Janus Capital Group, the money manager that hired Bill Gross last year, said the head of its fundamental fixed income unit will leave the firm at the end of March.
Gibson Smith, 47 and head of the business since 2006, plans to spend more time with his family, Denver-based Janus said Wednesday in a statement.
Janus also announced that Enrique Chang, who joined two years ago, will become head of investments April 1, overseeing both the fundamental fixed income and the equity investment teams.
Smith helped expand the bond business at Janus, known primarily as a stock manager, to $41.6 billion from $5.2 billion when he took on his role.
Last year, Janus CEO Dick Weil hired Gross, the former chief investment officer of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., and tasked him with building out a separate bond unit.
Smith “is an excellent investor and an exceptional leader,” Weil said in the statement. “He and his team have proven their ability to deliver strong results for clients over various market cycles.”
Janus fell 3.2 percent to $15.33 at 12:17 p.m. The stock is down 5 percent this year, compared with a 5.3 percent decline in the 19-member Standard & Poor’s index of asset managers and custody banks.
Smith’s role will be split between Darrell Watters, who will become head of domestic fundamental fixed income, and Chris Diaz, who will oversee it globally. Chang, a former CIO at American Century Investments, currently oversees equities and asset allocation.
About $33 billion of Janus’s fixed-income assets are in the fundamental unit that Smith leads.
The $9.1 billion Janus Flexible Bond Fund, which Smith co-manages, has boosted its assets roughly 10-fold since the end of 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fund beat 79 percent of peers over the past five years.
