DWS Investments [see profile] is on track to have net positive flows into its mutual fund family this year, said CEO and U.S. regional head Mike Woods at a media briefing today. This would be the first time in 13 years that the fund family will be net positive.

"We don't see anything signficant on the outflow side coming up," Woods later told The MFWire.com in an interview. "Our performance has been fairly consistent across our largest asset categories. I expect us to be net positive this year."

DWS's top sellers, he said, are the Floating Rate Fund, Enhanced Commodity Fund and its municipal suite.

The newly promoted Woods -- last month, he took on the additional role of U.S. regional head in addition to running distribution -- led a group of DWS officials who spoke at a media briefing held at DWS' headquarters in midtown Manhattan. The media event centered around fixed income and featured speakers including: Philip Condon, head of municipal bond portfolio management; Ashton Goodfield, head of municipal bond trading and senior portfolio manager; Bill Chepolis, head of retail MBS; Gary Russell, head of high yield bond porfolio management; and John Ryan, senior portfolio for retail MBS.

According to Woods, DWS started to see inflows into its municipal suite in February, then had net negative flows in March, before seeing net positive flows again in April and May.

"We increased market share dramatically," he said. "The municipal side for us is very strong."

As for the direction he is taking DWS, Woods spoke of a two-phase plan. "Phase one was stabilization last year," he said, adding that the stabilization efforts involved personnel, as well as enhancement of products and the bottom line.

DWS has seen several changes since Woods arrived in August 2009. Shortly after his arrival, he restructured the sales organization.

"Going into this year, there's not a lot of change we need to do," he said in the interview. "Now that the business is stablilized, now it's about executing to grow.  

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