PIMCO Announces the Formation of New Mortgage REIT

Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) has announced the formation of a new real estate finance company that intends to acquire residential and commercial real estate-related debt. To be called PIMCO REIT Inc., the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company has filed documents with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) requesting approval to raise $600 million through a public offering of common stock that will trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Jennifer Bridwell, who leads PIMCO’s mortgage-related product development efforts, will serve as chief executive officer of the new REIT. Founded in 1971, PIMCO manages investments totaling more than $1.2 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2010. That figure included securitized holdings of more than $372 billion, of which $46.9 billion were in dedicated  directly to mortgage and real estate-related strategies. PIMCO’s other assets consisted of $268.6 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and $81.6 billion in mortgage credit holdings such as non-agency RMBS and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).