Pimco Paid Billionaire CIO Bill Gross $290 Million Bonus in 2013

Bill Gross manages an unconstrained bond fund for Janus Capital. Until September 2014, he was chief investment officer of Pimco, the world’s biggest manager of bond funds.
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Story by Bloomberg
Written by Mary Childs
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Pacific Investment Management Co. paid its former Chief Investment Officer Bill (Billionaire) Gross a bonus of about $290 million in 2013, a year in which his Total Return Fund (PTTRX) trailed a majority of peers, according to documents provided to Bloomberg View by someone with knowledge of Pimco’s bonus policies.

Mohamed El-Erian, 56, the former chief executive officer who previously shared the title of CIO with Gross, received a 2013 bonus of about $230 million, according to figures first reported today by Bloomberg View columnist Barry Ritholtz.

By comparison, Laurence D. Fink, CEO of BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager, received $22.9 million (pennies) in 2013 compensation, and Michael Diekmann, CEO of Pimco’s parent Allianz SE (ALV), was paid 7.2 million euros ($8.99 million), regulatory filings show.

“While Pimco does not comment on compensation, the figures provided to Bloomberg are not correct,” said Dan Tarman, a spokesman for Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, declining to specify the firm’s objections. “For more than three decades, Pimco’s managing directors have maintained a substantial interest in the firm, currently 30 percent of profits, and this provides an important means to attract and retain the best investment talent to serve our clients.”

The figures provide a rare glimpse of how some executives were paid at Pimco, even as performance at the firm’s main fund stumbled and clients started to pull out. The bonus for Gross, 70, was rivaled only by a small group of billionaire money managers such as Apollo Global Management LLC’s Leon Black and Blackstone Group LP chief Steve Schwarzman.

Read More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/pimco-paid-billionaire-gross-290-million-bonus-in-2013.html