September, brought the Janus Global
Unconstrained Bond fund's assets to $443 million, according to
Morningstar. Janus as a whole saw $1.1 billion in inflows across
its mutual funds during October.
The inflows at Janus broke a streak in which investors pulled
money from the firm every month for more than three years. The
inflows were the firm's first since September 2011, and its largest
since 2007, according to Morningstar.
A Janus spokesman didn't immediately return a request for
comment.
Janus's competitors have fared far better.
The Metropolitan West Total Return Bond fund saw $6.7 billion in
inflows in October, the most of any bond fund, and the Vanguard
Total Bond Market Index fund saw $4.4 billion in inflows, according
to Morningstar.
Investors have pulled about $50 billion from Mr. Gross's former
flagship fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., the Pimco Total
Return fund, in September and October, following Mr. Gross's Sept.
26 departure.
Morningstar said it doesn't have benchmark information for the
Janus Global Unconstrained Bond fund. According to a company fact
sheet, the fund is comparing itself with Libor.
Between Oct. 6 and Nov. 6, Mr. Gross's first full month at the
helm of the fund, the Bank of America three-month U.S. Dollar Libor
interest rate returned 0.022%, compared with 0.157% for Mr. Gross's
fund, according to Morningstar. The Barclays Aggregate U.S. Bond
index, a standard measure for many bond funds, meanwhile, returned
0.422% during that time.
Write to Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com
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