Fired TCW exec Jeffrey Gundlach prepares to launch three mutual funds
DoubleLine Capital, formed by star bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach after he was fired by L.A. money management firm TCW Group last month, on Tuesday registered to launch its first three mutual funds for individual investors.
Gundlach, who is in a vicious legal battle with TCW, hopes to lure investors from the TCW funds he had managed for the last decade, including TCW’s retail flagship, Total Return Bond fund.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, DoubleLine applied to launch its own Total Return Bond fund, which like TCW Total Return Bond would invest primarily in mortgage-backed bonds.
The firm also said it planned to launch DoubleLine Core Fixed Income fund, which would invest in a diversified mix of bonds; and DoubleLine Emerging Markets Income, which would mostly own bonds of companies and governments in emerging-market countries.
Gundlach, 50, had been TCW’s chief investment officer until the firm fired him Dec. 4, saying he had threatened to leave the company and take his team with him. Within 10 days Gundlach had formed DoubleLine; about 40 of his 65 fixed-income staffers at TCW have since defected to DoubleLine.
Last week TCW sued Gundlach, alleging that he and other TCW defectors had been plotting for months to steal the firm’s proprietary information and use it to form a rival.
