in-page
Alternative Landing Page Alternative Landing Page

Alternative Investments

Alternative paths to performance using PIMCO’s time-tested process.

At PIMCO, our decades of global leadership in active fixed income investing have prepared us for the complexities of alternative strategies, grounded in a solid foundation of macroeconomic analysis, fundamental research, and relative value comparisons.

Over the last 15 years, this broad perspective has provided our investors with access to new potential opportunities through innovative strategies spanning global macro, commodities, risk premia, structured and corporate credit, and the full spectrum of residential and commercial real estate markets.

Why PIMCO for Alternatives?

PIMCO's dedicated alternatives team benefits from the investment process and platform that has delivered alpha for investors for more than 50 years through many different market environments.

360-Degree Perspective

Our rigorous and fully-integrated investment process operates on a global scale with the aim of identifying compelling value across public and private markets, providing us with a differentiated perspective when evaluating individual opportunities.

Market Insight

Industry leadership, long-term relationships, and our dedicated asset specialists allow us to delve deeply into markets across the globe, at significant scale or in highly-targeted niche investment areas.

$159 billion

Alternative Assets Under Management (AUM)

$141 billion1

Alternative Credit & Private Strategies

$18 billion

Absolute Return Alpha Strategies

Alts Pie Chart 
As of 30 September 2022. 1Includes NAV and uncalled capital for draw down funds, and assets of clients contracted with Allianz Real Estate.
​

Pursue Diversification and Return with PIMCO’s Quant Strategies

While there are many ways to diversify portfolios using traditional strategies, consider the merits of a disciplined, quantitative investing approach to pursue potential sources of attractive returns in 2023.

​

Investment Strategies

Alternative Credit & Private Strategies

Since launching its first opportunistic credit vehicles over 15 years ago, PIMCO has developed a significant presence in both alternative credit and private investment strategies. Our strategies include those that seek to identify value primarily in listed securities, relying on fundamental and capital structure analysis, and also strategies that seek to privately finance the debt and equity needs of companies, asset holders, and origination platforms. We invest globally across commercial and residential real estate and mortgage credit, performing and distressed corporate debt, and specialty finance markets.

  • $141 billion2 in alternative credit & private strategies AUM
  • 75+ portfolio analytics resources
  • 80+ credit research analysts
  • $207B+ deployed into private markets
  • 130+ dedicated alternative credit portfolio managers
As of 30 September 2022. Certain PIMCO personnel who will provide investment advice to the strategies are separated by information barriers. As a result, certain communications may be subject to restrictions. 2Includes NAV and uncalled capital for draw down funds.

Investment Capabilities

  • Residential Real Estate

    Our residential real estate team is one of the largest providers of capital to global mortgage markets. Our areas of focus include credit-sensitive RMBS and whole loans, re-performing and non-performing loans, and direct origination through our network of institutional partners.

  • Commercial Real Estate

    PIMCO is a leading investor in private commercial real estate equity, with an established presence in the U.S. and Europe, and growing footprint in other markets. Our team invests opportunistically across geographies, sectors, and development stages, following a relative value-based approach that draws on the macroeconomic and fundamental insights of the broader PIMCO platform.

    Complementing our real estate private equity efforts, our real estate debt team finances the capital needs of developers, sponsors, and other asset owners with a full suite of solutions ranging from our significant activity in CMBS to bespoke transitional lending on individual projects.

  • Corporate Credit

    Our corporate credit capabilities span leveraged loans, high yield bonds, bank capital, CLOs/CBOs, direct lending, capital solutions and distressed investing in both developed and developing markets. Our team invests seamlessly across public and private markets, with robust capabilities to provide bespoke financing solutions to a wide variety of corporate borrowers.

  • Specialty Finance

    Our specialty finance team focuses on consumer and commercial specialty finance. Our consumer finance practice crosses various forms of consumer lending such as credit card receivables, unsecured personal loans, student loans and automobile leases/loans. In commercial finance, we operate across trade finance, transportation finance, equipment finance, insurance finance and other esoteric lending opportunities. The team is active in new origination, legacy loan pools, as well as equity investments in origination and asset management platforms.

Absolute Return Alpha Strategies

PIMCO’s Absolute Return Alpha Strategies platform is designed to harness PIMCO’s deep experience investing across global markets, asset classes, and strategy types, including those leveraging the firm’s extensive quantitative capabilities. Evolving since the launch of our first global macro alternative strategy in 2004, we invest globally in cash and derivative markets through both discretionary and systematic strategies.

  • $18 billion in absolute return alpha strategies AUM
  • 40+ dedicated portfolio managers
  • 15+ years of discretionary hedge fund experience
  • $64 billion invested in quant strategies (index oriented and absolute return)
  • 16+ years of dedicated quantitative strategy experience
As of 30 September 2022. Certain PIMCO personnel who will provide investment advice to the strategies are separated by information barriers. As a result, certain communications may be subject to restrictions.

Investment Capabilities

  • Macroeconomic

    Macroeconomic analysis has been a key input to PIMCO’s investment process over our 45+ year history. This is supported through long-established cyclical and secular economic forums, global and regional investment committees, as well as further insights from our Global Advisory Board of market and policy specialists. Our dedicated team of portfolio managers has a longstanding track record investing in macro/directional, relative value and tactical/systematic trades across asset classes in developed and emerging markets.

  • Credit Relative Value

    Our credit portfolio managers span the full spectrum of credit opportunities from investment grade corporate credit to subordinated structured credit to distressed emerging market credit. The team leverages PIMCO’s highly integrated credit platform and focuses on identifying distinct directional and relative value opportunities across the risk and liquidity spectrum with the aim of building strategies that are flexible and opportunistic.

  • Commodities

    Our dedicated team of commodity portfolio managers, leveraging a broad set of resources including commodity analytics, risk management and credit research, manage one of the world’s largest absolute return commodity strategies. Our analysts focus on fundamental and structural drivers of return across a broad opportunity set in commodity markets.

  • Quantitative Investing

    Our dedicated quant portfolio management team and 50+ person analytics group leverages broad quant strategy research and benefits from PIMCO’s extensive history employing risk premia strategies since the 1980s. Areas of focus cover interest rates, equities, and currencies across both developed and developing markets as well as commodities and the derivatives related to each of these markets.

  • Insurance-linked Securities

    Our multi-disciplined team of experienced insurance specialists access and underwrite a diverse universe of customizable insurance-linked instruments. A strategic relationship with our parent company, Allianz, supports our sourcing and access to the resources and experience of one of the world’s largest and longest-tenured insurance platforms. Our insurance-linked securities capabilities emphasize diversification across underlying risk, region, and investment type, using sophisticated underwriting, portfolio construction, and structuring techniques to help build portfolios.

Related Thought Leadership

Section : Date : Experts :
Reset All
Unlocking Alternatives: Creating Opportunities with Flexible Capital
Pursue Diversification and Return with PIMCO’s Quant Strategies
Myths of Alternative Investments
Commercial Real Estate: Finding Value in Distressed Assets
A Multi-sector Approach to Semiliquid Private Credit
Unlocking Alternatives: Opportunities in European Data Centres

Need more information?

Connect with our team today.

Disclosures

The following disclosures may not include all risks related to the strategies described herein. Additionally, this information is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, accounting, legal, tax or other advice. PIMCO does not provide legal or tax advice. Please consult your tax and/or legal counsel for specific tax or legal questions and concerns.

All investments contain risk and may lose value. Alternative investments involve a high degree of risk and can be illiquid due to restrictions on transfer and lack of a secondary trading market. They can be highly leveraged, speculative and volatile, and an investor could lose all or a substantial amount of an investment. Alternative investments may lack transparency as to share price, valuation and portfolio holdings. Complex tax structures often result in delayed tax reporting. Compared to mutual funds, private funds are subject to less regulation and often charge higher fees. Alternative investment managers typically exercise broad investment discretion and may apply similar strategies across multiple investment vehicles, resulting in less diversification. Trading may occur outside the United States which may pose greater risks than trading on U.S. exchanges and in U.S. markets. Private credit involves an investment in non-publically traded securities which are subject to illiquidity risk. Portfolios that invest in private credit may be leveraged and may engage in speculative investment practices that increase the risk of investment loss. Investments in Private Credit may also be subject to real estate-related risks, which include new regulatory or legislative developments, the attractiveness and location of properties, the financial condition of tenants, potential liability under environmental and other laws, as well as natural disasters and other factors beyond a manager’s control. Performance could be volatile; an investor could lose all or a substantial amount of its investment. Past performance is not a guarantee or a reliable indicator of future results.

This material contains the opinions of the manager and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This material has been distributed for informational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but not guaranteed. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission. PIMCO is a trademark of Allianz Asset Management of America L.P. in the United States and throughout the world. ©2023, PIMCO.

CMR2023-0117-2669988T