Bill Gross Tells Clients 2011 a ‘Stinker’

By Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam - Oct 15, 2011 3:54 AM GMT+0700

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund, told clients he misjudged the extent of the economic slowdown in developed economies, causing his Pimco Total Return Fund to trail rivals this year.

“This year is a stinker,” Gross wrote in a letter to clients entitled “mea culpa,” a copy of which was posted by Dealbreaker.com. “There is no ‘quit’ in me or anyone else on the PIMCO premises. The early morning and even midnight hours have gone up, not down, to match the increasing complexity of the global financial markets.”

Gross’s $242.2 billion Total Return Fund has returned 1.3 percent this year, lagging behind 82 percent of peers, Bloomberg data show. That’s his worst performance relative to rivals since at least 1995, the earliest year for which Bloomberg has rankings for Pimco’s flagship. Gross shunned Treasuries in the first half of the year, missing a rally as investors rushed to the safety of government-backed debt amid the European sovereign-debt crisis.

“As Europe’s crisis and the U.S. debt ceiling debacle turned developed economies towards a potential recession, the Total Return Fund had too little risk off and too much risk on,” Gross wrote.

Gross, who is co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, wrote that Pimco’s economic growth forecast for developed markets, under a scenario it termed the “new normal,” was too optimistic. The firm has revised its forecast for developed economies to zero, according to Gross.

Over the past five years, Pimco Total Return has returned 7.8 percent, beating 97 percent of its rivals, Bloomberg data show.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam in Boston at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Baumgaertel at cbaumgaertel@bloomberg.net