TCW sees 14 quit bond team after CIO is fired

NEW YORK Dec 8 (Reuters) - TCW Group Inc has seen 14 people quit its fixed-income investment team after the money manager terminated Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Gundlach on Sunday, a person familiar with the situation said.

TCW, a unit of Paris-based Societe Generale (SOGN.PA), fired Gundlach and ousted him from its board after buying a smaller rival, Metropolitan West Asset Management LLC, last week. MetWest co-founder Tad Rivelle, whose firm oversaw $30 billion in assets, will replace Gundlach as head of high-grade fixed income investments.

TCW in a letter Sunday said Gundlach "threatened to take certain actions that could have jeopardized the firm's ability to manage clients' fixed income assets." The MetWest purchase, TCW said, was designed to bring stability and ensure the continuity of client assets.

Yet there is turmoil at TCW, one of the world's largest money managers, and customers may follow Gundlach wherever he goes, either to a rival firm or to set up his own money management business.

Gundlach and the 14 others who left represent nearly one-fourth of a fixed income team that managed about $65 billion in securities -- more than half of TCW's $110 billion in total assets.

TCW declined to comment on the employee moves, saying it was a confidential personnel matter.

The executives who have left include Phil Barach, who co-managed TCW's $11.9 billion Total Return Bond Fund with Gundlach, the source said. Managing directors Joel Damiani, Vincent Fiorillo, Joe Galligan and Louis Lucido also left. (Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone and Jennifer Ablan; editing by John Wallace)