FPA funds' Rodriguez plans to take a leave from the firm

Veteran L.A. mutual fund manager Robert Rodriguez is planning to hand over day-to-day fund operations to his partners at the end of 2009 and take a one-year sabbatical.

As CEO of First Pacific Advisors, the 60-year-old Rodriguez has built a great reputation over the last 25 years as a boutique money manager: The firm is relatively small, with $8 billion in total assets, but Rodriguez has earned high marks as a manager of both stocks and bonds -- an industry rarity.

His FPA Capital stock fund gained 5.1% a year, on average, over the last decade, compared with a 3.4% average annual loss for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in that period.

Rodriguez’s FPA New Income bond fund was up 5.6% a year over the last decade, ranking it near the top of all fixed-income funds. Unlike fund managers who bought into the subprime mortgage bond boom, Rodriguez was an outspoken critic of the subprime mania, warning repeatedly that investors had no clue about the risks they were taking in the securities.

As a classic "value" investor, Rodriguez has a Warren Buffett-style aversion to losing money. But preserving capital has been an impossible task for nearly all stock fund managers in this bear market. FPA Capital slumped nearly 35% last year, which was less than the S&P 500 but still a bruising decline. The fund is down almost 14% this year, still much better than the market overall.

Rodriguez said his decision to step away wasn’t a market-related issue, but stemmed from his desire to take "my first time off since I was 8 and after 39 years of continuous work in the industry and 35 in money management."

An avid amateur race-car driver, Rodriguez said he hoped to use his year off to "travel, read, race and possibly think about how I might become a positive contributor to the serious challenges facing our country. I’m not sure of the last and want to give it some thought."

Even once he returns in 2011, Rodriguez plans to leave his funds in the hands of his partners.

Beginning next year, the FPA Capital fund will be managed by Dennis Bryan and Rikard Ekstrand, who have worked with Rodriguez for the last 16 years and 10 years, respectively.

At FPA New Income, current co-manager Thomas Atteberry will take the reins.

-- Tom Petruno

Photo: Robert Rodriguez. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

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