NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pacific Investment Management Co's flagship Total Return fund posted cash withdrawals of about $900 million in March, leaving what was once the world's largest bond fund with assets of $88 billion, Pimco said on its website.
The Pimco Total Return Fund saw outflows despite a total return of 1.45 percent after fees, outperforming its benchmark return of 0.92 percent, Pimco said in a press release.
The Total Return Fund has posted year-to-date returns of 1.79 percent after fees through March, but trails the benchmark, which has returned 3.03 percent year-to-date, Pimco said.
"The Fund's interest rate strategies in the U.S., U.K., and euro zone benefited," Pimco said. "The recovery in breakeven inflation rates helped the Fund’s TIPS holdings offset detraction from an underweight to corporate credit."
Rate and spread strategies also combined to more than offset some detraction from the Fund's currency exposures, particularly long-dollar positions against the euro, Pimco added.
Newport Beach, Calif. Pimco, which like BlackRock and some other asset managers, includes dividend reinvestments in its flow figures.
Assets had plunged to $98.5 billion in August 2015 from a peak of $293 billion in April 2013, when the mutual fund was the world's largest and run by Pimco co-founder Bill Gross.
The Pimco Income Fund, which is overseen by Pimco Group Chief Investment Officer Dan Ivascyn, saw an additional $1.5 billion of inflows in March. That fund has received total inflows of $18.2 billion in 2015 and so far in 2016.