PIMCO Hires Three Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Managers as Part of Expansion of Emerging Markets Team

NEWPORT BEACH, CA--(Marketwire - Apr 13, 2011) - PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, is expanding its emerging market fixed income team through the hiring of three additional portfolio managers to enhance our talent and deep expertise in emerging markets. This supplements other efforts in this area, including yesterday's launch of PIMCO's first emerging market equity strategy and its emerging multi asset strategy.

"Our firm has long been active in emerging markets and is committed to providing outstanding value to our clients by focusing on some of the most promising investment opportunities in the global economy," said Dr. Mohamed A. El-Erian, PIMCO's CEO and Co-CIO. "The recruitment of three exceptional talents will further enhance an already deep and successful team, reinforcing PIMCO's continued commitment to this important segment of the global markets."

FrancescBalcells, an Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager, will join the firm in July. In addition to managing global emerging markets portfolios and contributing to the firm's investment strategies, he will lead our local bonds and currency initiatives based in Munich. Francesc joins PIMCO from Rogge Global Partners where he was head of emerging markets. In 2004-2005 he spent a year at PIMCO on secondment from the International Monetary Fund where he worked earlier in his career.

Isaac Meng, a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager, will join the firm in April, based in the Hong Kong office. He will specialize in macroeconomic and financial analysis of China and regional linkages integral to portfolio strategy.

Javier Romo, a Vice President and Portfolio Manager, will join the firm in May based in the Newport Beach office. He will focus on relative value analysis, trading and portfolio strategy for Latin American sovereign credit, foreign exchange, and local interest rate products.

"We are delighted that these three emerging market experts are joining the PIMCO team. They will further strengthen our ability to serve clients through an even stronger and deeper global emerging markets platform," added Dr. El-Erian.

Professional biographies:

Francesc Balcells

Francesc joins PIMCO as an Executive Vice President and Portfolio Manager and will be based in the firm's Munich office. He was previously with Rogge Global Partners, where he was head of emerging markets and portfolio manager for EM fixed income and foreign exchange. He was previously a Vice President with Harvard Management Company. Earlier in his career, Francesc was an economist with the IMF in Washington D.C. He earned an M.A. in International Economics and European Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University. He earned a B.A. from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Isaac Meng

Isaac joins PIMCO as a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager and will be based in the firm's Hong Kong office. He was previously a Director and Senior Financial Economist at BNP Paribas, where he focused on China, including macroeconomics and equities. He previously worked on energy-related securities and risk management with Mirant. Earlier in his career he was a fixed income manager with the Bank of Montreal and before that a foreign-exchange trader with the Bank of China. Isaac earned an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in International Politics from the Foreign Affairs College in Beijing.

F. Javier Romo

Javier joins PIMCO as a Vice President and Portfolio Manager and will be based in the firm's Newport Beach office. He was previously a Vice President with Citigroup, where he focused on trading hard currency bonds and credit default swaps in Latin America. Earlier in his career he was an analyst at Sandell Asset Management in New York and before that a Vice President for Morgan Stanley focused on emerging markets trading and local markets strategy. Javier earned his M.S. in Financial Engineering from Columbia University, and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City.

About PIMCO
PIMCO is a leading global investment management firm, with offices in 10 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Founded in 1971, PIMCO offers a wide range of innovative solutions to help millions of investors worldwide meet their needs. Our goal is to provide attractive returns while maintaining a strong culture of risk management and long-term discipline. PIMCO is owned by Allianz Global Investors, a subsidiary of the Munich-based Allianz S.E., a leading global diversified financial services provider.

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the performance of financial markets, the investment performance of PIMCO's sponsored investment products and separately managed accounts, general economic conditions, future acquisitions, competitive conditions and government regulations, including changes in tax laws. Readers should carefully consider such factors. Further, such forward-looking statements speak only on the date at which such statements are made. PIMCO undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statement.