NEWPORT BEACH, CA – Jeremie Banet, a fund manager at Pacific Investment Management Co. specializing in inflation-protected bonds, plans to leave the firm to start a food truck business in Los Angeles and Orange County.

Banet, 36, is leaving the Newport Beach, California-based company June 10 on good terms after a “change of heart,” he said today in a telephone interview. Banet, who joined Pimco in 2011, said he will sell croque monsieurs, grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches that originated in French cafes.

Banet, who’s French, joined Pimco in mid-2011 after a career trading inflation-linked investments at Nomura Securities Co. and BNP Paribas SA. He was a money manager on Pimco’s real return team, which specializes in investments that shield investors from inflation, such as Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, commodity indexes and real estate.

The $15.4 billion Pimco Real Return Fund, led by Mihir Worah, one of Pimco’s six deputy chief investment officers, has returned 5 percent this year, better than 84 percent of peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the past five years, its returns of 6.4 percent annually beat 96 percent of similarly managed funds.

“I would like to thank Jeremie for his contributions to Pimco’s clients and wish him the very best in this next phase of his career,” Worah, head of the real return and multi-asset teams, said in an e-mail.

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