Gross' Janus fund lures US$176m in Dec, big drop from Nov's US$770m

[NEW YORK] The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which Pimco co-founder Bill Gross started managing in October, attracted US$176 million of inflows in December, down considerably from an estimated US$770 million in the previous month, according to Morningstar data released on Friday.

Janus Capital Group Inc drew overall inflows of US$440 million in December, though the Denver-based firm posted outflows of US$4.6 billion for all of 2014, the data showed.

Mr Gross' new fund had total assets under management of US$1.375 billion as of the end of December, Morningstar said.

Mr Gross's move from Pimco to smaller rival Janus has been closely watched as outflows persist at the Newport Beach, Calif Pacific Investment Management Co, and totaled US$19.4 billion in December, more than twice the US$9.5 billion withdrawn in November.

Questions remain as to whether some of that capital will flow into Mr Gross's new fund.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that most of the US$1 billion-plus in Gross' Janus Global Unconstrained Bond fund came from the Morgan Stanley wealth-management office in La Jolla, Calif, just north of San Diego - the same office where one of Mr Gross' personal financial advisers works, according to industry executives who have viewed confidential brokerage data.

That money helped push the fund past US$1 billion, a key threshold for large investors.

"The recent rebound in flows is a good start and I'm curious to see how well they keep this momentum after the novelty of Bill Gross's hire has faded," said Jeff Tjornehoj, head of Lipper Americas Research.

REUTERS