富蘭克林資源 (BEN) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Franklin Resources Earnings Conference Call for the quarter ended December 31, 2022. Hello. My name is JP and I will be your call operator today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Selene Oh, Head of Investor Relations for Franklin Resources. You may begin.

歡迎來到富蘭克林資源公司截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止季度的收益電話會議。大家好。我叫 JP，今天我將是您的接線員。提醒一下，這次會議正在錄製中。 （操作員說明）我現在想將會議轉交給您的主持人 Selene Oh，富蘭克林資源公司投資者關係主管。你可以開始了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss our quarterly results. Statements made on this conference call regarding Franklin Resources, Inc., which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

早上好，感謝您今天加入我們討論我們的季度業績。本次電話會議上關於富蘭克林資源公司的非歷史事實的陳述屬於 1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述涉及許多已知和未知的風險，可能導致實際結果與此類前瞻性陳述明示或暗示的任何未來結果存在重大差異的不確定性和其他重要因素。

These and other risks, uncertainties and other important factors are described in more detail in Franklin's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the Risk Factors and the MD&A sections of Franklin's most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings.

這些和其他風險、不確定性和其他重要因素在富蘭克林最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中有更詳細的描述，包括富蘭克林最近提交的 10-K 和 10-Q 表格的風險因素和 MD&A 部分。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jenny Johnson, our President and Chief Executive Officer.

現在我想把電話轉給我們的總裁兼首席執行官珍妮約翰遜。

Thank you, Selene. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Franklin Templeton's results for the first fiscal quarter of 2023. I'm joined by Matt Nicholls, our CFO and COO; and Adam Spector, our Head of Global Distribution. We're pleased to answer any questions you have. But first, I'd like to call out a few highlights from the quarter.

謝謝你，賽琳娜。大家好，感謝你們今天加入我們討論富蘭克林鄧普頓 2023 年第一財季的業績。我的首席財務官兼首席運營官 Matt Nicholls 也加入了我的行列；和我們的全球分銷主管 Adam Spector。我們很高興回答您的任何問題。但首先，我想介紹一下本季度的一些亮點。

Despite the challenging market backdrop in our first fiscal quarter, we saw a number of positive developments to further diversify our business. This quarter, we continue to see net inflows into key growth areas such as into our 3 largest alternative managers, Benefit Street Partners, Clarion Partners and Lexington Partners as well as multi-asset strategies, ETF and our custom indexing solution platform, Canvas.

儘管我們第一個財政季度的市場背景充滿挑戰，但我們看到了一些積極的發展，進一步使我們的業務多元化。本季度，我們繼續看到資金淨流入關鍵增長領域，例如我們的 3 大另類投資管理公司、Benefit Street Partners、Clarion Partners 和 Lexington Partners，以及多資產策略、ETF 和我們的定制索引解決方案平台 Canvas。

We were also pleased to see additional positive indicators impacting our business, including an increase in our institutional won but unfunded pipeline and improving overall investment performance across our strategies. I'll cover all of this in more detail momentarily. While the industry landscape remained under pressure, we have continued to benefit from our diversified mix of asset classes, geographies, client types and investment vehicles.

我們也很高興看到影響我們業務的其他積極指標，包括增加我們機構贏得但沒有資金的渠道，以及提高我們戰略的整體投資績效。我稍後會更詳細地介紹所有這些內容。儘管行業格局仍然面臨壓力，但我們繼續受益於我們多元化的資產類別、地域、客戶類型和投資工具組合。

Turning now to flows. We generated total net inflows of $6.6 billion this quarter, inclusive of $17.5 billion of net inflows from cash management. Long-term net outflows were $10.9 billion and included reinvested distributions of $12.1 billion. This quarter, we saw net inflows into key growth areas of client demand. Starting with alternatives, as mentioned earlier, our 3 largest alternative managers, Benefit Street Partners, Clarion Partners and Lexington Partners each had net inflows for the quarter totaling $2.4 billion.

現在轉向流動。本季度我們產生了 66 億美元的淨流入總額，其中包括 175 億美元的現金管理淨流入。長期淨流出 109 億美元，其中包括 121 億美元的再投資分配。本季度，我們看到淨流入客戶需求的關鍵增長領域。從另類投資開始，如前所述，我們 3 家最大的另類投資管理公司，Benefit Street Partners、Clarion Partners 和 Lexington Partners 本季度的淨流入總額為 24 億美元。

Multi-asset net flows increased almost fivefold from the prior quarter to $2.4 billion, driving the interest in the multi-asset category was our flagship Franklin Income Fund with its flexible approach to changing market conditions. The $70 billion U.S. fund is now rated 4 stars overall by Morningstar and continues to have strong performance.

多資產淨流量比上一季度增加了近五倍，達到 24 億美元，推動了對多資產類別的興趣是我們的旗艦富蘭克林收入基金以其靈活的方式應對不斷變化的市場條件。這支 700 億美元的美國基金目前被晨星公司評為 4 星，並繼續保持強勁表現。

Our broader, multi-asset solutions strategies were also in net inflows. Fixed income net outflows of $13.3 billion were primarily due to certain U.S. taxable and global opportunistic strategies. Client interest, however, continued and we benefited from having a broad range of fixed income strategies with non-correlated investment philosophies, including net inflows into certain Core Bond, U.S. Income and tax-efficient strategies.

我們更廣泛的多資產解決方案策略也出現淨流入。 133 億美元的固定收益淨流出主要是由於某些美國應稅和全球機會主義策略。然而，客戶的興趣仍在繼續，我們受益於廣泛的固定收益策略和非相關投資理念，包括淨流入某些核心債券、美國收入和節稅策略。

We are pleased to note that Western's performance reverted back to its leadership position during the quarter. At quarter end, 89% of the firm's strategies outperformed the benchmark on an AUM basis for the quarter and Western's 2 primary core bond funds were ranked in the top decile on a quarter-to-date basis versus their respective peer groups.

我們很高興地註意到，Western 的業績在本季度恢復了領先地位。季度末，該公司 89% 的策略在本季度的 AUM 基礎上優於基準，而 Western 的 2 個主要核心債券基金在季度迄今的基礎上與各自的同行組相比排名最高。

Equity net inflows were $300 million and included $9 billion in reinvested distributions. This quarter, the risk-off environment continued to impact investor sentiment on certain growth strategies, which were offset by positive net flows into strategies such as large cap and all-cap value, large-cap core and emerging markets. Cash management generated the highest net inflows in over a decade, with $17.5 billion of inflows were driven by institutional demand for low-risk assets at a higher risk-free rate and diversified across client type.

股票淨流入為 3 億美元，其中包括 90 億美元的再投資分配。本季度，避險環境繼續影響投資者對某些增長策略的情緒，但被流入大盤股和全盤價值、大盤股核心和新興市場等策略的正淨流入所抵消。現金管理產生了十多年來最高的淨流入，其中 175 億美元的流入是由機構對低風險資產的無風險利率更高的需求和跨客戶類型的多元化所推動的。

As a leading SMA provider, particularly in model delivery, we ended the quarter at $105 billion in SMA AUM. Canvas has achieved net inflows every quarter since the platform launched in September 2019 and AUM increased over 25% in the quarter. ETFs had $1 billion in net inflows and reached $13.3 billion in AUM. We launched the ClearBridge Sustainable Infrastructure ETF during the quarter and added specialized sales resources to strengthen our ETF efforts.

作為領先的 SMA 供應商，尤其是在模型交付方面，我們在本季度結束時的 SMA AUM 為 1050 億美元。自 2019 年 9 月平台上線以來，Canvas 每季度均實現淨流入，本季度 AUM 增長超過 25%。 ETF 淨流入 10 億美元，資產管理規模達到 133 億美元。我們在本季度推出了 ClearBridge 可持續基礎設施 ETF，並增加了專門的銷售資源以加強我們的 ETF 工作。

We were also pleased to see our institutional pipeline of won but not funded mandates increased by $8.8 billion to $23.8 billion and included a $7.5 billion fixed income institutional mandate. Turning now to performance. Our investment teams have remained true to their distinct disciplines and time-tested approaches, relentlessly searching for those long-term investment opportunities that market dislocations often present.

我們也很高興地看到我們的機構渠道中韓元但未獲得資金的授權增加了 88 億美元，達到 238 億美元，其中包括 75 億美元的固定收益機構授權。現在轉向性能。我們的投資團隊一直忠於他們獨特的紀律和經過時間考驗的方法，不懈地尋找市場錯位經常出現的長期投資機會。

We saw an uptick in relative investment performance in nearly all standard time periods. This quarter, the majority of our strategy composite AUM and mutual funds AUM outperformed their benchmarks and peers, respectively, on a 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year basis. In addition, 51% of mutual fund AUM was in funds rated 4 or 5 stars by Morningstar. As I've said time and again, the next decade is not likely to look like the last and we continue to invest strategically in areas that are shaping the future of our industry.

我們看到幾乎所有標準時間段的相對投資表現都有所上升。本季度，我們的大多數戰略複合資產管理規模和共同基金資產管理規模在 1 年、3 年、5 年和 10 年的基礎上分別優於其基準和同行。此外，51% 的共同基金資產管理規模屬於晨星評級為 4 星或 5 星的基金。正如我一再說過的那樣，下一個十年不太可能像最後一個十年，我們將繼續在塑造我們行業未來的領域進行戰略投資。

Alternative investing is one of those areas. During the quarter, we closed the acquisition of Alcentra, a leading European alternative credit manager. This acquisition increased our alternative credit AUM to $78.5 billion. And as for secondary private equity, as of November 30, Lexington had raised $12.8 billion for its latest fund and continues its fundraising efforts. Alternative assets now account for $257 billion, or 19% of our total AUM and a higher percentage of adjusted revenue.

另類投資就是其中之一。本季度，我們完成了對歐洲領先的另類信貸管理公司 Alcentra 的收購。此次收購使我們的另類信貸資產管理規模增加到 785 億美元。而在二級私募股權方面，截至11月30日，列剋星敦最新一期基金已募集資金128億美元，並繼續募資。另類資產現在佔 2570 億美元，占我們總資產管理規模的 19%，佔調整後收入的比例更高。

We are now one of the largest managers of alternative assets and are realizing our aspiration to be one of the few diversified firms globally that offers the major categories of alternative assets. One of the lessons that 2022 taught many investors is that diversifying beyond traditional asset classes to solve for their long-term goals is probably a good idea. We think this will drive increased adoption of alternative assets in the wealth channel where we've made progress.

我們現在是最大的另類資產管理公司之一，並且正在實現我們成為全球為數不多的提供主要類別另類資產的多元化公司之一的願望。 2022 年給許多投資者的教訓之一是，在傳統資產類別之外進行多元化投資以解決他們的長期目標可能是一個好主意。我們認為這將推動在我們取得進展的財富渠道中更多地採用另類資產。

We continue to focus on product development and suitability, sales and marketing and client education and the distribution of alternatives and wealth management. For example, Benefit Street Partners announced the launch of Franklin BSP Private Credit Fund, investing in U.S. middle market private credit seeking to generate strong current income and superior risk-adjusted returns across market cycles.

我們繼續專注於產品開發和適用性、銷售和營銷、客戶教育以及替代品和財富管理的分配。例如，Benefit Street Partners 宣布推出富蘭克林 BSP 私人信貸基金，投資於美國中間市場私人信貸，尋求在整個市場週期中產生強勁的當前收入和卓越的風險調整後回報。

In November, the Franklin Templeton Academy announced the launch of its alternative education program as part of our ongoing effort to build knowledge and proficiency around the alternative investment landscape. The program offers a comprehensive curriculum on various types of alternatives, including courses on private equity, real estate, private credit, infrastructure and hedge strategies.

11 月，富蘭克林鄧普頓學院宣布啟動其另類教育計劃，作為我們圍繞另類投資領域構建知識和能力的持續努力的一部分。該計劃提供有關各種替代方案的綜合課程，包括私募股權、房地產、私人信貸、基礎設施和對沖策略課程。

Touching briefly on our financial results, which reflect 2 months of Alcentra given its closing on November 1. Ending AUM was $1.39 trillion, an increase of 7% from the prior quarter, primarily due to market appreciation and the addition of Alcentra. Average AUM decreased by 1.5% to $1.35 trillion. Adjusted revenues were $1.44 billion, a decrease of 6% from the prior quarter. The decrease was driven by lower adjusted performance fees and lower average AUM. However, the effective fee rate, which excludes performance fees, was 39 basis points, a slight uptick compared to 38.8 basis points last quarter.

簡要介紹一下我們的財務業績，這反映了 Alcentra 在 11 月 1 日結束後的 2 個月。期末 AUM 為 1.39 萬億美元，比上一季度增長 7%，這主要是由於市場升值和 Alcentra 的加入。平均資產管理規模下降 1.5% 至 1.35 萬億美元。調整後的收入為 14.4 億美元，比上一季度下降 6%。減少的原因是調整後的業績費用較低和平均資產管理規模較低。然而，不包括績效費用的有效費用率為 39 個基點，與上一季度的 38.8 個基點相比略有上升。

Adjusted operating income was $395.1 million, a decline of 20% from the prior quarter or 12% excluding annual deferred compensation acceleration for retirement eligible employees of $37 million. We continue to benefit from a strong balance sheet with total cash and investments of $6.6 billion at quarter end after reflecting the purchase of Alcentra and payment of fiscal year-end cash bonuses.

調整後的營業收入為 3.951 億美元，比上一季度下降 20% 或 12%，不包括符合退休條件的員工的年度遞延補償加速 3700 萬美元。在反映了對 Alcentra 的購買和財年末現金獎金的支付後，我們繼續受益於強勁的資產負債表，截至季度末現金和投資總額為 66 億美元。

Let me wrap up by saying that over our 75-year history, our North Star has always been the clients we serve. We are committed to continuing to seek opportunities to expand our capabilities to provide investors with financial investments that are important in reaching their goals. Finally, I would like to thank our global employees without whom our progress would not be possible. Their work is greatly appreciated, and I thank them for their many contributions to our organization. Now let's turn it over to your questions. Operator?

最後讓我說，在我們 75 年的歷史中，我們的北極星一直是我們服務的客戶。我們致力於繼續尋找機會擴大我們的能力，為投資者提供對實現其目標至關重要的金融投資。最後，我要感謝我們的全球員工，沒有他們我們就不可能取得進步。非常感謝他們的工作，我感謝他們為我們的組織做出的許多貢獻。現在讓我們把它交給你的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Glenn Schorr from Evercore.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Evercore 的 Glenn Schorr。

I guess a question on the fixed income side. We saw outflows in the fourth quarter, but the outlook for '23 should be a lot better for the industry. Just curious on that thought overall and how you think Western in particular is positioned in the year ahead?

我想是固定收益方面的問題。我們在第四季度看到資金外流，但 23 年的前景對該行業來說應該會好得多。只是對整體的想法感到好奇，以及您認為西方尤其是未來一年的定位如何？

Great. Thanks, Glenn. I mean, first of all, as we mentioned in the quarter, the core bond portfolio Western had net flows, we continue to see really strong sales -- on the gross sales for Western products. 89% of the strategies outperformed. Actually, Core Plus and Core ranks second and eighth [percentage] in there against their peers for the quarter. So really good -- I think, good recent performance. The pipeline -- over $10 billion of the pipeline is Western. As we mentioned, the $7.5 billion mandate is part of Western's. But beyond that, they're just getting great support.

偉大的。謝謝，格倫。我的意思是，首先，正如我們在本季度提到的那樣，西方的核心債券組合有淨流量，我們繼續看到非常強勁的銷售——西方產品的總銷售額。 89% 的策略跑贏大盤。實際上，Core Plus 和 Core 在本季度的同行中排名第二和第八 [百分比]。真的很好——我認為，最近的表現很好。管道 - 超過 100 億美元的管道是西方的。正如我們所提到的，75 億美元的授權是西方公司的一部分。但除此之外，他們還得到了大力支持。

But I -- here's what makes us really excited. Many of the institutional players have been a little bit slow. That's why I think we've seen real strength in our institutional money funds and a lot of flows going there, both in the last quarter and continuing through January. As you see institutions waiting to figure out kind of when the rates peak. But as they ventured back into the space, we have 3 phenomenal brands between Franklin, Brandywine and Western. And to just punctuate that the Brandywine Global versus Western Core Plus and Franklin Core Plus from their excess returns, only correlate [0.12 and 0.17]. So regardless of what type of view people have on fixed income, we've got really, really great brands in that area. Adam, do you want to add anything to that?

但是我——這就是讓我們真正興奮的原因。許多機構參與者的動作有點慢。這就是為什麼我認為我們已經看到我們的機構貨幣基金真正強大，並且有大量資金流向那裡，無論是在上個季度還是一直持續到 1 月份。正如您所看到的，機構正在等待弄清楚利率何時達到峰值。但隨著他們再次冒險進入該領域，我們在 Franklin、Brandywine 和 Western 之間擁有 3 個非凡的品牌。為了強調 Brandywine Global 與 Western Core Plus 和 Franklin Core Plus 的超額回報，僅相關 [0.12 和 0.17]。因此，無論人們對固定收益有什麼樣的看法，我們在該領域都有非常非常好的品牌。亞當，你想補充什麼嗎？

Yes. I would just add, Jenny, that the performance turnaround is really across the board. If you look at where our Global Bond Fund is, that's now top decile as well. So really good performance everywhere. On top of that, I would say that one of the things that differentiates us is the breadth of fixed income we offer.

是的。珍妮，我只想補充一點，業績的好轉確實是全面的。如果你看看我們的全球債券基金的位置，它現在也是最高的十分之一。所以到處都有很好的表現。最重要的是，我要說的是我們與眾不同的一件事是我們提供的固定收益的範圍。

We see a number of DB plans now more fully funded. We're able to offer them liability based fixed income. You can look at what we do in high yield and global bonds and munis. It's really a breadth of capability in fixed income, and we're seeing demand grow in all of those sectors.

我們看到許多 DB 計劃現在資金更充足。我們能夠為他們提供基於負債的固定收益。您可以看看我們在高收益債券和全球債券以及市政債券方面所做的工作。這確實是固定收益領域的廣泛能力，我們看到所有這些領域的需求都在增長。

Jenny, maybe I'll keep it at the high level because look, the margin compression is impossible to manage when the market drops as much as it did. Again, as you think rolling forward, we got the benefit of the market lift in the fourth quarter and early this year. Just curious on how you're thinking about what you do actively and proactively in '23 and where you think we can get to a "normal" backdrop if there's such a thing?

珍妮，也許我會把它保持在高水平，因為看，當市場跌幅如此之大時，利潤率壓縮是無法控制的。再一次，正如你所想的那樣，我們在第四季度和今年年初獲得了市場提振的好處。只是想知道你是如何思考你在 23 年積極主動地做的事情，以及你認為如果有這樣的事情，我們可以在哪里達到“正常”的背景？

Sorry. So are you asking in the sense of what M&A, in the sense of expense...

對不起。所以你問的是什麼意義上的併購，在費用的意義上......

I apologize. I'm really talking about the adjusted margin and expenses, just expenses up, revenues down, it's hard to do in the short term when the markets drop. But how you're approaching that margin? Or is that an outcome? In other words, do you manage towards it? Or is it an outcome of the environment?

我道歉。我真的是在談論調整後的利潤率和費用，只是費用增加，收入下降，在市場下跌時短期內很難做到。但是你是如何接近這個利潤率的？或者這是一個結果？換句話說，你做到了嗎？還是環境的結果？

So I don't think we manage [for] margin and I'll let Matt jump in on this. But you're absolutely right. I mean this is one of those businesses where you get a disproportionate benefit to the markets going on the upside because your margins can expand and then you're slammed on the downside because you can't possibly adjust your expenses quickly enough.

所以我不認為我們管理 [for] 保證金，我會讓 Matt 參與進來。但你是絕對正確的。我的意思是，這是這樣一種業務，在這種情況下，你會從市場上行中獲得不成比例的好處，因為你的利潤率可以擴大，然後你會因為無法足夠快地調整你的開支而受到打擊。

I think the good news is the work we've been doing. Part of it is just when you do the amount of M&A we do, you're naturally kind of reinventing how you work and figuring out where you can take out costs. And so we've been able to absorb a lot of the expenses that we've had in the M&A.

我認為好消息是我們一直在做的工作。部分原因是當你進行我們所做的併購數量時，你自然會重新發明你的工作方式並弄清楚你可以在哪裡削減成本。因此，我們已經能夠吸收我們在併購中產生的大量費用。

But Matt, you want to talk about kind of expectations on margins going forward based on where the market is.

但是馬特，你想談談根據市場情況對未來利潤率的預期。

Yes. I mean, I'll just say a few things on that, and I'm happy to provide the guide. Maybe that would be another question that will come up. But generally speaking, 35% to 40% of our adjusted expense base, as we've communicated in the past, is variable in nature with the market and performance. And we're always very much looking at the other 60% to 65% of our expense base to see if we can be more efficient and effective in particular in a difficult environment.

是的。我的意思是，我只想說幾句，我很樂意提供指南。也許那將是另一個會出現的問題。但總的來說，正如我們過去所傳達的那樣，我們調整後的費用基數的 35% 至 40% 在本質上隨市場和業績而變化。而且我們總是非常關注我們費用基礎的其他 60% 到 65%，看看我們是否可以更有效率和更有效，特別是在困難的環境中。

And frankly, some of the transactions we've done on the M&A side have prompted further reviews of those sorts of activities. So we're very active around that. In the down market, as you alluded to, Glenn, that we've experienced, it takes some time for carefully consider adjustments to keep up with revenue declines while making sure that we remain competitive in terms of compensation and investing in the business, and we've done both of those things, competitive in comp, and we continue to invest in the business in a significant way, in our opinion.

坦率地說，我們在併購方面進行的一些交易促使對此類活動進行了進一步審查。所以我們對此非常積極。在低迷的市場中，正如你提到的，格倫，我們經歷過，需要一些時間來仔細考慮調整以跟上收入下降的步伐，同時確保我們在薪酬和業務投資方面保持競爭力，以及我們已經完成了這兩件事，在競爭中具有競爭力，並且我們認為我們將繼續以重要的方式投資於業務。

But we've also taken or in the process of taking significant action across the business to make sure that we're being disciplined and continue to be disciplined with our expenses. So we paused nonessential hiring. We've just completed a voluntary buyout process, excluding our investment staff. We've got an execution plan in place to introduce additional operational efficiencies across the firm.

但我們也已經或正在採取整個業務的重大行動，以確保我們受到紀律處分，並繼續受到紀律處分。所以我們暫停了不必要的招聘。我們剛剛完成了自願收購程序，不包括我們的投資人員。我們已經制定了一項執行計劃，以提高整個公司的運營效率。

As you know, in the last 3 years, in addition to savings from our merger transaction, we've already outsourced operational activity that's created efficiencies for our funds, first and foremost, but have also lowered future CapEx expenditures for our firm, while frankly, also simplifying our company operations. And what this has enabled us to do is to continue to invest heavily in the business where we need to in the areas of growth that we've talked a lot about. But at the same time, it's also enabled us to keep our expenses very much in check, including the margin.

如您所知，在過去 3 年中，除了我們的合併交易節省的資金外，我們已經外包了運營活動，這首先為我們的基金創造了效率，但也降低了我們公司未來的資本支出支出，而坦率地說，也簡化了我們公司的運營。這使我們能夠做的是繼續大量投資我們需要在我們已經談論過很多的增長領域的業務。但與此同時，它也使我們能夠很好地控制開支，包括利潤率。

Your next question comes from the line of Ken Worthington from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Ken Worthington。

So Jenny, you mentioned fixed income performance has really improved. Is one quarter of great performance enough given the more positive backdrop for fixed income and credit? And what is the risk that there's a lot of money movement in the industry in fixed income for 2023 and Franklin misses it due to weaker performance from last year.

所以珍妮，你提到固定收益表現確實有所改善。鑑於固定收益和信貸的更積極背景，四分之一的出色表現是否足夠？ 2023 年固定收益行業有大量資金流動的風險是什麼，而富蘭克林由於去年表現較弱而錯過了這一機會。

Well, again, I mean you have the Core Bond, which was the net flows of I think of $1.5 billion this quarter. And Core Plus is one of our top-selling selling funds. So even though it's still in the net outflows, it's dramatically improved in outflows. Templeton Global Bond, I mean, it's amazing when you look at that, as Adam mentioned, it is beating its benchmark and peers in all 4 time periods.

好吧，我的意思是你有核心債券，我認為本季度的淨流量為 15 億美元。 Core Plus 是我們最暢銷的基金之一。因此，儘管它仍處於淨流出狀態，但流出量卻有了顯著改善。 Templeton Global Bond，我的意思是，正如 Adam 提到的那樣，當你看到它時，它在所有 4 個時間段都超過了其基準和同行。

So it's a pretty massive turnaround. I think it's outperforming its benchmark by 1,200 basis points for the quarter, which you carry that back. So performance is always going to predict the future. If you look at that 87 of 134 fixed income composites. So this is across the firm in the 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year periods is only underperforming in 1 period. So we actually think we're incredibly well positioned.

所以這是一個相當大的轉變。我認為它在本季度的表現優於其基準 1,200 個基點，您可以將其退回。所以性能總是會預測未來。如果您查看 134 種固定收益組合中的 87 種。因此，整個公司在 1 年、3 年、5 年和 10 年期間僅在 1 個期間表現不佳。所以我們實際上認為我們的定位非常好。

And again, as I mentioned earlier, the diversification of the excess returns between Brandywine, Franklin and Western gives people a chance frankly hedge themselves within our own enterprise or if they have a view can express it with one of our managers. And as we've said that Western has been a little bit more viewing that I think that rates will probably decline, maybe towards the end of the year, which the Franklin side probably would say it's more like in 2024. So the key is that I think we have great opportunities wherever you want to be in the fixed income, and we think that people now that you can get actual returns in fixed income, you're going to see more allocations there.

而且，正如我之前提到的，Brandywine、Franklin 和 Western 之間超額回報的多樣化讓人們有機會坦率地在我們自己的企業內進行對沖，或者如果他們有意見可以向我們的一位經理表達。正如我們所說的，西方人更多地認為我認為利率可能會下降，可能會在年底前下降，富蘭克林方面可能會說更像是在 2024 年。所以關鍵是我認為無論你想在固定收益領域做什麼，我們都有很好的機會，而且我們認為人們現在你可以獲得固定收益的實際回報，你會在那裡看到更多的配置。

Sorry, that's not just the public markets that's the private markets also. So Benefits Street Partners, Alcentra. So they've got some very strong performance and interesting funds and both in demand.

抱歉，不僅是公開市場，私人市場也是如此。 So Benefits Street Partners，Alcentra。所以他們有一些非常強勁的表現和有趣的基金，而且兩者都有需求。

Yes, I was just going to say we've seen clients build multi-fixed income fleets with different Franklin components and oftentimes adding additional assets because they see how uncorrelated the various strategies are with each other.

是的，我只是想說我們已經看到客戶建立了具有不同富蘭克林組件的多固定收益車隊，並且經常添加額外的資產，因為他們看到各種策略彼此之間是多麼不相關。

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Blostein from Goldman Sachs.

你的下一個問題來自高盛的 Alex Blostein。

I was hoping we can dig into your alt franchise for a couple of minutes. If we look at the AUM, excluding Alcentra this quarter, AUM seems to be kind of flat, actually down a little bit sequentially. So I'm just curious what's offsetting sort of the good fundraising momentum that you mentioned. Now I know the convention [of] AUM is not the same as fee-paying AUM. So maybe just kind of help us unpack what fee-paying AUM has done over the last couple of quarters, what it is now? And what are the drivers of fee-paying AUM in alts over the next several quarters?

我希望我們能花幾分鐘深入了解您的 alt 特許經營權。如果我們看一下資產管理規模，不包括本季度的 Alcentra，資產管理規模似乎持平，實際上環比有所下降。所以我很好奇是什麼抵消了你提到的良好籌款勢頭。現在我知道 AUM 的慣例與付費 AUM 不同。因此，也許只是幫助我們解開付費 AUM 在過去幾個季度所做的事情，現在是什麼？在接下來的幾個季度中，付費 AUM 的驅動因素是什麼？

Matt, do you want to take the fee-paying AUM?

Matt，你想參加收費的 AUM 嗎？

The core of the question and then Jenny and Adam, you should answer more, is the outflows and the softness that we've experienced in alternatives, Alex, is driven by the liquid ops area of the firm. It's not our primary kind of private market specialist investment managers in BSP, Clarion and Lexington have all experienced positive flows and organic growth. So I think what you're referring to is the overall number when you exclude Alcentra, where that is. It's slightly negative. That's driven by outflows and softness in both performance and flows on the liquid alts side.

問題的核心，然後是珍妮和亞當，你應該回答更多，是我們在替代品中經歷的流出和疲軟，亞歷克斯，是由公司的流動性運營領域驅動的。這不是我們在 BSP、Clarion 和 Lexington 的主要私人市場專業投資經理都經歷了積極的流動和有機增長。所以我認為你指的是當你排除 Alcentra 時的總數。有點消極。這是由流出和軟性驅動的，性能和流動性都在液體替代方面。

So that would be -- K2 and Western macro ops would be the 2 areas that you're seeing. Everything else has actually grown -- in the Lexington, Benefit Street Partners and Clarion have all grown.

那就是——K2 和西方宏觀行動將是您看到的兩個區域。其他一切實際上都在增長——在列剋星敦，Benefit Street Partners 和 Clarion 都在增長。

Yes. And can you help us just break down fee-paying AUM, kind of what's liquid versus what's illiquid? And as you sort of think about the pipeline of opportunities on the more private side of things. It would be helpful just to get a little more granularity. So for instance, like the Lexington $12.5 billion or $12.8 billion fundraise, is already all in the fee-paying AUM number? And is it a management fee? Or is that going to turn on once the fund is closing? So just a little more granularity, that would be helpful.

是的。你能幫我們分解一下付費的資產管理規模嗎？什麼是流動性的，什麼是非流動性的？當您考慮事物的更私密方面的機會管道時。只是獲得更多的粒度會有所幫助。因此，例如，像列剋星敦 125 億美元或 128 億美元的籌款活動，已經全部在付費 AUM 數字中了嗎？而且是管理費嗎？還是會在基金關閉後啟動？所以只是多一點粒度，這會有所幫助。

Yes. The Lexington fund that's -- go ahead, Jenny.

是的。列剋星敦基金——繼續吧，珍妮。

Go ahead, Matt.

來吧，馬特。

The Lexington fund that's being raised so far, that's all fee paying. So it's the future raise that they're continuing to work on that isn't yet included. But the number that we put into the executive commentary is included.

到目前為止籌集的列剋星敦基金，都是收費的。因此，他們正在繼續努力的未來加薪尚未包括在內。但我們在執行評論中提出的數字包括在內。

And basically, when you ask for liquid versus illiquid or tied up -- I'm assuming you're talking about tied up assets. Essentially, most of BSP, Clarion and Lexington Partners are all long-term tied up assets. Obviously, K2 has their liquid alts. So those have more flexibility, and you see that in redemption numbers as well as macro ops.

基本上，當你要求流動性與非流動性或捆綁資產時——我假設你在談論捆綁資產。本質上，BSP、Clarion 和 Lexington Partners 的大部分都是長期捆綁資產。顯然，K2 有他們的液態替代品。因此，它們具有更大的靈活性，您可以在贖回數字和宏觀操作中看到這一點。

Got it. Maybe just for a quick follow-up. I was hoping you guys could hit on the institutional pipeline. Very nice to see an improvement sequentially. Can you talk to the fee rate on the overall institutional pipeline? And the timing of conversions as you expect it today?

知道了。也許只是為了快速跟進。我希望你們能找到機構渠道。很高興看到順序有所改進。你能談談整個機構管道的費率嗎？以及您今天預期的轉換時間？

Yes. I would say that the timing is going to be typical of what we've seen in the past. I think it's usually about half of that pipeline or so converts in the quarter. I wouldn't see a real change in that. In terms of the fee rate, we tend to have scaled fee schedules. So when you have larger mandates, those priced a little cheaper than smaller mandates, we have a big chunky one in there right now. But in general, I don't see that the fees we've been charging on institutional asset management changing all that much quarter-over-quarter.

是的。我會說時間將是我們過去所見的典型時間。我認為通常大約有一半的管道在本季度進行了轉換。我看不到真正的改變。在費率方面，我們傾向於按比例收費。因此，當您有較大的授權時，那些價格比較小的授權便宜一點，我們現在有一個很大的授權。但總的來說，我不認為我們對機構資產管理收取的費用每季度都有太大變化。

Your next question comes from the line of Bill Katz from Credit Suisse.

你的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Bill Katz。

I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about where you see the exit base fee rate at the end of the year versus what you sort of reported. And then as you think about your commentary about sort of money continue to go into institutional cash management, and some of these larger fixed income mandates. How does that sort of play off against what's happening on the alternative side?

我想知道你是否可以談談你在年底看到的退出基本費率與你所報告的情況。然後當你考慮你對某種貨幣的評論時，繼續進入機構現金管理，以及其中一些更大的固定收益授權。這種情況如何與另一方發生的事情發生衝突？

Bill. So on the fee rate, we expect it to remain around 39 basis points, and it may be slightly higher than that for the year as a whole, but that's where we expect it to be, as we've discussed in the past. And you know this well, that the upward pressure on the fee rate is if we are more successful in expanding our alternative asset business and if equities continue to come back that pushes up.

賬單。因此，在費率方面，我們預計它會保持在 39 個基點左右，並且可能略高於全年，但正如我們過去所討論的那樣，這就是我們的預期。而且你很清楚，如果我們在擴展我們的另類資產業務方面更加成功，並且如果股票繼續回升，那麼費用率的上行壓力就會推高。

If we get this continued flow into money market funds and broader fixed income on the institutional side, in particular, that could push the fee rate down. But as we've modeled that, and looked at the mix of our business, we think that 39 basis points is a very reasonable -- excluding performance fees is a very reasonable guide for the EFR.

如果我們繼續流入貨幣市場基金和機構方面更廣泛的固定收益，這可能會壓低費率。但正如我們對其建模並研究我們的業務組合一樣，我們認為 39 個基點是非常合理的——不包括績效費用是 EFR 的非常合理的指導。

Okay. And as a follow-up, I was wondering, Matt, if you could talk a little bit about -- maybe update us on expenses and how to think about maybe the run rate numbers. So a couple of variables looking at the quarter. Sort of unpack the $37 million on the deferred comp side. Does that pull forward [as] expenses? And then your guidance last quarter was much more elevated for some of the [non-comps] what you reported. Can you talk a little bit about any timing issues there or how to think about the rest of the year?

好的。作為後續行動，我想知道，馬特，你是否可以談談 - 也許向我們更新費用以及如何考慮運行率數字。因此，本季度有幾個變量。在遞延補償方面解壓縮 3700 萬美元。這會提前 [作為] 費用嗎？然後，對於您報告的某些 [non-comps]，您上個季度的指導要高得多。你能談談那裡的任何時間問題或如何考慮今年剩下的時間嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Bill. Yes. There was some movement with respect to some of the numbers in the different components from one quarter to another. But what I'll do is, I'll walk through where we see the second quarter of '23 in terms of different components. And then I'll give you a high level of where we think we're going to be for the entire year also, which hopefully would be helpful for modeling purposes.

是的。謝謝，比爾。是的。從一個季度到另一個季度，不同組件中的一些數字有一些變化。但我要做的是，我將介紹我們在不同組件方面看到 23 年第二季度的地方。然後我會給你一個高水平的我們認為我們將在整個一年中的位置，希望這對建模目的有所幫助。

So I already mentioned to you about 39 basis points for the effective fee rate. That's where we see things remaining in the next quarter. All these numbers obviously are inclusive of continuing to invest in the franchise and a full quarter of Alcentra. Last quarter, which was 2 months this quarter, of course, it's the full -- it will be the full 3 months.

所以我已經向你提到了有效費率大約 39 個基點。這就是我們看到下一季度剩下的事情。所有這些數字顯然都包括繼續投資特許經營權和 Alcentra 的四分之一。上個季度，本季度是 2 個月，當然，它是完整的 - 這將是完整的 3 個月。

For comp and benefits, assuming $50 million of performance fees, and I'm happy to answer a separate performance-fee question, but assuming $50 million per quarter for performance fees, the comp and benefits should be back down to between $700 million and $710 million. This is inclusive of salary increases and the 401(k) and health plan resets.

對於薪酬和福利，假設 5000 萬美元的績效費用，我很樂意回答一個單獨的績效費用問題，但假設每季度 5000 萬美元的績效費用，薪酬和福利應該回落到 7 億美元到 710 美元之間百萬。這包括加薪、401(k) 和健康計劃重置。

So again, comp and benefits $700 million to $710 million. We expect IS&T to be between $115 million and $120 million, so it's relatively flat. We expect occupancy to be around $60 million, relatively flat, and this is inclusive of continued normalization of return to office that we're seeing on a global level. G&A, we guide to a high 140, so $147 million, $148 million something in that area. This is inclusive of our estimate of where we expect placement fees to be and also reflects continued normalization of T&E expenses, which we put in the $15 million, $20 million per quarter [zone]. We expect the tax rate to remain in 25% to 27% area.

因此，補償和收益再次達到 7 億至 7.1 億美元。我們預計 IS&T 將在 1.15 億美元至 1.2 億美元之間，因此相對持平。我們預計入住率約為 6000 萬美元，相對持平，這包括我們在全球範圍內看到的重返辦公室的持續正常化。 G&A，我們指導高 140，所以該地區有 1.47 億美元，1.48 億美元。這包括我們對安置費用預期的估計，也反映了 T&E 費用的持續正常化，我們將其投入每季度 1500 萬美元、2000 萬美元[區域]。我們預計稅率將保持在 25% 至 27% 的範圍內。

If you think about annual guidance, again, inclusive of continued important investments in our organic growth strategies, it's obviously still pretty early in the year, and we're experiencing slightly market uncertainty, as we've all been talking about. But all else remaining equal, despite the improved market conditions in the quarter, which has been somewhat of a surprise, I think, to us at all, we're going to stay with the annual guidance that I provided last quarter, which is for the year, adjusted operating expenses between $3.95 billion to $4 billion, we'll probably be on the higher end of that, frankly, because of where markets have gone to over the last month or so.

如果你再次考慮年度指導，包括對我們有機增長戰略的持續重要投資，顯然今年還很早，而且正如我們一直在談論的那樣，我們正經歷著輕微的市場不確定性。但其他一切都保持不變，儘管本季度市場狀況有所改善，我認為這對我們來說有點意外，我們將堅持我上個季度提供的年度指導，即今年，調整後的運營支出在 39.5 億美元至 40 億美元之間，坦率地說，我們可能處於較高水平，因為市場在過去一個月左右的時間裡走向何方。

But we're keeping the guide between $3.95 billion and $4 billion, excluding performance fees -- performance fee compensation. Just a reminder that this includes a full year of Lexington. Last year's numbers was only 6 months. It's an additional 6 months of Lexington Partners plus an 11 months of Alcentra as we closed on November (inaudible) fiscal year-end is 9/30. So on a net basis, our expense [last] remaining equal or projected to be lower than last year, taking into account the Lexington and Alcentra additions, lower by low single digits, 2%, 3%, something in that area.

但我們將指南保持在 39.5 億美元至 40 億美元之間，不包括績效費用——績效費用補償。提醒一下，這包括列剋星敦的一整年。去年的數字只有 6 個月。這是 Lexington Partners 的額外 6 個月加上 11 個月的 Alcentra，因為我們在 11 月（聽不清）財年結束時是 9/30。因此，在淨基礎上，考慮到列剋星敦和 Alcentra 的增加，我們的支出 [last] 保持不變或預計低於去年，降低了低個位數，2%，3%，在該地區。

Your next question comes from the line of Brennan Hawken from UBS.

你的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Brennan Hawken。

Thinking about what drove the variance, Matthew, to the fee rate last quarter. What do you think caused that to work out to be different than you had expected and a little bit lower? And how should we think about potentially those factors playing into the outlook for the fee rate to be stable at 39.

考慮是什麼導致上個季度的費率出現差異，Matthew。您認為是什麼導致結果與您的預期不同並且略低？我們應該如何考慮可能影響費率穩定在 39 的前景的那些因素。

Yes. So we decided to -- or our partners at Lexington Partners decided to hold off on a closing from what they're expecting to do a little bit more in December and they decided to hold off until this quarter that we're in now. So that was probably something like a 0.4 basis point difference.

是的。因此，我們決定 - 或者我們在 Lexington Partners 的合作夥伴決定推遲結束他們預計在 12 月做更多的事情，他們決定推遲到我們現在所在的這個季度。所以這可能是 0.4 個基點的差異。

And then product mix was something like a 0.3 difference from where we were thinking that we could be on the high end of the (inaudible). So I think I said we expect it to be more in the mid-39s. It could have been as high as 39.7 or 39.8 or something like that, could have been as low as 39 and I sort of guided in the middle of that, we ended up being a bit low because of those 2 things.

然後產品組合與我們認為我們可能處於高端（聽不清）的位置相差 0.3。所以我想我說過我們希望它在 39 年代中期更多。它可能高達 39.7 或 39.8 或類似的東西，也可能低至 39，我在中間有點指導，由於這兩件事，我們最終有點低。

The reason for the increase in the EFR from 38.8 to 39 was because of we increased alternatives, we added Alcentra, that probably added something like 0.3 basis points. And then as we've mentioned, we added quite significant money market assets, which is not a really low fee, by the way, but it's obviously a lower fee than alternative assets is probably something like 0.1 or 0.05 of the difference.

EFR 從 38.8 增加到 39 的原因是因為我們增加了替代品，我們添加了 Alcentra，這可能增加了 0.3 個基點。然後正如我們所提到的，我們增加了相當多的貨幣市場資產，順便說一句，這並不是一個非常低的費用，但它顯然比另類資產的費用低可能是 0.1 或 0.05 的差異。

And the reason why we feel comfortable with 39 is when we roll the business forward and we look at the projections for our alternative asset business, reasonable market assumptions around equity and even with the significant opportunity in fixed income, one is neatly sort of offsetting the other, and we cut out to around 39 basis points. We think that's a reasonable guide.

我們對 39 感到滿意的原因是，當我們向前推進業務時，我們會審視我們對另類資產業務的預測、圍繞股票的合理市場假設，甚至在固定收益方面有重大機會，其中一個正在巧妙地抵消其他，我們削減到大約 39 個基點。我們認為這是一個合理的指南。

Appreciate that -- forward-looking comments on fee rates are challenging. Thanks for that additional color, that's helpful. When we think about -- you guys have spoken a lot about the bond outlook and the increased interest. So that's it's a very, very helpful context. One of the components of concern that I hear from investors is the deterioration that we saw last year in Western's performance track record. Can you speak to whether or not this interest is pertaining to some of those strategies that do tend to be larger. That has fallen on to tougher times on the performance end of things? Or is it into other products? Or is the interest happening despite that setback in performance because there's focused on -- there's a focus on different sort of time frames and whatnot. Any additional color would be great.

欣賞 - 關於費率的前瞻性評論具有挑戰性。感謝您提供額外的顏色，這很有幫助。當我們考慮時——你們已經談了很多關於債券前景和利息增加的問題。所以這是一個非常非常有用的背景。我從投資者那裡聽到的擔憂之一是我們在去年看到的 Western 業績記錄的惡化。你能談談這種興趣是否與那些確實往往更大的策略有關。在性能方面已經陷入了艱難時期？還是融入其他產品？或者，儘管性能受挫，但人們的興趣仍在發生，因為人們關注的是——關注不同類型的時間框架等等。任何額外的顏色都會很棒。

Yes. I mean I think the message that we're giving is there's a lot of interest in Western. I mean their Core Bond and Core Bond Plus are some of our biggest grossing sales funds and Core Bond netted $1.5 billion this quarter. So Brendan, I think we feel really good about Western and the flows there.

是的。我的意思是我認為我們傳遞的信息是人們對西部片很感興趣。我的意思是他們的 Core Bond 和 Core Bond Plus 是我們最大的銷售基金之一，Core Bond 本季度淨賺 15 億美元。所以布倫丹，我認為我們對西方和那裡的潮流感覺非常好。

Yes, I would say that also Core Plus is still our biggest selling fund, right? They had some performance challenges, but clients stuck with them. They've been doing this for a long time. And again, 89% of their AUM outperformed for the quarter.

是的，我會說 Core Plus 仍然是我們最大的銷售基金，對嗎？他們遇到了一些性能挑戰，但客戶堅持了下來。他們已經這樣做了很長時間。同樣，他們 89% 的 AUM 在本季度表現出色。

Sorry, I was on mute. The other thing I was going to add to that is again, maybe it's an obvious statement. But on the institutional side, in particular, investors expect to have a consistent process and a view from a portfolio management perspective and Western has stuck to what they said they're going to do. And this is the outcome from that. And -- but we have a very broad range, as Jenny mentioned, of other views internally. And so we have a lot of fixed income opportunities, whether one works well or not, there's others that will offset that. So a lot of opportunities across the franchise, both public and private markets.

對不起，我是靜音的。我要補充的另一件事是，也許這是一個顯而易見的聲明。但在機構方面，尤其是投資者希望從投資組合管理的角度來看有一個一致的過程和觀點，而 Western 一直堅持他們所說的他們將要做的事情。這就是結果。並且 - 但正如 Jenny 所提到的，我們在內部有非常廣泛的其他觀點。因此，我們有很多固定收入機會，無論一個人是否運作良好，其他人都會抵消這一點。因此，無論是公共市場還是私人市場，特許經營權都有很多機會。

And Western's pipeline is building significantly as we speak.

正如我們所說，西方的管道正在建設中。

Your next question comes from the line of Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America.

你的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Craig Siegenthaler。

So my question is on retail alts. Many pure alt firms have been building out their retail distribution efforts pretty aggressively [since] 2020. But Franklin has always had a very strong retail effort going back kind of more than 20 years. So I wanted to hear you articulate how you're using your global retail distribution really as an advantage for your old affiliates like Clarion, Lexington, Benefit Street? And also how the affiliates are also leveraging their own local sales teams versus Franklin at the center?

所以我的問題是關於零售替代品。 [自]2020 年以來，許多純粹的另類公司一直在相當積極地建立他們的零售分銷業務。但富蘭克林在 20 多年前就一直在大力開展零售業務。所以我想听聽您闡述您如何真正利用您的全球零售分銷作為您的老子公司（如 Clarion、Lexington、Benefit Street）的優勢？還有附屬公司如何利用他們自己的本地銷售團隊而不是中心的富蘭克林？

So I'll start and then, Adam, why don't you jump in. So I think look, retail alts is really complicated. And it's really complicated because you have to start by, one, you have to have the right products that sit in the right vehicles, which is tougher in these illiquid asset classes. Then you have to educate and convince the gatekeepers essentially at the distributors.

所以我會開始然後，亞當，你為什麼不加入。所以我認為看，零售業真的很複雜。這真的很複雜，因為你必須首先，第一，你必須有合適的產品放在合適的車輛上，這在這些流動性差的資產類別中更加困難。然後你必須教育和說服經銷商的守門人。

And then you have to educate your entire sales force to be able to understand it. It is a different sale than say, a traditional mutual fund. And then you have to be part of educating financial advisers on why this particular product with its characteristics make sense in a portfolio. And unlike an institution, I always say that one of the things I think many of the -- alt providers who sold historically to institutional channels, if you just have this -- convince an institution why this fits in, a financial adviser has to understand every end clients' liquidity needs, which makes it really tough at the tip of the spear. The good news for us is we have very good product offerings now with all of our managers between -- BSP has multiple products with their BDCs and interval funds; Clarion, with their CPREIF and their Opportunity Zone.

然後你必須教育你的整個銷售人員才能理解它。這是一種不同於傳統共同基金的銷售方式。然後你必須參與教育財務顧問，讓他們了解為什麼這種具有特徵的特定產品在投資組合中有意義。與機構不同的是，我總是說，我認為很多事情之一 - 歷史上向機構渠道銷售的另類供應商，如果你有這個 - 說服機構為什麼這適合，財務顧問必須理解每個終端客戶的流動性需求，這使得它在矛尖上真的很艱難。對我們來說，好消息是我們現在有非常好的產品供應，我們所有的經理都在——BSP 有多種產品及其 BDC 和區間基金； Clarion，以及他們的 CPREIF 和機會區。

We already -- K2 has quite a few products in the liquid alt space. We actually also have -- and the Lexington is now just getting launched on iCapital. So we've been able to get quite a few products now Kace and iCapital, which is really important for the RIA channel so that they can handle the paperwork and the follow-up capital calls, which is one of the great pain points for advisers.

我們已經 - K2 在液體替代空間中擁有相當多的產品。我們實際上也有——列剋星敦現在剛剛在 iCapital 上推出。所以我們現在已經能夠獲得相當多的產品 Kace 和 iCapital，這對 RIA 渠道來說非常重要，這樣他們就可以處理文書工作和後續的資本需求，這是顧問的一大痛點.

But when we look internally, it was clear to us that you couldn't have a wholesaler necessarily take it all the way to the end sale. And so we've created -- we've talked about it, it's been probably almost a -- it's probably been 6 months, it's kind of a joint venture between our alternatives teams and our distribution team, where we are hiring specialists to support the traditional distribution on the retail channel or the wealth channel to be able to drive that very end sale.

但當我們審視內部時，我們很清楚批發商不可能一直把它帶到最終銷售。所以我們創建了——我們已經討論過了，可能差不多——可能已經 6 個月了，這是我們的替代團隊和我們的分銷團隊之間的合資企業，我們正在聘請專家來支持零售渠道或財富渠道上的傳統分銷能夠推動最終銷售。

And we've been in a phase of doing a lot of hiring there. And I can tell you that we feel good about the traction we're getting. Adam, do you want to add anything more to that?

我們一直處於在那裡進行大量招聘的階段。我可以告訴你，我們對所獲得的牽引力感到滿意。亞當，你還想補充什麼嗎？

Well, yes, you took most of it, Jenny. But what I would say is that -- on top of that, this is a great example of where we're able to use our unique structure in terms of brand. So our alternative firms have great brands in the institutional are less known in the wealth channel. So we're still really putting the brands forward the BSP, the Lexington to Clarion in the institutional channel. But when we go to market in the wealth channels, we're going to the market at alternatives by Franklin Templeton. So that is really playing off of the brand name that resonates so well in those channels.

好吧，是的，你拿走了大部分，珍妮。但我要說的是——最重要的是，這是一個很好的例子，說明我們能夠在品牌方面使用我們獨特的結構。因此，我們的替代公司在機構中擁有偉大的品牌，但在財富渠道中卻鮮為人知。因此，我們仍在真正推動品牌在機構渠道中將 BSP、Lexington 推向 Clarion。但是當我們進入財富渠道市場時，我們將進入富蘭克林鄧普頓的替代品市場。所以這真的是在利用在這些渠道中引起如此強烈共鳴的品牌名稱。

And again, it's another place where we're using our general specialist model so that where our salespeople, who have long-standing relationships and significant AUM in the wealth channel, they're going in as the lead, but they're introducing our alternative specialists, which we build out its over 35 people now, and those people are just focused on the wealth channel.

再一次，這是我們使用我們的一般專家模型的另一個地方，所以我們的銷售人員在財富渠道中擁有長期的關係和重要的 AUM，他們將作為領導者，但他們正在介紹我們的替代專家，我們現在建立了超過 35 人，這些人只專注於財富渠道。

The other thing I would add to that is that we've invested really heavily in education because we think that the first way to get growth in the channel is product development, having the right product in the right wrappers. Soon after that, it's building education. So advisers understand how to use these products. After that, it sales, and that's where we have the alternative specialists working with our field force in concert with each other.

我要補充的另一件事是，我們在教育方面投入了大量資金，因為我們認為在渠道中獲得增長的第一個方法是產品開發，在正確的包裝中使用正確的產品。不久之後，它開始建設教育。因此，顧問了解如何使用這些產品。在那之後，它就開始銷售，這就是我們讓替代專家與我們的現場工作人員協同工作的地方。

And I'll just add one other thing from a finance perspective for what it's worth, is this is not a short-term project or something like that. In turn, this is a very long-term, very strategic decision that we've made to invest in this separate group basically that's between 2 other major areas of the firm, that requires its own separate marketing, sales, product strategy, education, as Jenny mentioned. This is a very expensive endeavor that we've thought through very carefully and we justified it by the fact that we have acquired leading businesses in the alternative asset markets that we think long term are highly interesting and applicable to the broader markets.

我將從財務的角度補充一件事，因為它的價值，這不是一個短期項目或類似的東西。反過來，這是一個非常長期、非常具有戰略意義的決定，我們已經做出投資於這個獨立的集團，基本上是在公司的其他兩個主要領域之間，這需要它自己獨立的營銷、銷售、產品戰略、教育，正如珍妮提到的。這是一項非常昂貴的努力，我們已經非常仔細地考慮過，並且我們已經收購了我們認為長期非常有趣且適用於更廣泛市場的另類資產市場的領先企業這一事實證明了這一點。

But just as a reminder, we acquired these businesses because they had their own institutional growth and what we're talking about here on top of that is additional growth in the long term that we think we can capitalize upon.

但提醒一下，我們收購這些企業是因為它們有自己的製度增長，而我們在這裡談論的最重要的是我們認為我們可以利用的長期額外增長。

And as a mark of progress, we are currently in market with Clarion, with BSP, with Lexington and our Venture Capital group, all of them in the wealth channel are actively raising assets.

作為進步的標誌，我們目前在市場上與 Clarion、BSP、Lexington 和我們的風險投資集團合作，他們都在財富渠道中積極籌集資產。

I have a follow-up, and it's more of a CFO-type question for Matt. But I wanted to get a little more color on your alt-net flow definition in the $2.4 billion that you highlighted in the quarter. Is the inflow, the initial sale? Or is it when the fees actually turn on with the product? And then also, do you include realizations in the outflow? Or are they included in the market appreciation, other line of the AUM roll forward?

我有一個跟進，這更像是馬特的首席財務官類型的問題。但我想在您在本季度強調的 24 億美元中對您的 alt-net 流量定義有更多的了解。是流入，初期銷售？或者是在產品真正開始收費的時候？然後，您是否將實現包括在流出中？或者它們是否包含在市場升值中，其他線的 AUM 向前滾動？

No, the realizations are included in other markets. They're not particularly material for us, is why we do it that way. As we continue to expand our alternative asset business, we'll continue to review that. I don't actually know off the top of my head on the $2.4 billion of positive net inflow. What is fee paying, it's probably 80% of it, but we'll come back to you on that specifically. But I'm pretty sure it's like 80%, something like that.

不，變現包含在其他市場中。它們對我們來說不是特別重要，這就是我們這樣做的原因。隨著我們繼續擴大我們的另類資產業務，我們將繼續審查這一點。對於 24 億美元的正淨流入，我實際上並不清楚。什麼是費用支付，可能佔其中的 80%，但我們會具體回复您。但我很確定它大約是 80%，差不多這樣。

Your next question comes from the line of Dan Fannon from Jefferies.

你的下一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Dan Fannon。

I wanted to have another question on fixed income and understanding or acknowledging your comments on Western and those funds still being on the gross sales side quite strong. But if I look at gross sales since you've owned the Legg Mason, this was the second lowest quarter for gross sales. So maybe talk about where you're seeing the traction in gross sales outside of maybe the Core and Core Plus.

我想再問一個關於固定收益的問題，理解或承認你對 Western 的評論，而那些基金在總銷售方面的表現仍然非常強勁。但是，如果我看一下自您擁有 Legg Mason 以來的總銷售額，這是總銷售額第二低的季度。因此，也許可以談談您在 Core 和 Core Plus 之外的哪些地方看到了總銷售額的增長。

Are you speaking specifically just fixed income or equities as well, which...

您是專門說固定收益還是股票，這...

Just fixed income, this was the second lowest gross sales number since you've owned Legg Mason. So we've already talked about Western. So I assume there's something else that may be having some slowdown.

只是固定收入，這是自您擁有 Legg Mason 以來第二低的總銷售額。所以我們已經談到了西方。所以我假設還有其他事情可能會有所放緩。

Well, what I would say is that if you take a look at where the yield curve is right now and look at the shape of it and look how much you can make on the short end and it's a record quarter for us in cash management. So a lot of that really is just, I think, a temporary phenomenon where fixed income investors are able to park money on the short end, get a pretty attractive yield and wait for the right entry point.

好吧，我想說的是，如果你看看現在的收益率曲線在哪裡，看看它的形狀，看看你可以在短期內賺多少錢，這對我們的現金管理來說是一個創紀錄的季度。因此，我認為，其中很多確實只是一種暫時現象，固定收益投資者能夠將資金存入短期，獲得極具吸引力的收益率，並等待合適的切入點。

But munis -- we're getting good traction in munis. We have some in the SMA channel. We have some muni ladders that are very successful for us. I mean actually, from a diversification, 11 of our top 20 net inflows are outside our largest 20 funds. So it's actually a pretty broad diversification. And U.S. income, some of the multi assets have components in them, obviously, [there's] fixed income that are getting flows too.

但是市政債券——我們在市政債券方面獲得了很好的關注。我們在 SMA 頻道中有一些。我們有一些對我們來說非常成功的市政梯子。我的意思是，實際上，從多元化的角度來看，我們前 20 大淨流入中有 11 只在我們最大的 20 只基金之外。所以這實際上是一個相當廣泛的多元化。而美國的收入，一些多元資產中有組成部分，顯然，[有]固定收入也在獲得流量。

Okay. And then just thinking about performance fees, I know obviously very hard to predict, but -- it seems like you are seeing redemptions in your liquid strategy. So maybe get a sense of kind of where performance sits broadly within the alternative universe and how we should, I guess, maybe performance-fee eligible AUM today versus a year ago, high watermarks, other kind of maybe numbers or things you can put around to give a sense of this year's outlook for performance fees maybe versus last year or other time periods?

好的。然後只考慮績效費用，我知道顯然很難預測，但是 - 看起來你正在看到你的流動性策略中的贖回。因此，也許可以大致了解一下性能在替代宇宙中的位置以及我們應該如何，我想，今天與一年前相比，符合性能費用條件的 AUM，高水位線，其他類型的數字或您可以放置的東西與去年或其他時間段相比，了解今年績效費用的前景？

Yes. Thanks, Dan. So performance fees, as you know, as you just said, difficult to predict. But given the strong performance in related funds, and we do have strong performance I think -- literally, I mean, I think it's in 90% of our alternative asset funds are in the area where they're outperforming or in strong performance territory, let's say, in the performance fee zone.

是的。謝謝，丹。因此，如您所知，正如您剛才所說，績效費用很難預測。但鑑於相關基金的強勁表現，我認為我們確實有強勁的表現——字面上，我的意思是，我認為我們 90% 的另類資產基金都處於表現優異或表現強勁的領域，比方說，在績效費區。

We expect to continue earning performance fees on a fairly consistent base at this point. And that's why we've guided to $50 million per quarter, up from -- you may remember, several quarters ago, we used to guide $10 million to $25 million or something like that, but that's now up to $50 million per quarter, and we think that we can achieve that on a fairly consistent level.

我們希望在這一點上繼續在相當一致的基礎上賺取績效費。這就是為什麼我們指導每季度 5000 萬美元，你可能還記得，幾個季度前，我們曾經指導 1000 萬到 2500 萬美元或類似的東西，但現在每季度高達 5000 萬美元，而且我們認為我們可以在相當一致的水平上實現這一目標。

There are, however, as you alluded to, there are some episodic characteristics within performance fees related to time and redemption-type activities. So for example, in the last quarter that we reported, I highlighted, I believe, on the call that we had a redemption that led to a $55 million additional performance fee for the quarter out of Clarion. So our guide is going to remain at $50 million. And all I'd say is that we have, based on our performance and our mix of assets and the time horizon with the funds, we have potential to exceed that as we continue to grow our alternative asset business.

但是，正如您提到的那樣，與時間和贖回類活動相關的績效費用中存在一些偶發性特徵。因此，例如，在我們報告的上個季度，我強調，我相信，在電話會議上，我們進行了贖回，導致 Clarion 在該季度額外支付了 5500 萬美元的績效費用。所以我們的指南將保持在 5000 萬美元。我要說的是，根據我們的業績和我們的資產組合以及基金的時間範圍，隨著我們繼續發展我們的另類資產業務，我們有可能超越這一點。

But I'd certainly say forward-looking performance is looking strong, both in absolute and relative basis. We've expanded our alternatives significantly. It's the reason why we've guided higher to $50 million per quarter. But as you know, last year, we had $500 million in performance fees. So it shows what the potential is. But again, we think $50 million is the right guide for now, per quarter.

但我肯定會說前瞻性表現看起來很強勁，無論是在絕對基礎上還是相對基礎上。我們已經大大擴展了我們的選擇。這就是為什麼我們將每季度指導價提高到 5000 萬美元的原因。但如你所知，去年，我們有 5 億美元的績效費用。所以它顯示了潛力是什麼。但同樣，我們認為目前每季度 5000 萬美元是正確的指導。

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Davitt from Autonomous Research.

您的下一個問題來自 Autonomous Research 的 Patrick Davitt。

I just have one kind of broader philosophical question. You're obviously getting really good traction with your ETF suite and news flow kind of suggest that you've been more active converting mutual funds to ETFs than some others. Obviously, bond ETFs appear to be getting a lot more traction over the last year or so. So could you speak to your willingness to get more aggressive with ETF conversions for some of your more larger strategies? And what is the debate kind of for and against going down that road?

我只有一種更廣泛的哲學問題。您的 ETF 套件顯然獲得了很好的吸引力，新聞流表明您比其他一些人更積極地將共同基金轉換為 ETF。顯然，債券 ETF 在過去一年左右的時間裡似乎獲得了更多的關注。那麼，您能否談談您願意為一些更大的策略更積極地進行 ETF 轉換？支持和反對走這條路的辯論是什麼樣的？

So first of all, we're really proud of our ETF franchise. And the team that we have -- they're all very experienced. They were originally with BGI back then. And we've launched the suite and today in our -- I think at the end of the quarter, we announced it was about $13.3 billion in ETFs. We had -- 44% were active, 30% passive and 26% Smart Beta, and we were really one of the first multifactor Smart Beta managers.

所以首先，我們為我們的 ETF 特許經營權感到非常自豪。我們擁有的團隊——他們都非常有經驗。當時他們最初是在華大基因。我們已經推出了套件，今天在我們的 - 我認為在本季度末，我們宣布它的 ETF 約為 133 億美元。我們有——44% 是主動的，30% 是被動的，26% 是 Smart Beta，我們確實是最早的多因素 Smart Beta 經理之一。

In this quarter, even though on $13.3 billion in AUM, we had $1 billion in net sales. So clearly, one of the fastest growing. Of that $200 million was essentially a conversion from mutual funds. But the other $800 million came from actual sales in it globally. So U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia. So what we do is, we'll look at a strategy, and we consistently hear that distributors don't particularly want an ETF and a mutual fund to be exactly the same because that can cause suitability issues.

本季度，儘管 AUM 為 133 億美元，但我們的淨銷售額為 10 億美元。很明顯，這是增長最快的之一。在這 2 億美元中，基本上是互惠基金的轉換。但另外 8 億美元來自它在全球的實際銷售額。所以美國、歐洲、加拿大、澳大利亞。所以我們所做的是，我們將研究一種策略，我們一直聽到分銷商並不特別希望 ETF 和共同基金完全相同，因為這會導致適用性問題。

And so you have to be really careful about differentiating the ETF and the mutual fund. And in the case of the 2 that we converted, we thought they were really well-positioned funds but probably not getting traction in that channel. Many advisers sell just ETFs, so they won't sell a mutual fund. And so in order to get traction with those advisers, you actually have to have ETF. So we're always looking at our lineup and deciding whether or not it makes sense to do a conversion.

所以你必須非常小心區分 ETF 和共同基金。在我們轉換的 2 個案例中，我們認為它們確實是定位良好的基金，但可能沒有在該渠道獲得牽引力。許多顧問只出售 ETF，因此他們不會出售共同基金。因此，為了吸引那些顧問，您實際上必須擁有 ETF。所以我們一直在關注我們的陣容並決定進行轉換是否有意義。

There's a little bit of complexities in doing a conversion because sometimes the existing fund holders may not be able to want to hold an ETF, and so you have to go through that process. But anywhere where we think there's well performing, but not getting traction, mutual fund, we will consider whether it should be converted into an ETF.

進行轉換有一點複雜，因為有時現有的基金持有人可能不想持有 ETF，所以你必須經歷這個過程。但是，在我們認為共同基金表現良好但沒有吸引力的任何地方，我們都會考慮是否應將其轉換為 ETF。

And the only add I would have to that is we have to look at who holds the mutual fund to the extent, for instance, that it has a large retirement or 401(k) holding that can sometimes make the conversion a little more complicated. As Jenny said, our ETF strategy, I think, is pretty differentiated with the 44% in active. It's also global. That's the other thing I would add.

我唯一要補充的是，我們必須看看誰持有共同基金，例如，它有大量退休金或 401(k) 持有，這有時會使轉換變得更複雜一些。正如 Jenny 所說，我認為我們的 ETF 策略與 44% 的活躍 ETF 策略截然不同。它也是全球性的。這是我要補充的另一件事。

So when we look at that $1 billion flow, about half of that came from outside of the U.S. And we're also willing to put differentiated asset classes like our infrastructure income into an ETF. I think that's a little different. And then the final piece I would add is that even when we're in passive, which is the minority of our ETFs, they're in niches where we think we can be highly cost competitive and differentiated like single country ETF.

因此，當我們查看這 10 億美元的流量時，其中大約一半來自美國以外的地區，而且我們也願意將差異化的資產類別（例如我們的基礎設施收入）放入 ETF 中。我認為這有點不同。然後我要補充的最後一點是，即使我們處於被動狀態，這是我們 ETF 的少數，它們處於我們認為我們可以像單一國家 ETF 一樣具有高度成本競爭力和差異化的利基市場。

I think the other thing I'd add, and I think we put this into our prepared remarks. But it's not insignificant point that we've reorganized this group in ETFs to be more focused with their own sales effort embedded within the team. And it's similar, frankly, to what Jenny has reorganized around our multi-asset solutions area. These are the areas where we are heavily investing with resources and focus as opposed to them being part of a very large group that's attempting to do lots of different things. So -- and we're seeing some green shoots from that reorganization work and focus across the franchise. And I point out both multi-asset solutions and ETFs in that regard.

我想我要補充的另一件事是，我認為我們已將其放入準備好的評論中。但是，我們在 ETF 中重組了這個小組，以更加專注於嵌入團隊中的他們自己的銷售工作，這並不是無關緊要的。坦率地說，這與 Jenny 圍繞我們的多資產解決方案領域進行的重組類似。這些是我們在資源和重點方面進行大量投資的領域，而不是將它們作為一個試圖做很多不同事情的非常大的團隊的一部分。所以——我們看到重組工作出現了一些新芽，並專注於整個系列。在這方面，我指出了多資產解決方案和 ETF。

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Brown from KBW.

您的下一個問題來自 KBW 的 Mike Brown。

So I wanted to ask on real estate. So with Clarion's just over $80 billion or $80 billion or so, there's clearly some challenges facing the industry. Can you just provide us with an update on what you're seeing from this asset class and how you think investor sentiment could progress from here? And then if possible, could you just touch on how much that contributes to performance fees and other revenue?

所以想問問房產。因此，由於 Clarion 的市值剛剛超過 800 億美元或 800 億美元左右，該行業顯然面臨著一些挑戰。您能否向我們提供有關您從該資產類別中看到的最新情況以及您認為投資者情緒會如何發展？然後，如果可能的話，您能否談談對績效費和其他收入的貢獻有多大？

Yes, I'll take the first part of that question. Matt, I'll have you touch on the performance fees. So remember, Clarion has primarily been an institutional manager. So it's only been recently that we've brought them into the wealth and retail channel. And so with respect to that, it's a very small -- CPREIF is a small fund that is growing quickly, and there's been minimal redemption requests there.

是的，我會回答這個問題的第一部分。馬特，我會讓你談談績效費用。所以請記住，Clarion 主要是一名機構經理。所以直到最近我們才將它們帶入財富和零售渠道。因此，就此而言，它非常小——CPREIF 是一個增長迅速的小型基金，那裡的贖回請求很少。

From the institutional side, first of all, Clarion's real estate portfolios have focused on industrial, multifamily, life sciences, self-storage, that's 85% of their portfolios and those have held up incredibly well. And as a matter of fact, I think their performance has only dropped about 1.5%. With respect to redemption queue, you have seen them move from positive queue to now negative requests. And in those -- they're not at least from the institutional clients, there's a real recognition that you don't want to hurt the value of the portfolio by creating false liquidity. And so they actually can choose whether or not they want to meet any of those redemption requests.

從機構方面來看，首先，Clarion 的房地產投資組合專注於工業、多戶住宅、生命科學、自助存儲，佔其投資組合的 85%，而且表現非常好。事實上，我認為他們的業績只下降了 1.5% 左右。關於贖回隊列，您已經看到它們從正隊列轉移到現在的負請求。在那些——他們至少不是來自機構客戶，人們真正認識到你不想通過創造虛假流動性來損害投資組合的價值。因此，他們實際上可以選擇是否要滿足任何這些贖回請求。

And on average, they target to try to meet about 10% of the redemption queue, and that's off at about 5% to 6% of a NAV per quarter. So it's very different than the issues that you have in the wealth channel. And again, they're really new to that wealth channel. CPREIF, I think, is structured very similar to BREIT as far as the kind of interval nature of this redemption. We think that's the right way to do it for that channel.

平均而言，他們的目標是嘗試滿足約 10% 的贖回隊列，而這與每季度資產淨值的 5% 至 6% 相差無幾。所以它與你在財富渠道中遇到的問題非常不同。再一次，他們真的是那個財富渠道的新手。我認為，就這種贖回的間隔性質而言，CPREIF 的結構與 BREIT 非常相似。我們認為這是為該頻道做這件事的正確方法。

But again, their clients today are really primarily institutional clients. And sorry, the redemption queues mostly have been -- it has not been performance issues because they've done very, very well in performance. It's been the fact that other parts of the institutional clients' portfolios haven't performed well and they needed to rebalance because now they're overweighted on real estate.

但同樣，他們今天的客戶實際上主要是機構客戶。抱歉，兌換隊列主要是 - 這不是性能問題，因為它們在性能方面做得非常非常好。事實上，機構客戶投資組合的其他部分錶現不佳，他們需要重新平衡，因為現在他們在房地產上的權重過高。

Matt, do you want to touch on performance fees?

馬特，你想談談績效費嗎？

Yes will do, thanks, Jenny. One very important correction, Jenny, sorry to (inaudible) but one very important correction is that when Jenny mentioned about basically the 10% of the queue being paid out. That's not -- that doesn't translate into 5% to 6% of NAV per quarter. It's 5% to 6% of NAV per annum so [that's] for the year. I just want to make sure that's very clear.

是的，謝謝，珍妮。珍妮，一個非常重要的更正，抱歉（聽不清），但一個非常重要的更正是，當珍妮提到基本上支付了隊列中的 10% 時。那不是——這不會轉化為每季度資產淨值的 5% 到 6%。這是每年資產淨值的 5% 到 6%，所以 [那是] 今年的。我只是想確保這是非常清楚的。

Okay. And that's of their choice. Just to be clear, as Jenny also mentioned there isn't any forced liquidation in an industry like this where it wouldn't necessarily be the most productive for the portfolios or for the investors. So in terms of performance fees, frankly, Clarion is quite significantly above the threshold. So we would be surprised if we didn't see continued performance fees being paid on a meaningful portion of Clarion funds over the next year or plus.

好的。這是他們的選擇。需要明確的是，正如珍妮還提到的那樣，在這樣的行業中沒有任何強制清算，這對投資組合或投資者來說不一定是最有生產力的。因此，就績效費用而言，坦率地說，歌樂明顯高於門檻。因此，如果我們沒有看到 Clarion 基金的很大一部分在未來一年或更長時間內繼續支付績效費用，我們會感到驚訝。

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Cyprys from Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Michael Cyprys。

Matt, a question for you. I wanted to come back to expenses. So I hear you on a net basis that it's about 2% to 3% lower. I was hoping you might be able to elaborate on how you're able to achieve that? What would you say are the top 3 to 5 areas that are most meaningful in driving that decline. And do you view this as a 1-year efficiency drive? Or would you envision limited to declining expenses as you look out beyond this year?

馬特，問你一個問題。我想回到費用上來。所以我聽說你在淨基礎上大約低了 2% 到 3%。我希望您能夠詳細說明您是如何實現這一目標的？您認為對推動這種下降最有意義的前 3 到 5 個領域是什麼？您是否將此視為 1 年的效率驅動？還是您會設想在今年以後展望僅限於下降的開支？

I think we certainly look at these expenses being structural expenses beyond the year. Obviously, there's always a portion of variable expenses that you expect to come down as a function of the market, and we're very disciplined around that. So it's almost a mix of those 2 things. But because we've been through a meaningful merger involving hundreds of millions of dollars of expense reductions and efficiencies, it basically forces you to look very carefully at all of the operation.

我認為我們當然會將這些支出視為年後的結構性支出。顯然，總有一部分可變費用會隨著市場的變化而下降，我們對此非常有紀律。所以它幾乎是這兩件事的混合體。但是因為我們已經完成了一次有意義的合併，涉及數億美元的費用削減和效率提升，它基本上迫使你非常仔細地審視所有操作。

And look, we've doubled the size of our company from an assets under management perspective. We're much more diversified across the franchise. Our operation is, therefore, quite a bit more complicated. But at the same time, there's some interesting synergistic work that can be done to gain leverage from having that type of operational expertise across the franchise.

看，從管理資產的角度來看，我們公司的規模擴大了一倍。我們在特許經營中更加多元化。因此，我們的操作要復雜得多。但與此同時，可以進行一些有趣的協同工作，以利用在整個特許經營中擁有這種類型的運營專業知識來獲得影響力。

We also are very fortunate to have sense of excellence in Hyderabad, and in Poznan in Poland and we intend to further capitalize on the fact that we've been in those places for many, many years. It's not a new thing for us to have those centers of excellence. So we're very focused on that. It's really a combination of being obviously, in a difficult market being more disciplined around who do we really need to hire, who do we really need to replace when we have departures. It's executing upon the voluntary buyout and reducing layers in the organization and expanding and analyzing span and layers of control.

我們也很幸運能夠在海得拉巴和波蘭的波茲南擁有卓越的感覺，我們打算進一步利用我們已經在這些地方多年的事實。擁有這些卓越中心對我們來說並不是什麼新鮮事。所以我們非常專注於此。很明顯，在一個困難的市場中，這確實是一種結合，在我們真正需要雇用誰、離職時真正需要更換誰方面更加自律。它在自願收購和減少組織層級的基礎上執行，並擴大和分析控制範圍和層級。

And it's the execution plan around our transactions where we've really been able to take more cost out than we anticipated. And a lot of that's gone to the margin and given us margin expansion opportunities on the upside, but also reasonable amount has gone into investing in the business. So we're always careful to balance getting the margin right and managing to keep investing in the business.

正是圍繞我們交易的執行計劃，我們真正能夠減少比預期更多的成本。其中很多都變成了利潤率，給了我們利潤率擴張的機會，但也有合理的金額用於投資業務。所以我們總是小心翼翼地平衡獲得正確的利潤率和設法繼續投資於業務。

We've also -- while we've done the largest outsourcing already on the operational side with fund administration and transfer agency, the other big project, for example, we're looking at across the firm now is our investment technology operation. And that's a really major one, multiyear project. And all of our specialist investment managers are on board with this. We believe that having a consistent system and [vendor] across the firm makes a ton of sense. We can have specialization still in the individual groups.

我們也 - 雖然我們已經在基金管理和轉移機構的運營方面完成了最大的外包，但另一個大項目，例如，我們現在正在整個公司尋找的是我們的投資技術運營。這是一個非常重要的多年項目。我們所有的專業投資經理都支持這一點。我們相信，在整個公司擁有一致的系統和 [供應商] 非常有意義。我們仍然可以在各個組中進行專業化。

But it's things like this that makes a material difference in how efficient we are, how effective we are and candidly, how we work together across the company.

但正是這樣的事情對我們的效率、效率以及坦率地說，我們在整個公司的合作方式產生了重大影響。

This concludes today's Q&A session. I would now like to hand the call back over to Jenny Johnson, Franklin's President and CEO, for final comments.

今天的問答環節到此結束。我現在想將電話轉回給富蘭克林總裁兼首席執行官珍妮約翰遜，以徵求最終意見。

Okay. Well, I just want to thank everybody for participating in today's call. And once again would like to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication, and we look forward to speaking to all of you again next quarter. Thank you.

好的。好吧，我只想感謝大家參加今天的電話會議。再次感謝我們員工的辛勤工作和奉獻精神，我們期待下個季度再次與大家交談。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。