Pimco's assets under management drop five percent in third quarter

By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pacific Investment Management Co., whose co-founder Bill Gross stunningly departed on Sept. 26, said late Friday that the Newport Beach, Calif.-firm had assets under management of $1.876 trillion as of Sept. 30, a 5 percent drop in the third quarter. Pimco had total assets under management of $1.973 trillion as of June 30, 2014 and total assets under management of $1.92 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2013. In a statement on its website, Pimco said "changes in AUM (assets under management) are a function of a number of factors, including portfolio returns, currency changes and net client flows." Gross, one of the bond market's most renowned investors and the former manager of the flagship Pimco Total Return Fund, quit Pimco for distant rival Janus Capital Group Inc . According to two sources familiar with the matter, he was expected to be fired the next day from the firm he helped launch more than four decades ago and built into a $2 trillion investment powerhouse. Since Gross's departure, Pimco has seen heavy outflows, with $23.5 billion leaving the Pimco Total Return Fund in September alone. The new managers of the Pimco Total Return Fund -- Scott Mather, Mark Kiesel, Mihir Worah -- wrote in a report about outflows: "Given that Total Return is invested in highly liquid securities, and currently has above-average liquidity simply due to the strategies we’ve had in place in recent months, we are confident that we will be able to handle even significant levels of client redemptions from the portfolio." (Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Diane Craft)