Pimco to Hire 20 People to Target $17.4 Trillion Asian Wealth

Lianting Tu, Bloomberg

Pacific Investment Management Co. is seeking to expand in an increasingly affluent Asia.

The $1.5 trillion money manager is in the process of hiring more than 20 people in marketing, operations, legal and compliance teams in the next two years to help cover major retail banks in Hong Kong and Singapore. It also intends to target newer markets such as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to Eric Mogelof, Hong Kong-based head for Asia Pacific at Pimco.

High net-worth individuals’ wealth grew 10 percent to $17.4 trillion in the Asia-Pacific region last year, exceeding the $16.6 trillion figure in North America for the first time, consulting firm Capgemini estimates. The region’s 5.1 million people with more than $1 million in investible assets excluding their primary residence beats the 4.8 million in the U.S., the consulting firm says. Investors from China have been fleeing a weakening yuan, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimating a net outflow from the nation of $55 billion in July.