Man Group Shares Slide After Pimco Poaches CEO Roman
Shares in the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund Man Group (MNGPY) slid more than 4% in morning trading in London after it was revealed its CEO was jumping ship to take the helm at Pimco.
Emmanuel (Manny) Roman will take up the position of CEO of Pimco in November. PIMCO has $1.51 trillion of assets under management and is owned by Munich, Germany-based financial service Allianz (AZSEY) .
Roman will leave the position in August. He has led Man since February 2013 and previously worked for Goldman Sachs.
Man Group has appointed Luke Ellis to the position of CEO - he is currently president. Man Group currently has $78.6 billion of assets under management.
The appointment comes after a period of upheaval at Pimco. In early 2014, CEO and co-CIO Mohamed El-Erian abruptly left the fund manager. Shortly after, in September, co-founder and co-CIO Bill Gross announced he was leaving to join Janus Capital.
This prompted massive outflows. In May, Pimco's largest fund, the Total Return Fund, saw its 38th month of outflows.
Roman will replace Pimco's current CEO, Douglas Hodge, who will move the role of managing director and senior adviser. Hodge became CEO after El-Erian's departure in 2014. He was chief operating officer before that.
Pimco, which is primarily a fixed income manager, has been trying to diversify its investor base. The manager efforts to take on the likes of Vanguard as a big equities player failed last year. It is now focused on hedge fund-like equity strategies, and bond and equity hybrid products.
Hodge said, "As the asset management industry continues to evolve, Manny will bring new perspectives to PIMCO's leadership team and add his unique talents to our already successful firm and I look forward to working with him."
Allianz shares were up 0.8% in Frankfurt at €125.90 ($138.6 million).