Gross fund netted $58 million in April

Bill Gross's bond fund at Janus Capital Group Inc. attracted an estimated $57.7 million in new investor money in April, before the fund was hit by a selloff in bonds. The subscriptions followed deposits of $6.8 million in March, and brought assets in the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund to $1.52 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. (More: Gross says 35-year bull market coming to an end) The fund was beating peers in March and did well through most of April, until European bonds slumped in the final days of the month. Mr. Gross, who had been betting that the debt would trade in narrow range as long as the European Central Bank was buying assets, was hit when volatility surged. Mr. Gross co-founded Newport Beach, Calif.-based Pacific Investment Management Co. in 1971, and jumped to Janus last year after losing a power struggle at the firm he helped build into a $2 trillion money manager at its peak. BEATS MOST PEERS The 71-year-old has said he has “two, three, four years” to prove himself at Denver-based Janus, and says he's investing to “show clients and the world” that he can still win. His fund beat 57% of competitors from Oct. 6, when he took over, through May 1, according to Morningstar Inc. Mr. Gross and his family owned more than half of the fund as of Dec. 31, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Gross has said that the smaller fund size at Janus allows him to be more nimble in markets than when he ran the behemoth Pimco Total Return Fund, which reached $293 billion in April 2013.