Pimco has appointed Gene Frieda as global strategist for emerging markets, and Yacov Arnopolin as emerging market portfolio manager.
Frieda and Arnopolin will be based in the firm’s London office. Frieda joins the firm from Moore Capital Management, where he was partner and senior global strategist. Arnopolin worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in New York as a managing director and portfolio manager overseeing emerging market fixed-income portfolios.
Frieda will work primarily with the emerging markets team and report to Andrew Balls, chief investment officer for global fixed income. Arnopolin will focus on emerging market external debt strategies and report to Michael Gomez, head of the emerging markets portfolio management team.
The appointments are part of a wider recruitment drive at Pimco, which has seen 130 new staff hired globally this year, including 14 portfolio managers and 20 investment professionals. However, the firm reported 2,300 employees total at the end of the first quarter of this year, down 4% from a year previously.
Pimco’s emerging markets division has suffered in recent months, resulting in the firm losing its position as manager of the world’s biggest emerging market bond fund. Assets in the firm’s Emerging Local Bond fund has fallen over 70% from its April 2013 peak to $4.1 billion (€3.7 billion) at the end of May.
Despite falling fortunes since the departure of Bill Gross, Pimco continues to manage assets of $1.5 trillion as of December 31, 2015.
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