Acadian Asset Management Inc (AAMI) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the BrightSphere Investment Group earnings conference call and webcast for the second quarter 2024. During the call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this call is being recorded today, Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time.

歡迎參加 BrightSphere Investment Group 2024 年第二季財報電話會議及網路直播。在通話期間，所有參與者將處於僅聽模式。演講結束後，我們將進行問答環節。（操作員說明）請注意，此通話是在東部時間今天（2024 年 8 月 1 日星期四）上午 11:00 錄製的。

I would now like to turn the call over to Melody Huang, Senior Vice President, Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Melody.

我現在想把電話轉給資深副總裁兼財務與投資者關係總監 Melody Huang。請繼續，梅洛迪。

Good morning and welcome to BrightSphere's conference call to discuss our results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024.

早安，歡迎參加 BrightSphere 的電話會議，討論我們截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日的第二季業績。

Before we get started, please note that we may make forward-looking statements about our business and financial performance. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.

在我們開始之前，請注意，我們可能會對我們的業務和財務表現做出前瞻性陳述。每項前瞻性陳述都存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與預測有重大差異。

Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in our SEC filings, including the Form 8-K filed today containing the earnings release, our 2023 Form 10-K, and our Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2024. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them as a result of new information or future events.

有關這些風險和不確定性的更多資訊出現在我們向SEC 提交的文件中，包括今天提交的包含收益發布的8-K 表格、2023 年10-K 表格以及2024 年第一季的10-Q表格。我們在本次電話會議中所做的任何前瞻性陳述均基於截至目前的假設，我們不承擔因新資訊或未來事件而更新這些陳述的義務。

We may also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information about any non-GAAP measures referenced, including a reconciliation of those measures to GAAP measures, can be found on our website along with the slide deck we will use as part of today's discussion.

我們也可能參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。有關所引用的任何非公認會計原則措施的信息，包括這些措施與公認會計原則措施的協調，可以在我們的網站上找到，以及我們將在今天的討論中使用的幻燈片。

Finally, nothing herein shall be deemed to be an offer of solicitation to buy any investment products. Suren Rana, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will lead the call.

最後，本文的任何內容均不應被視為購買任何投資產品的招攬要約。我們的總裁兼執行長 Suren Rana 將主持此次電話會議。

And now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Suren.

現在，我很高興將電話轉給蘇倫。

Thank you, Melody. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I'll cover some of the main highlights on slide 5 of the deck in my initial remarks, and then I can answer any questions.

謝謝你，梅洛迪。大家早安，感謝您今天加入我們。我將在最初的演講中介紹幻燈片 5 中的一些主要亮點，然後我可以回答任何問題。

So for the second quarter of 2024, we reported ENI per share of $0.45, compared to $0.28 in the second quarter of 2023, and $0.44 in the first quarter of 2024. The 61% increase in ENI per share compared to the year-ago quarter was primarily driven by increase in management fee revenue due to higher AUM from the market appreciation that we saw over the last 12 months. And secondly, it was also driven by our share repurchases over the last few quarters.

因此，對於 2024 年第二季度，我們報告的 ENI 為每股 0.45 美元，而 2023 年第二季度為 0.28 美元，2024 年第一季為 0.44 美元。與去年同期相比，每股 ENI 成長了 61%，這主要是由於過去 12 個月市場升值導致管理費收入增加，從而導致管理費收入增加。其次，這也是由我們過去幾季的股票回購所推動的。

Our average AUM increased approximately 13% compared to the second quarter of 2023. And management fee revenue increased 14%, in line with the AUM increase. However, since we were able to keep our operating expenses generally flat year-over-year, our ENI increased 43% because of the 14% increase in revenue.

與 2023 年第二季相比，我們的平均 AUM 成長了約 13%。管理費收入成長 14%，與資產管理規模成長一致。然而，由於我們能夠保持營運支出與去年同期基本持平，因此我們的 ENI 因收入成長 14% 而成長了 43%。

With this proportionate increase in ENI versus revenue increase, reflects our continued expense discipline and the embedded operating leverage in our business. We would expect to continue to benefit from this operating leverage as our revenue growth.

ENI 相對於收入成長的比例成長反映了我們持續的支出紀律和我們業務中嵌入的營運槓桿。隨著我們收入的成長，我們預計將繼續受益於這種營運槓桿。

Additionally, the increase in ENI per share versus year-ago was 61% compared to the 43% increase in ENI that I just went through. And that difference was driven by our share repurchases over the last year. Between December 2023 and June of 2024, we repurchased 4.7 million of our shares, or 11% of our total outstanding shares, for $100 million.

此外，與去年同期相比，每股 ENI 成長了 61%，而我剛剛經歷的 ENI 成長了 43%。這種差異是由我們去年的股票回購所造成的。2023 年 12 月至 2024 年 6 月期間，我們以 1 億美元回購了 470 萬股股票，佔已發行股票總數的 11%。

Acadian's investment performance remains great. As of June 30, 2024, 86%, 92%, and 93% of Acadian's strategies by revenue outperformed their respective benchmarks across three, five, and 10-year period.

Acadian 的投資表現依然出色。截至 2024 年 6 月 30 日，Acadian 86%、92% 和 93% 的收入策略在三年、五年和十年期間的表現優於各自的基準。

Turning to flows, net client cash flows were incidentally flat for the second quarter. In the second quarter, we had select large and lumpy inflows, but we also had select large and lumpy outflows. And these lumpy flows basically offset each other.

談到流量，第二季客戶淨現金流量意外持平。在第二季度，我們有選擇的大量且不穩定的流入，但我們也有選擇的大量且不穩定的流出。而這些塊狀的流量基本上是互相抵消的。

Our growth initiatives continue to progress. On our systematic credit initiatives, Acadian's US High Yield strategy, that was seeded in November, 2023, and the Global High Yield strategy, seeded more recently in April of 2024, both continue to build good track records. Additionally, we just seeded a third credit strategy, US Investment Grade strategy in July 2024, and that strategy is also building a track record now. On our Equity Alternatives initiative, our multi-strategy fund seeded in Q4 of '22, continues to build a strong track record of outperformance.

我們的成長計劃不斷取得進展。在我們的系統性信貸計畫中，Acadian 於 2023 年 11 月啟動的美國高收益策略以及最近於 2024 年 4 月啟動的全球高收益策略均繼續創造良好的記錄。此外，我們剛在 2024 年 7 月推出了第三種信貸策略，即美國投資等級策略，現在也正在建立良好的記錄。在我們的股票另類投資計畫中，我們於 22 年第四季啟動的多策略基金繼續創造了良好的業績記錄。

Turning to capital management, as I mentioned earlier, we repurchased 11% of our outstanding shares since December of 2023 for $100 million. Specifically in Q2 of '24, we repurchased 0.9 million shares or 2% of our total outstanding shares for $21 million.

談到資本管理，正如我之前提到的，自 2023 年 12 月以來，我們以 1 億美元回購了 11% 的流通股。具體來說，在 2024 年第二季度，我們以 2,100 萬美元回購了 90 萬股股票，佔已發行股票總數的 2%。

At the end of second quarter, we had a cash balance of $72 million and Acadian had an outstanding balance of $36 million on their revolving credit facility, which, similar to prior-year, is expected to be repaid fully from cash from operations by year end.

截至第二季末，我們的現金餘額為 7,200 萬美元，Acadian 的循環信貸額度未償餘額為 3,600 萬美元，與去年類似，預計將在每年從營運現金中全額償還。

I'd like to close my initial remarks by reiterating, as I usually do, that we remain focused on maximizing shareholder value, and will continue using our free cash flow to support organic growth and to buy back our shares.

在結束我的最初演講時，我想像往常一樣重申，我們仍然專注於股東價值最大化，並將繼續利用我們的自由現金流來支持有機成長併回購我們的股票。

I'll now turn the call back to the operator, and I'm happy to answer questions at this point. Thank you.

我現在將把電話轉回給接線員，我很樂意在此時回答問題。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Michael Cyprys, Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指令）Michael Cyprys，摩根士丹利。

Great, thank you. Good morning. Maybe just starting out with the lumpy flows that you alluded to on both the gross sales and the redemption side, I was hoping you could unpack both of those? Maybe talk about some of the types of strategies, customer channels, et cetera, where you're seeing some of the streams come in, and similarly on the redemption side, what you're seeing there? And if you could also just touch upon the pipeline as it looks today, how is that shaping up versus, say, last quarter? Thank you.

太好了，謝謝。早安.也許只是從您提到的銷售和贖回方面的不穩定流量開始，我希望您能夠解開這兩個方面？也許可以談談一些類型的策略、客戶管道等，您在其中看到了一些串流的進入，同樣在贖回方面，您在那裡看到了什麼？如果您也能談談目前的管道情況，那麼與上個季度相比，情況如何？謝謝。

Yeah, thanks, Michael. As we've touched on, ours is an institutional business, and so some of the numbers can be large, and they are episodic. So if there weren't necessarily any pattern to unpack, it was just sort of coincidence, if you will, that we had these large numbers on both sides.

是的，謝謝，邁克爾。正如我們所提到的，我們是一家機構業務，因此有些數字可能很大，而且是間歇性的。因此，如果不一定有任何模式需要解開，那麼如果你願意的話，這只是一種巧合，我們兩邊都有這些大量的數字。

On the inflows, there's really almost -- just really -- just three large clients that came in. There was a client that was more than a couple of billion, another one for a $1 billion, and another close to $1 billion, so these are really large numbers. And they were in assorted strategies, and not -- I wouldn't say there were any patterns to unpack in terms of any particular strategy, it was just that the strategies that these clients came in, and they came in large numbers. And it happened to be that these three large inflows happened to be in the same quarter.

在資金流入方面，實際上幾乎——真的——只有三個大客戶進來。有一個客戶超過幾十億，另一個客戶有10億美元，還有一個接近10億美元，所以這些都是很大的數字。他們採用了各種各樣的策略，而不是——我不會說有任何特定策略可以解開的模式，只是這些客戶採用的策略，而且數量很大。而恰好這三筆大筆資金流入恰好在同一季度。

On the outflow side, similar story, that we had really a large client close to a couple billion, another client more than $1 billion, another client sort of similar number, different strategies that just happened to be in the same quarter. So it was quite sort of a -- quite a bit of a coincidence that it just all happened in one quarter. But yeah, it all sort of cancelled each other out, so that's interesting.

在流出方面，類似的故事，我們確實有一個接近數十億美元的大客戶，另一個超過 10 億美元的客戶，另一個類似數量的客戶，不同的策略恰好在同一季度。所以這有點——相當巧合，這一切都發生在一個季度內。但是，是的，這一切都相互抵消了，所以這很有趣。

And we don't -- going forward, if you guess, the best sort of -- another part of your question. As we've guided in the past few quarters, we see more of a breakeven to flat cadence that we do have. And the pipeline remains healthy across stages. We have a good pipeline across different strategies and across different stages.

如果你猜想的話，我們不會繼續討論你問題的另一部分。正如我們在過去幾個季度所指導的那樣，我們看到了更多的盈虧平衡到持平的節奏。而且各階段的管道都保持健康。我們在不同策略和不同階段都有良好的管道。

And we still see some pressures from managed volatility strategies, among other. We see rebalancing going on by clients in these rising equity markets when they take some chips off the table. There are some clients that are moving to fixed income as a way to manage their -- profiling the liability-driven investing. So all of those puts and takes, we think about a breakeven kind of cadence for a few quarters here.

我們仍然看到來自管理波動策略等的一些壓力。我們看到，在這些不斷上漲的股市中，當客戶拿走一些籌碼時，他們就會進行再平衡。有些客戶正在轉向固定收益作為管理負債驅動型投資的一種方式。因此，所有這些看跌期權和看跌期權，我們都在考慮幾個季度的盈虧平衡節奏。

And just a follow-up question on capital allocation, just curious how you're thinking about and planning to approach that as we move in here in the second-half and into '25? Cash balance, $72 million, I think you mentioned. How should we think about that potentially going down, if at all, just given, I know, in the past I think you've mentioned you think about minimum cash levels that you need to run the business is meaningfully lower than that. So what can we expect in terms of buybacks here as we go forward? Thank you.

關於資本配置的後續問題，只是好奇當我們在下半年進入 25 世紀時，您是如何思考和計劃處理這個問題的？我想你提到過，現金餘額為 7200 萬美元。我們應該如何看待潛在的下降（如果有的話），我知道，在過去，我想你已經提到過，你認為經營業務所需的最低現金水平明顯低於這個水平。那麼，隨著我們的前進，我們對回購有何期望？謝謝。

Yeah, thanks, Mike. Yeah, we think about minimum cash levels around $20 million or thereabouts, so you could say that maybe they're -- close to $50 million is for other uses. And as we've said really the two main uses remain the buybacks and seeding opportunities to accelerate our organic growth. So we remain mindful and opportunistic on both of those fronts.

是的，謝謝，麥克。是的，我們考慮的最低現金水準約為 2000 萬美元左右，所以你可以說，也許接近 5000 萬美元用於其他用途。正如我們所說，兩個主要用途仍然是回購和播種機會，以加速我們的有機成長。因此，我們在這兩方面都保持謹慎和機會主義。

We seeded just in this quarter, as we mentioned in the release, we seeded our third credit strategy which was the US Investment Grade strategy. So we have a sizable seed pool now, so there might be some recycling that happens within the pool.

正如我們在新聞稿中提到的，我們剛剛在本季度播種了我們的第三個信貸策略，即美國投資級策略。所以我們現在有一個相當大的種子池，所以池內可能會發生一些回收。

But still, if we get opportunities to seed more and to yield opportunities for organic growth, we might do that. And we'll also look at the buybacks as we go. So there isn't any particular formula we have. We'll remain opportunistic on both. We don't feel like we necessarily have to buy back our shares every quarter, particularly as I touched on with that $50 million kind of a number. It's not that much to put to work. So we'll just -- we'll remain opportunistic here.

但是，如果我們有機會播種更多種子並產生有機增長的機會，我們可能會這樣做。我們也將同時關注回購情況。所以我們沒有任何特定的公式。我們將在這兩方面保持機會主義。我們覺得我們不必每個季度都回購我們的股票，特別是當我談到 5000 萬美元這樣的數字時。投入工作並沒有那麼多。所以我們將在這裡保持機會主義。

Kenneth Lee, RBC Capital Markets.

肯尼斯李，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場。

Just one on the fee rate. There was, I think, a slight pickup in the fee rate in the quarter. Wondering whether it was just due to mix shift and, if so, were there any particularly higher fee rate products that contributed to the fee rate there? Thanks.

就費率而言，只有一項。我認為本季的費用率略有上升。想知道這是否只是由於混合轉移所致，如果是，是否有任何特別較高的費率產品導致了那裡的費率？謝謝。

Hi, Ken. Yeah, I think the answer was in the first part of your guess. Largely, the mix does impact the fee rate a little bit now because some of our strategies are higher fee and some are lower fee. So clearly, one of the factors was that the emerging markets' indices in the second quarter did relatively well. They had been lagging for a while. But in Q2, they did better than some of the other indices, EC and others, and they have higher fee. So that was part of -- that was probably most of it, and some other puts and takes.

嗨，肯。是的，我想答案就在你猜測的第一部分。很大程度上，這種組合現在確實對費率產生了一些影響，因為我們的一些策略費用較高，有些策略費用較低。顯然，因素之一是第二季新興市場指數表現相對較好。他們已經落後了一段時間。但在第二季度，它們的表現比其他一些指數、EC 等要好，而且費用更高。這可能是其中的一部分，還有其他一些投入和支出。

And just one follow-up, if I may, just in terms of the share repurchases capital allocation there. Would you expect to see a renewal of your -- the Board to renew there the share repurchase authorization sometime in the near-term? Thanks.

如果可以的話，我只想談談股票回購資本配置的後續行動。您是否希望看到董事會在近期某個時候更新股票回購授權？謝謝。

Yeah, thanks, Ken. Yes, as I said, the uses for the capital remain on seeding organic growth opportunities and buybacks. It's, as I said, the excess capital right now is not that much that it's burning a hole in our pocket. So there isn't necessarily super urgency on that. But yeah, in due course, we would expect to get new authorization for buybacks.

是的，謝謝，肯。是的，正如我所說，資金的用途仍然是播種有機成長機會和回購。正如我所說，目前的過剩資本並沒有讓我們的口袋燒個洞。因此，這並不一定非常緊迫。但是，是的，在適當的時候，我們預計會獲得新的回購授權。

John Dunn, Evercore ISI.

約翰‧鄧恩，Evercore ISI。

A question on the outlook for further expense control from here and your ability to keep expenses in check?

有關進一步費用控制的前景以及您控制費用的能力的問題嗎？

Hi, John. Yes, as we've talked about over the last couple of years, we had a lot of expense increases in the last couple of years as we were really investing in our infrastructure. We invested in our trading infrastructure. We added to our investor reporting capabilities. So we were really building out a lot in the sense of making our franchise more scalable. So we have done a fair bit of that over the last couple of years. And at the same time, we also faced pressures from inflation on the cost of data and -- because inflation was everywhere, so that's abated.

嗨，約翰。是的，正如我們在過去幾年中談到的那樣，過去幾年我們的費用增加了很多，因為我們確實在基礎設施上進行了投資。我們投資了我們的貿易基礎設施。我們增加了投資者報告功能。因此，我們確實進行了很多建設，使我們的特許經營權更具可擴展性。因此，過去幾年我們在這方面做了相當多的工作。同時，我們也面臨數據成本的通膨壓力——因為通膨無所不在，所以通膨壓力有所減弱。

So it appears that now, having built up a lot over the last couple of years. And having faced inflation, we are now in a good position to keep the expenses more or less at these levels, barring, of course, the general increases that you would see, sort of cost of living-type of increases, 2%, 3% kind of levels.

現在看來，在過去幾年已經累積了很多。面對通貨膨脹，我們現在處於有利地位，可以將支出或多或少地保持在這些水平，當然，除非你會看到普遍的增長，生活成本類型的增長，2%, 3 % 種級別。

So that's what I touched on, that we do have the operating leverage as our revenue grows either from market growth or organic growth, we should be able to keep the operating expenses relatively at these levels. So we should have disproportionate benefit as revenue increases.

這就是我所說的，隨著我們的收入因市場成長或有機成長而成長，我們確實擁有營運槓桿，我們應該能夠將營運費用相對保持在這些水平。因此，隨著收入的增加，我們應該會獲得不成比例的收益。

Got it. And maybe could you give us a little color on the conversations you're having with clients about potentially a pickup in demand for emerging market strategies?

知道了。或許可以為我們介紹一下您與客戶就新興市場策略需求可能增加的對話嗎？

Yeah, there are sort of a variety of opinions and depends on, also, the type of client. As you can imagine, many clients view that as sort of a -- because there's always rotation in terms of higher performance markets, and emerging markets have been lagging for such a long time. So many clients view that as an opportunity and whose time may be coming soon, if you will, just the levels of valuations overall in emerging markets, in China in particular. So we're seeing that.

是的，有各種各樣的意見，而且還取決於客戶的類型。正如你可以想像的那樣，許多客戶認為這是一種——因為高性能市場總是在輪換，而新興市場已經落後了很長時間。許多客戶認為這是一個機會，如果你願意的話，這個機會可能很快就會到來，只是新興市場（尤其是中國）的整體估值水平。所以我們看到了這一點。

On the other hand, there may be some clients who are little bit worried about the geopolitical situation, and worry about the risks particularly and then there are some political factors from state clients. So it's a mixed bag, but I think, everything said and done, so far we haven't seen much of a pattern either in terms of a lot of inflows or a lot of outflows.

另一方面，可能有一些客戶對地緣政治局勢有點擔心，特別擔心風險，然後還有一些來自國家客戶的政治因素。所以這是一個好壞參半的情況，但我認為，無論是說還是做，到目前為止，我們還沒有看到太多的模式，無論是大量資金流入還是大量資金流出。

We are seeing inflows in that strategy, that -- it's a strategy that we really have excellent very strong top performance. So if somebody does want to allocate, we would have really one of the best chances. And so we're seeing inflows in that strategy; we're also seeing some outflows.

我們看到該策略有資金流入，該策略我們確實擁有非常出色、非常強勁的頂級表現。因此，如果有人確實想要分配，我們確實擁有最好的機會之一。因此，我們看到該策略有資金流入；我們也看到一些資金外流。

Thank you for your question. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude our question-and-answer session for today. I would like to turn the conference call back over to Suren Rana.

謝謝你的提問。女士們先生們，今天的問答環節到此結束。我想將電話會議轉回給蘇倫·拉納 (Suren Rana)。

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Have a good one.

謝謝運營商，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。祝你過得愉快。