Next-Finance : Since the departure of Bill Gross and Mohamed El-Erian, Pimco is much less in the news. Where are you at today?

Ryan Blute : PIMCO was built on a knowledgeable and experienced investment team with global experience and capabilities. With the strong and stable performance over the years we have seen dynamic business growth globally and also in France. Today, PIMCO manages more than 2.2 trillion USD in client assets globally which is the highest AUM in the firm’s history. With more than 90 percent of our assets managed on behalf of our European clients having outperformed their benchmark after fees over the past 5 years, we believe this is a strong testimony for the benefits of our active management approach. Our main objective is to deliver our clients superior investment service and investment results.

You have historically been the leading asset management company in the bond market, with a massive presence among institutional investors around the world. Today, you see opportunities in the CGP market and this seems quite new in your positioning. Can you explain this strategy on the French market?

Indeed we see strong growth potential in the Global Wealth Management market as CGPs and private investors seek solutions that will provide them with a steady flow of income in a low yielding and sometimes high volatility environment. While the French savings market is large and heavily invested in life insurance, we see that wealth management advisers are gradually gaining market share. We see ourselves as well positioned to provide local investors with access to a global set of investment opportunities. We are therefore extending our capabilities to platforms, asset management firms and CGP groups.

We see ourselves as well positioned to provide local investors with access to a global set of investment opportunities. We are therefore extending our capabilities to platforms, asset management firms and CGP groups.

Ryan Blute, Head of Global Wealth Management EMEA at PIMCO

In the current environment, the sovereign rates of developed countries and multinationals are low and are likely to remain so for a long time. What asset classes are you currently promoting to your clients? Where do you find returns?

We find opportunities across the global spectrum of the fixed income markets including credit and emerging markets. We believe that flexible and diversified income strategies can provide good returns over the cycle. A more niche market that we like at the moment is Asian credit and in particular Asian High Yield where spreads are still attractive and investors have the potential to benefit from the dynamic recovers of the region. Finally we believe that multi-asset strategies with a strong risk management can offer a good building stone for a longer term portfolio.

The ESG theme seems to be a vector for growth in the coming years, and you seem to have relatively little presence in this segment. Is this really the case or are you preparing green bond or social bond funds?

PIMCO is actually one of the largest ESG asset managers with more than 640 billion USD managed in sustainable strategies. We have very early integrated our ESG risk analysis in our investment approach and we continue to grow our offering of mutual funds that are managed according to ESG criteria, most recently introducing a climate change bond strategy. We believe that fixed income investors play a very important role in promoting the transition to a more sustainable economy.

We believe that fixed income investors play a very important role in promoting the transition to a more sustainable economy.

Ryan Blute, Head of Global Wealth Management EMEA at PIMCO

What will be your development strategy in 2021 in France?

We will focus on both institutional and global wealth management business with the ambition to provide our clients access to PIMCO’s suite of global investment solutions. We believe that our solutions can play an important role to help clients achieve their investment goals in a low-yield and high volatility environment. In the CGP space, we offer our successful Dynamic Multi-Asset Strategy as well as our Diversified Income Strategy which offers a flexible exposure across spread segments of the global fixed income universe. Finally, we also see strong demand for ESG solutions like our Climate Bond Strategy.