PIMCO Manager Gross
William Gross, Manager at Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO), participates in the Obama administration's Conference on the Future of Housing Finance in the Cash Room of the Treasury Building in Washington in this August 17, 2010 file photo. REUTERS

The world's largest bond fund had $1.4 billion in outflows in December, according to fund analytics firm Morningstar.

The Bill Gross-led PIMCO Total Return Fund suffered total redemptions of $5 billion in 2011, a year when the fund underperformed benchmarks after betting heavily against U.S. Treasuries, which rallied on the year.

Gross' fund has had investor redemptions on and off for more than year. Morningstar estimates that total redemptions from the $241 billion Total Return Fund have exceeded $13 billion since November 2010.

Still, this past December was kinder to Gross than the previous year. In December 2010, Morningstar estimates investors withdrew $6.7 billion from the PIMCO flagship fund.

A spokesman for the Newport Beach, Calif.-based fund was not immediately available to comment

Last year was a humbling one for Gross. His bad call on Treasuries led him to issue an unusual "mea culpa" letter to his investors.

U.S. Treasuries were the best-performing bond class last year by a wide margin.

(Additional reporting by David Gaffen)

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