NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 21, 1998 (PRIMEZONE) -- PIMCO Advisors Holdings L.P. (NYSE: PA) and The Irvine Company today announced an agreement for PIMCO to lease 74,000 square feet of operations office space in The Irvine Company's Newport Center in Newport Beach. The agreement will provide Pacific Investment Management Company, PIMCO Advisors' largest unit, with additional office space to meet its current needs and accommodate 60 new employees expected to be hired by year-end 1999.
"Strong growth in PIMCO's assets under management, fueled by the firm's efforts to expand its substantial fixed-income investment franchise, has resulted in a pressing need for additional physical space for the firm," said PIMCO Chief Administrative Officer Ernest L. Schmider. "The expansion of The Irvine Company's Newport Center allowed us to keep our operations center in close proximity to our other offices," he added.
The lease agreement covers 74,000 square feet of office space in a four-building expansion of the Corporate Plaza office complex that is currently under construction and 75 percent committed. PIMCO will lease one building and a part of another building to house the company's investment operations and shareholder services departments. These areas of the firm have grown significantly as a result of PIMCO's burgeoning mutual fund business.
"The area's highly-trained workforce is a great resource in meeting the employment growth in the operations and technology areas of the firm," Schmider said.
The two Corporate Plaza buildings to be occupied by PIMCO will be located at 1200 and 1400 Newport Center Drive at the Pacific Coast Highway. Construction of the buildings is expected to be completed by summer 1999 with occupancy to take place in late summer or early fall 1999.
Corporate Plaza is a low-rise, pedestrian-friendly campus of office buildings in Newport Center, adjacent to Fashion Island and near some of Orange County's finest amenities.
PIMCO was represented in the lease transaction by Rick Kaplan of Cushman Realty Corporation.
PIMCO Advisors, the parent company of Pacific Investment Management Company, is one of the largest investment management firms in the world with assets under management of more than $218 billion. PIMCO Advisors, with its seven investment advisory units led by Pacific Investment Management Company and Oppenheimer Capital, is widely recognized for providing consistent performance and high quality service to more than 1,600 institutional clients worldwide, including one-third of the largest 200 corporations in the United States. In addition, PIMCO Advisors manages a family of 48 stock and bond mutual funds available to both retail and institutional investors.
This release may contain certain forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding future asset growth, that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ from the Company's expectations.
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