Man Group's Roman quits to run bond giant Pimco

Hedge fund titan Man Group stunned the City today after swashbuckling boss Manny Roman quit to join the world’s biggest bond manager Pimco in a major shake-up of the global fund management world.

The 52-year old, a French-born former Goldman Sachs executive, will leave Man’s Mayfair offices at the end of August and join Pimco’s Newport Beach headquarters in California in early November.

Man president Luke Ellis, a close confidant of Roman, has been promoted to chief executive of the FTSE 250 group while finance boss Jonathan Sorrell, the son of WPP boss Sir Martin, is handed the role of sole president.

Staff were told of the departure this morning.

The shares fell more than 4% on the news, shedding 5.2p to 117.10p, underscoring the high regard Roman was held in by some City firms.

“This is a loss to Man Group,” RBC analyst Peter Lenardos said. “The shares are off because he was well perceived. The market respects him although the bench strength at Man is quite strong.”

Man has launched small takeovers since Roman took the helm from 2013 and the strategy is expected to continue under Ellis.

Analysts at Citi called his promotion “reassuring” and Bank of America said he was a “continuity candidate”.

Ellis, who once left London to go and live on a farm, has been at Man since 2010 when his boutique firm FRM was snapped up by the hedge fund.

Roman (pictured), who has also lived in Chicago, will move to the coastal resort of Newport Beach from his home in Kensington.

His family live in New York and he has two daughters at university in the US. He will be tasked with turning around stuttering Pimco, a $1.5 trillion US fund manager owned by German insurer Allianz,

The California firm has suffered since the loss of high-profile co-founder Bill Gross in 2014 and former boss Mohamed El-Erian.