Carlyle Group Inc (CG) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Carlyle Group's Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Daniel Harris, Head of Public Investor Relations. You may begin.

美好的一天，歡迎參加凱雷集團 2023 年第四季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）謹此提醒，此通話正在錄音。我現在想將電話轉交給公共投資者關係主管丹尼爾哈里斯 (Daniel Harris)。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Carlyle's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. With me on the call this morning is our Chief Executive Officer, Harvey Schwartz; and our Chief Financial Officer, John Redett. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release and a detailed earnings presentation, which is also available on our Investor Relations website. This call is being webcast, and a replay will be available. We will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures during today's call. These measures should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. We provided a reconciliation of these measures to GAAP in our earnings release to the extent reasonably available. Any forward-looking statements made today do not guarantee future performance, and undue reliance should not be placed on them. These statements are based on current management expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including those identified in the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated.

謝謝你，接線生。早安，歡迎參加凱雷 2023 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。今天早上與我一起參加電話會議的是我們的執行長哈維·施瓦茨 (Harvey Schwartz)；以及我們的財務長約翰雷德特 (John Redett)。今天早些時候，我們發布了一份新聞稿和一份詳細的收益報告，這些內容也可以在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。該電話會議正在網路直播，並將提供重播。我們將在今天的電話會議中提及某些非公認會計準則財務指標。這些措施不應孤立地考慮或取代根據公認會計原則制定的措施。我們在合理可用的範圍內，在收益報告中提供了這些措施與 GAAP 的調整表。今天做出的任何前瞻性陳述並不保證未來的業績，不應過度依賴它們。這些陳述是基於當前管理層的預期，涉及固有風險和不確定性，包括我們10-K 表格年度報告的風險因素部分中確定的風險和不確定性，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與所示結果存在重大差異。

Carlyle assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements at any time. In order to ensure participation by all those on the line today, please limit yourself to one question and then return to the queue for any additional follow-ups. In our earnings presentation this quarter, you'll find several additional pages in the front of the release, starting with Page 6 that Harvey and John will refer to during our remarks. As I mentioned, you can find the presentation on our IR website to follow along. And with that, let me turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Harvey Schwartz.

凱雷不承擔隨時更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務。為了確保今天所有線上人員都能參與，請只回答一個問題，然後返回隊列以進行其他後續解答。在我們本季的收益報告中，您會在新聞稿的前面找到幾個額外的頁面，從哈維和約翰將在我們的演講中提到的第 6 頁開始。正如我所提到的，您可以在我們的 IR 網站上找到簡報並進行後續操作。接下來，讓我將電話轉給我們的執行長 Harvey Schwartz。

Thanks, Dan. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Our firm finished 2023 with significant momentum. We set several records last year, which you see on Page 6. They include record FRE at $859 million, record Q4 FRE margin at 43%, and we finished the year with record AUM at $426 billion. We also raised $17 billion of capital in the fourth quarter, our third largest fundraising quarter in the history of the firm. We want to thank our investing clients for the trust they put in us as their fiduciary and the entire Carlyle team for their hard work. Again, we finished the year with significant momentum, which sets us up for success in 2024.

謝謝，丹。大家早安，感謝您加入我們。我們公司以強勁的勢頭結束了 2023 年。去年，我們創造了多項記錄，您可以在第6 頁上看到。其中包括創紀錄的FRE，創紀錄的8.59 億美元，創紀錄的第四季度FRE 利潤率，創紀錄的43%，以及我們全年創下的創紀錄的AUM，達4,260 億美元。我們也在第四季籌集了 170 億美元的資金，這是該公司歷史上第三大融資季度。我們要感謝我們的投資客戶對我們作為受託人的信任，以及整個凱雷團隊的辛勤工作。我們再次以強勁的勢頭結束了這一年，這為我們在 2024 年取得成功奠定了基礎。

Now please turn to Page 7 in the document. In today's discussion, John and I are going to focus on 4 key areas: first, enhancing stakeholder alignment and changes we plan to make to our compensation model; second, optimizing capital and our approach to returning capital to shareholders; third, strategic initiatives in 2024. And lastly, we will delineate explicit financial targets for 2024. Now turning to Page 8, enhancing stakeholder alignment. Today, we're announcing a shift in our compensation strategy explicitly designed to enhance alignment across all of our stakeholders, our investing clients, our employees and you, our shareholders. Carlyle has a performance-driven culture and our senior investing professionals want their compensation more tightly tied to performance. Shareholders also get more of what they value most, a significant step-up in steady recurring fee-related earnings and FRE margin. And our investing clients also benefit from our teams having more skin in the game. It is a win-win-win for each of our stakeholders, our investing clients, our senior employees and our shareholders. Second, I'd like to discuss changes to our capital allocation strategy.

現在請翻到文件第7頁。在今天的討論中，約翰和我將重點關注 4 個關鍵領域：首先，加強利益相關者的協調以及我們計劃對薪酬模式進行的改變；第二，優化資本和我們向股東返還資本的方式；第三，2024年的策略性舉措。最後，我們將制定明確的2024年財務目標。現在轉向第8頁，加強利害關係人的協調。今天，我們宣布改變我們的薪酬策略，明確旨在加強我們所有利害關係人、我們的投資客戶、我們的員工以及您，我們的股東之間的協調。凱雷擁有績效驅動的文化，我們的高階投資專業人士希望他們的薪酬與績效更緊密地連結在一起。股東還可以獲得更多他們最重視的東西，即穩定的經常性費用相關收益和 FRE 利潤率的顯著提升。我們的投資客戶也受益於我們的團隊在遊戲中擁有更多的利益。這對我們的每一個利害關係人、我們的投資客戶、我們的高階員工和我們的股東來說都是三贏的。其次，我想討論一下我們的資本配置策略的變化。

Please turn to Slide 9. We've increased our share repurchase capacity by an incremental $1 billion for a total of $1.4 billion. Given our strong balance sheet and positive outlook, this incremental capacity provides us flexibility to return excess capital to shareholders. At this share price, our Board and senior leadership see tremendous value in the enterprise, the opportunity to return capital to shareholders is clearly quite compelling. John will walk through our thinking about capital management and our approach in more detail. Now moving to Page 10, I want to touch on several strategic initiatives. Global Credit and Insurance is positioned for strong growth. Global Credit is now our largest segment with almost $190 billion of AUM. We have driven a nearly 300% increase in credit AUM over the past 4 years. In insurance, we added $29 billion of AUM in 2023 from Fortitude, including the Lincoln Financial transaction. We have strong momentum coming into 2024 and a deep pipeline of growth opportunities. In Investment Solutions, we also have great operating momentum. We've grown AUM 70% over the past 4 years to $77 billion.

請參閱投影片 9。我們已將股票回購能力增加了 10 億美元，總計 14 億美元。鑑於我們強勁的資產負債表和積極的前景，這種增量產能為我們提供了向股東返還多餘資本的靈活性。在這個股價下，我們的董事會和高階主管看到了企業的巨大價值，向股東返還資本的機會顯然是相當引人注目的。約翰將更詳細地介紹我們對資本管理和方法的思考。現在轉到第 10 頁，我想談幾項策略舉措。全球信貸和保險可望實現強勁成長。全球信貸目前是我們最大的細分市場，資產管理規模近 1,900 億美元。在過去 4 年裡，我們的信貸資產管理規模成長了近 300%。在保險領域，我們在 2023 年從 Fortitude 增加了 290 億美元的資產管理規模，其中包括林肯金融交易。進入 2024 年，我們將保持強勁勢頭，並擁有大量成長機會。在投資解決方案方面，我們也擁有強勁的營運動能。在過去 4 年裡，我們的資產管理規模成長了 70%，達到 770 億美元。

Our secondaries and co-investment strategies are producing attractive returns for their investors and are well positioned to capture opportunities in the current environment. Global Investment Solutions should see FRE shift sharply higher in 2024 as the effect of strong fundraising impacts our results. We've also made progress growing our wealth strategy.

我們的二級投資和聯合投資策略正在為投資者帶來有吸引力的回報，並處於有利地位以抓住當前環境中的機會。全球投資解決方案公司 (Global Investment Solutions) 預計 FRE 將在 2024 年大幅走高，因為強勁的募款活動會影響我們的業績。我們在發展財富策略方面也取得了進展。

The Carlyle brand is a unique and powerful asset. Since inception, we raised nearly $50 billion of wealth assets. We are incredibly appreciative of the trust that our wealth management partners have placed in us on behalf of their clients. We look forward to continuing to work with them as we grow this business together. We are excited to have our credit interval fund, CTAC and our PE secondary fund, CAPM in the market today, and we will have a PE product in the market in the next several quarters. Now switching to expense management. While we focus on growth, we are also keeping a careful eye on expenses. In 2023, we grew headcount as we continue to invest across our platform. At the same time, we delivered expense savings in other areas. Again, while growth remains our key area of focus, executing our strategy in a disciplined manner will allow us to expand margins at the same time. Before I pass it to John, turning to Page 11, let me give you a quick preview on our 2024 financial targets.

凱雷品牌是一項獨特而強大的資產。自成立以來，我們籌集了近 500 億美元的財富資產。我們非常感謝我們的財富管理合作夥伴代表其客戶對我們的信任。我們期待繼續與他們合作，共同發展這項業務。我們很高興今天在市場上推出我們的信用區間基金 CTAC 和我們的 PE 二級基金 CAPM，並且我們將在未來幾季在市場上推出 PE 產品。現在轉向費用管理。在我們關注成長的同時，我們也密切關注支出。 2023 年，隨著我們繼續在整個平台上進行投資，我們的員工人數增加。同時，我們在其他領域也節省了開支。同樣，雖然成長仍然是我們關注的關鍵領域，但以嚴格的方式執行我們的策略將使我們能夠同時擴大利潤。在我將其傳遞給約翰（翻到第 11 頁）之前，讓我快速預覽一下我們的 2024 年財務目標。

We are targeting FRE of $1.1 billion. We are targeting FRE margins to increase to a range of 40% to 50%. We are targeting inflows to exceed $40 billion in 2024. And again, we have significantly increased our ability to return capital to shareholders by expanding the share buyback capacity. Again, we intend to be active buyers of our stock as we see strong value returning capital to you, our shareholders. We began 2024 with clear momentum. And with that, let me now turn the call over to John.

我們的 FRE 目標是 11 億美元。我們的目標是將 FRE 利潤率提高到 40% 至 50%。我們的目標是到 2024 年資金流入超過 400 億美元。此外，我們透過擴大股票回購能力，顯著提高了向股東返還資本的能力。同樣，我們打算成為我們股票的積極買家，因為我們看到向您（我們的股東）回報資本的強大價值。 2024 年伊始，我們勢頭強勁。現在讓我把電話轉給約翰。

Thanks, Harvey. Good morning, everyone. I want to cover several topics this morning and echo a few comments already made. First, stakeholder alignment and changes to our compensation strategy. Second, capital allocation. Third, I want to provide some comments on our 2023 results. And lastly, our 2024 financial targets. Updates to our compensation strategy were driven by our desire to create an even better stakeholder alignment and drive fee-related earnings to our shareholders. Essentially, compensation for our senior people will become more success-based.

謝謝，哈維。大家，早安。今天早上我想討論幾個主題並回應已經發表的一些評論。首先，利害關係人的協調和薪酬策略的改變。第二，資本配置。第三，我想對我們2023年的業績發表一些評論。最後是我們的 2024 年財務目標。我們的薪酬策略更新是出於我們希望建立更好的利害關係人聯盟並為股東帶來與費用相關的收入的願望。從本質上講，我們高級人員的薪酬將變得更加基於成功。

As a result, our earnings mix will increasingly shift to a more shareholder-friendly fee-related earnings model as our compensation changes phased in over the next few years. This should show up in 2 main ways. And if you want to follow along, flip to Page 8. Our FRE related cash compensation ratio will decline to 30% to 35% from 45% to 50%. Our realized performance revenue compensation ratio will increase to 60% to 70% from 45% to 50%. I want to be clear, this is not about changing the overall level of compensation, but rather having a higher portion of compensation being success driven. This change should be neutral to DE over time. In connection with these changes, we incurred a onetime noncash GAAP charge of $1.1 billion, largely related to the value of future carry going to employees. This will allow us to generate higher FRE for shareholders more quickly. Even after this charge, our net accrued carry balance ended the year at $2.4 billion and continued to represent over $6 per share in future earnings for our shareholders. In addition, we awarded performance stock units to a select number of senior professionals that have the accountability to help us achieve our growth objectives.

因此，隨著我們的薪酬變化在未來幾年內逐步實施，我們的獲利組合將越來越多地轉向對股東更友善的與費用相關的獲利模式。這應該以兩種主要方式表現出來。如果您想繼續了解，請翻到第 8 頁。我們與 FRE 相關的現金薪資比例將從 45% 至 50% 下降至 30% 至 35%。我們實現的績效收入補償比例將從45%到50%提升到60%到70%。我想澄清的是，這不是要改變整體薪酬水平，而是讓更高比例的薪酬是由成功驅動的。隨著時間的推移，這種變化對 DE 應該是中性的。與這些變化相關，我們一次性支付了 11 億美元的非現金 GAAP 費用，主要與員工的未來收益價值相關。這將使我們能夠更快地為股東創造更高的 FRE。即使在扣除此項費用後，我們的應計淨結餘餘額仍達到 24 億美元，並繼續為我們的股東帶來每股 6 美元以上的未來收益。此外，我們也向精選的高階專業人士授予績效股票單位，他們有責任幫助我們實現成長目標。

These units are highly aligned with shareholders as they only invest with significant share price appreciation. As Harvey mentioned, we now have the capacity to buy back $1.4 billion in stock. This is in addition to an expected annual dividend to shareholders of over $500 million. Our strong balance sheet provides us the flexibility to both return meaningful capital to shareholders and importantly, invest for growth. These are not mutually exclusive decisions. Investing into our businesses remains our top priority. Moving on, let me highlight just a few of our year-end results. We generated $1.4 billion in DE or $3.24 per share, our third best year on record. We produced $531 million in net realized performance revenues despite a difficult market backdrop. Turning to fee-related earnings. We produced a record $254 million of FRE in the fourth quarter with an FRE margin of 43%, also a record. And for the year, we produced a record $859 million in FRE. As we already noted, we expect a meaningful shift higher in 2024 for both FRE and margin. Finally, as Harvey mentioned, we had a strong finish to the year in terms of fundraising, bringing in $37 billion in 2023, more than 20% higher than the prior year. Included in that total is more than $9 billion in new capital raised by Global Credit in the fourth quarter alone.

這些單位與股東高度一致，因為他們只在股價大幅升值的情況下進行投資。正如哈維所提到的，我們現在有能力回購 14 億美元的股票。除此之外，預計還將向股東發放超過 5 億美元的年度股利。我們強大的資產負債表為我們提供了靈活性，既可以向股東返還有有意義的資本，更重要的是，可以進行投資以促進成長。這些並不是互相排斥的決定。投資我們的業務仍然是我們的首要任務。接下來，讓我重點介紹我們的一些年終業績。我們的 DE 收入為 14 億美元，即每股 3.24 美元，這是我們有史以來第三好的一年。儘管市場環境困難，我們仍實現了 5.31 億美元的已實現淨績效收入。轉向與費用相關的收入。第四季度，我們生產了創紀錄的 2.54 億美元 FRE，FRE 利潤率為 43%，同樣創紀錄。今年，我們的 FRE 創造了創紀錄的 8.59 億美元收入。正如我們已經指出的，我們預計 FRE 和利潤率將在 2024 年有意義的上升。最後，正如 Harvey 所提到的，我們在籌款方面取得了強勁的成績，到 2023 年籌集了 370 億美元，比前一年增加了 20% 以上。其中，全球信貸僅在第四季就籌集了超過 90 億美元的新資本。

We have significant momentum going into 2024. We expect FRE to be approximately $1.1 billion, more than 25% higher than 2023. We expect our FRE margin to increase to 40% to 50%. And lastly, we expect inflows to be more than $40 billion. In closing, we produced record results in 2023, and we finished the year with strong momentum. Now let me turn the call over to the operator so we can take your questions.

進入 2024 年，我們勢頭強勁。我們預計 FRE 約為 11 億美元，比 2023 年增長 25% 以上。我們預計 FRE 利潤率將增至 40% 至 50%。最後，我們預計資金流入將超過 400 億美元。最後，我們在 2023 年取得了創紀錄的業績，並以強勁的勢頭結束了這一年。現在讓我將電話轉給接線員，以便我們回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Alexander Blostein with Goldman Sachs.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自高盛的 Alexander Blostein。

So first, I appreciate all the -- so appreciate all the strategic changes you guys are making today. That's great. And obviously, the more explicit disclosure is also very helpful. I was hoping we could start with the discussion on the momentum you highlighted in your prepared remarks. As you look out into 2024, particularly with respect to fundraising, I know you highlighted over $40 billion.

首先，我感謝你們今天所做的所有策略改變。那太棒了。顯然，更明確的披露也非常有幫助。我希望我們能夠先討論您在準備好的發言中強調的動力。當您展望 2024 年時，特別是在籌款方面，我知道您強調了超過 400 億美元。

So I was hoping you could walk us through that. And then sort of related to that, as you think about the momentum in the business, how does that inform the pacing of the share repurchase announcement you guys made today as well?

所以我希望你能引導我們完成這個過程。與此相關的是，當您考慮業務的勢頭時，這如何影響您今天發布的股票回購公告的節奏？

Okay. Alex, thanks. So you really could feel it built. As a new CEO coming in 2023 and new to the company, as you know, and we talked about this, I really felt like my priority was to spend time with my teams and time of my ops and my investing clients. And I spent -- I mean I think I met with over 300 investing clients during the course of the year.

好的。亞歷克斯，謝謝。所以你真的可以感覺到它的建造。如你所知，作為2023 年上任的新任首席執行官，也是公司的新人，我們討論過這一點，我真的覺得我的首要任務是花時間與我的團隊、我的營運人員和我的投資客戶在一起。我的意思是，我想我在這一年中會見了超過 300 名投資客戶。

And obviously, you spent a lot of time internally. And that was really about my teams getting to know me, which is more important even than me going to know them. And you could really feel -- and I think I even talked about it in the third quarter, we could feel the momentum building in terms of the focus, the execution, the receptivity of the brand, and it all came together with these record results, record FRE, record margin, the cost-saving initiatives and you're seeing the fundraising.

顯然，你在內部花了很多時間。這其實是為了讓我的團隊了解我，這甚至比我了解他們更重要。你真的可以感覺到——我想我甚至在第三季度談到過這一點，我們可以感受到在品牌的焦點、執行力和接受度方面的勢頭正在增強，而這一切都與這些創紀錄的業績結合在一起，創紀錄的 FRE，創紀錄的利潤，創紀錄的成本節約舉措，你會看到募款活動。

In terms of coming to '24, the momentum feels good and (inaudible) backdrop complicated. And I feel cautiously optimistic about the environment in 2024, which should provide a tailwind and maybe some upside in these targets. Specifically around fundraising, I'll make 2 comments. One, I know you all focus on a quarter-to-quarter. We really think about fundraising in terms of how can we provide the best value to our LPs. But putting it in together, we put it together the way you think. We built up knowing what we'll be focused on in the course of the year. And so we feel good about these numbers.

就進入 24 屆而言，勢頭良好，但（聽不清楚）背景很複雜。我對 2024 年的環境持謹慎樂觀的態度，這應該會為這些目標帶來推動力，或許還有一些上行空間。特別是關於籌款，我將發表兩點評論。第一，我知道你們都關注季度業績。我們真正考慮籌款時如何為我們的有限合夥人提供最佳價值。但把它放在一起，我們按照你的想法把它放在一起。我們逐漸了解這一年的重點是什麼。所以我們對這些數字感覺很好。

And Alex, in terms of the buyback part of your question, look, we've been spending a lot of time thinking about capital allocation, and we're going to take a much more disciplined approach in terms of how we execute on capital allocation. I think the $1.4 billion buyback is an important first step, and we don't think the stock reflects the true value of the franchise. So you should consider us to be active buyers of our stock.

亞歷克斯，就你問題的回購部分而言，我們花了很多時間思考資本配置，我們將在如何執行資本配置方面採取更嚴格的方法。我認為 14 億美元的回購是重要的第一步，我們認為股票並不能反映特許經營權的真正價值。因此，您應該將我們視為我們股票的積極買家。

I think it's also important to remember, we have a very strong balance sheet, which enables us to have the flexibility to -- in addition to giving capital back to our shareholders via a $1.4 billion stock buyback and our dividend, we have the flexibility and balance sheet strength to continue to invest in our business for growth.

我認為記住這一點也很重要，我們擁有非常強大的資產負債表，這使我們能夠靈活地——除了透過14 億美元的股票回購和股息向股東返還資本之外，我們還具有靈活性和資產負債表實力繼續投資於我們的業務以實現成長。

Our next question comes from Ken Worthington with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的肯‧沃辛頓。

As we look at credit, fundraising was elevated at $9 billion. It looks like 50% more than you raised in the first 3 quarters of the year combined, and you gave some color in the deck on CLOs and CTAC, but it feels like there's more to these numbers. So can you flesh out the jump in fundraising this quarter in credit and sort of how that should continue into this year?

從信貸來看，募款金額增至 90 億美元。它看起來比你今年前 3 個季度籌集的資金總和多了 50%，而且你在 CLO 和 CTAC 上提供了一些色彩，但感覺這些數字還有更多內容。那麼，您能否具體說明本季信貸融資的激增以及這種情況應如何持續到今年？

Yes. Yes. Thanks for the question. I would say, look, I think it's really tough to look at fundraising kind of quarter-to-quarter. There's obviously going to be a lot of volatility. We had a great, great fundraising fourth quarter. We actually had a great year for fundraising and credit as well. And I expect importantly that, that momentum in credit fundraising will continue well into 2024. We've got good visibility on that.

是的。是的。謝謝你的提問。我想說，看，我認為按季度看待籌款確實很困難。顯然會有很大的波動。我們第四季的籌款活動非常出色。實際上，我們在籌款和信貸方面也度過了美好的一年。重要的是，我預計信貸融資的勢頭將持續到 2024 年。我們對此有很好的了解。

It was really, really spread across all of our products that we're raising money for CLOs, as you mentioned, CTAC, which is our retail credit products always in the market. [CCOP], we raised money for it as well and Carlyle Strategic Solutions, which is our kind of asset-backed fund. So it's pretty consistent across the platform. I think the important takeaway is not focusing quarter-to-quarter. We had a good year but we have really good momentum going into 2024 for credit fundraising and quite frankly, fundraising more broadly.

正如您所提到的，CTAC 是我們一直在市場上銷售的零售信貸產品，我們為 CLO 籌集資金確實非常非常廣泛地分佈在我們所有的產品中。 [CCOP]，我們也為其和凱雷策略解決方案籌集了資金，這是我們的資產支持基金。所以它在整個平台上非常一致。我認為重要的一點是不要注意每季的情況。我們度過了美好的一年，但進入 2024 年，我們在信貸籌款方面以及坦率地說，在更廣泛的籌款方面有著非常良好的勢頭。

Our next question comes from Patrick Davitt with Autonomous Research.

我們的下一個問題來自自主研究的派崔克戴維特。

You mentioned the compensation framework will phase in. So what are you assuming for 2024 in your $1.1 billion guide? And in that vein, what are you assuming for transactions and FRPR? And if realizations do remain subdued, do you have a commitment from employees to these compensation ratio? In other words, will you have to abandon these targets if the realizations don't get better?

您提到薪酬框架將逐步實施。那麼您在 11 億美元指南中對 2024 年有何假設？在這種情況下，您對交易和 FRPR 有何假設？如果實現仍然低迷，員工是否對這些薪資比率做出承諾？換句話說，如果實現效果沒有好轉，你是否就必須放棄這些目標？

It's one of the reasons when we were going through our remarks in the prepared pages, we put out a range. Look, this is super important. We're going to execute on this compensation change very deliberately. The range really gives us the flexibility to execute on this deliberately. Look, we have no idea what the market backdrop will look like. But look, I think you should walk away from this thinking our intent is for this to be DE neutral.

這就是當我們在準備好的頁面中瀏覽我們的評論時，我們列出了一個範圍的原因之一。看，這非常重要。我們將非常謹慎地執行這項薪酬變更。該範圍確實使我們能夠靈活地執行此操作。你看，我們不知道市場背景會是什麼樣子。但你看，我認為你應該放棄這種想法，我們的目的是讓它保持中立。

The vast majority of our employees will not be impacted. There will be some variability in compensation for our senior folks in year-to-year. But if you look at it over a couple of year period, our intent is for compensation to not be up or not be down, and that's how we'll manage it. I think it's also important to point out, and I mentioned that in my remarks, the senior people that will have some variability in their compensation, we did grant them performance stock units.

我們絕大多數員工不會受到影響。我們的高級人員的薪酬每年都會有一些變化。但如果你從幾年的時間來看，我們的目的是讓薪水不增加或不減少，這就是我們的管理方式。我認為指出這一點也很重要，我在演講中提到，對於薪酬會有一定波動的高階人員，我們確實授予他們績效股票單位。

So we really have great alignment with our senior people. These performance stock units are really shareholder friendly. They only vest upon share price appreciation. And quite frankly, I think everyone here and on the call hopes they actually do best because they're very shareholder-friendly instrument. In terms of the 2024, $1.1 billion FRE target, you look at the 25% step-up from our $859 million FRE in 2023, we feel very good about it.

所以我們與我們的高級人員確實有著很好的一致性。這些績效股票單位確實對股東有利。它們僅在股價升值時歸屬。坦白說，我認為在座和參加電話會議的每個人都希望他們能真正做到最好，因為他們是非常有利於股東的工具。就 2024 年 11 億美元的 FRE 目標而言，您會看到我們在 2023 年的 8.59 億美元 FRE 基礎上增加了 25%，我們對此感覺非常好。

It really is 3 components. It's growth, which we're very focused on. Two, it's the compensation change and third, we will continue to manage the business prudently in terms of expenses. We have no intention of cutting to the bone, but we will manage the business prudently, but it is a growth, prudent expense management and compensation changes.

它確實由 3 個組件組成。這是我們非常關注的成長。第二，是薪酬的變化，第三，我們將繼續在費用方面審慎地管理業務。我們無意削骨，但我們會審慎地管理業務，但它是一個增長，審慎的費用管理和薪酬變化。

Our next question comes from Chris Kotowski with Oppenheimer & Company.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的克里斯·科托夫斯基。

Yes. Can you hear me? I was wondering under your $40 billion fundraising target, if you could drill down into the composition of that a bit more and in particular, kind of even if you can't give us the numbers and -- but kind of like the -- what should we expect during the course of the year relating to the -- to the 2 big flagship funds in Europe and Asia that you're raising?

是的。你聽得到我嗎？我想知道在您 400 億美元的籌款目標下，您是否可以更深入地了解該目標的組成，特別是，即使您不能給我們提供數字，但有點像 - 什麼我們是否應該在這一年中期待與您在歐洲和亞洲籌集的兩大旗艦基金相關的情況？

Yes. So I think you should think about it broadly across the platform. We have a lot of momentum, as you saw coming off the record fundraising the activity in the fourth quarter. But you should expect to see really good fundraising activity in credit across the private equity platform, our real estate business, our private equity business across infrastructure, the whole space. So we built this model up across the entire franchise.

是的。所以我認為你應該在整個平台上廣泛地考慮這個問題。正如您所看到的，我們在第四季度的籌款活動打破了紀錄，勢頭強勁。但你應該期待在整個私募股權平台、我們的房地產業務、我們跨基礎設施的私募股權業務以及整個領域看到真正良好的信貸融資活動。所以我們在整個特許經營中建立了這個模型。

I think in private equity, like the rest of the industry, specifically, I'm talking about the narrow definition of private equity, corporate private equity. I think there'll still be headwinds in the industry for that. But across our platform, we feel good about the $40 billion number. I will emphasize with John again, we report these numbers quarterly. We just don't think about fundraising. We don't run the business for a quarter but we feel good about the momentum in the business, really good about it.

我認為在私募股權領域，就像產業的其他領域一樣，具體來說，我談論的是私募股權的狹義定義，即企業私募股權。我認為該行業仍將面臨阻力。但在我們的平台上，我們對 400 億美元的數字感到滿意。我將再次向約翰強調，我們每季報告這些數字。我們只是不考慮募款。我們只經營了一個季度的業務，但我們對業務的勢頭感到滿意，真的很好。

And the only thing I'd add is in the solutions business, we have a couple of funds in the market. And we're showing -- we're seeing great momentum in solutions as well in addition to private equity and credit.

我唯一要補充的是在解決方案業務中，我們在市場上有一些基金。我們正在展示——除了私募股權和信貸之外，我們還看到解決方案的強勁勢頭。

Okay. Great. And then just kind of curious, the $1.4 billion share buyback authorization, is that conceived of as a 1-year authorization? Or is that more flexible? Because when you add the $1.4 billion and you add the dividend, it's actually -- it ends up speaking for quite a lot of your likely DE at the end of the year?

好的。偉大的。然後有點好奇，14 億美元的股票回購授權，是否被認為是為期 1 年的授權？還是這樣比較靈活？因為當你加上 14 億美元並加上股息時，實際上 - 它最終代表了你在年底可能的 DE 的相當多的部分？

Yes. So again, the way John framed this, and let's just take a step back. I think many of you have known me for years in terms of how I think around the discipline of capital. But just taking a step back, when we think about capital, we think about growth and shareholder alignment and returning capital to shareholders and investing in growth. And we think about this really purely through the events of really where is the marginal ROI.

是的。再說一遍，約翰是如何闡述這一點的，讓我們退後一步。我想你們中的許多人已經認識我多年了，了解我對資本學科的看法。但退一步來說，當我們考慮資本時，我們會考慮成長和股東聯盟、向股東返還資本以及投資於成長。我們純粹透過邊際投資報酬率到底在哪裡的事件來思考這個問題。

So the first thing that's most important about this is the investing in growth and we have capital available for that. This allocation to share repurchase reflects the fact that when we look at the enterprise value of our firm, it's quite compelling to return capital to shareholders. So we haven't narrowed this to 1 year for sure, but what we want to do is give ourselves the full range of flexibility. We're going to be very disciplined, very systematic about this in terms of driving growth, returning capital to shareholders and finding the balance, effectively the efficient frontier of where that exists.

因此，最重要的第一件事是對成長的投資，我們有可用的資本。這種股票回購的分配反映了這樣一個事實：當我們考慮公司的企業價值時，向股東返還資本是相當引人注目的。所以我們並沒有把這個期限縮小到一年，但我們想做的是給自己全方位的彈性。在推動成長、向股東返還資本以及找到平衡點方面，我們將非常自律、非常系統化，有效地找到現有的有效邊界。

And that's how we're thinking about it. But it's not a 1 year because as you implied, in addition to the dividend, which is $500 million this year, that's how we're thinking about it. But again, as John said earlier, you should expect to see us be active buying stock back.

這就是我們的想法。但這不是一年，因為正如您所暗示的，除了今年 5 億美元的股息之外，這就是我們的想法。但正如約翰之前所說，你應該期望看到我們積極回購股票。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Brian McKenna with Citizens JMP.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Citizens JMP 的 Brian McKenna。

Harvey, I know you're deemphasizing performance income a bit just with the comp changes this morning. But I'm curious, how are you thinking about the rebuild of Net Accrued performance revenues over time? After a 20% apples-to-apples year-over-year decline in 2023 on the heels of solid realizations? And specifically kind of that rebuild as it relates to the contribution from some of the more recent flagship private equity strategies?

哈維，我知道今天早上的薪資變動讓你稍微淡化了績效收入。但我很好奇，您如何看待隨著時間的推移重建淨應計績效收入？ 2023 年，在實現穩健實現之後，年比下降 20%？具體來說，這種重建與一些最近的旗艦私募股權策略的貢獻有關？

Yes, Brian, it's John. I wouldn't say we're deemphasizing performance revenue or carrier realization. It's still -- it's still a very core component of our business, and we expect it to be a core component of our business going forward. You're right, less of that is going to shareholders and more is going to employees and shareholders are getting more high-margin fee earnings as far as this comp reset.

是的，布萊恩，是約翰。我不會說我們不再強調績效收入或營運商實現。它仍然是我們業務的一個非常核心的組成部分，我們希望它成為我們未來業務的核心組成部分。你是對的，股東的收益減少了，員工的收益增加了，而股東在這次補償重置後將獲得更多的高利潤率收入。

As I said in my remarks, we still have net accrued carry of roughly $2.4 billion which still represents $6 a share. I still think it's a very meaningful percentage of our share price.

正如我在發言中所說，我們仍有約 24 億美元的應計淨利差，仍相當於每股 6 美元。我仍然認為這對我們的股價來說是一個非常有意義的百分比。

Our next question comes from Brian Bedell with Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Brian Bedell。

And congrats on the comp change and FRE, maybe just to talk about the FRE margin, the range, not the compensation of the actual margin target range of 40% to 50%. I guess, sort of what is at both ends of that, what would be the key variabilities because it looks a little bit wide for this year. And then in line with that, as we sort of march through '24 and getting to '25 and '26 longer term, is the intent to show or to build on the FRE margin each year and have a sort of a longer-term more steady growth profile to that? And if you can comment on the contribution from Capital Markets business. I know Harvey, you've been working on building that up. And it looks like you reported very good your transaction fee results just this fourth quarter as well.

恭喜薪資變動和 FRE，也許只是談論 FRE 利潤率、範圍，而不是實際利潤率目標範圍 40% 到 50% 的補償。我想，這兩端的關鍵變數是什麼，因為今年的情況看起來有點寬。然後，與此一致的是，當我們進入「24」並進入「25」和「26」的長期目標時，我們的意圖是每年展示或擴大 FRE 利潤率，並有更長期的目標穩定增長概況是什麼？您能否評論一下資本市場業務的貢獻？我知道哈維，你一直在努力建立這一點。看起來您在第四季的交易費用結果也非常好。

So let me take a step back a little bit and just tell you how we're thinking about it as a leadership team. First of all, thanks for noting the capital markets momentum, pretty muted environment actually for capital markets. The team really came together and embraced the focus. And we think that will carry through into 2024 for sure. The -- in terms of the compensation model change and the range, one of the reasons why John is only out of that range is, first and foremost, for us, it's about talent. It's about attracting and retaining the best talent. We have an extraordinary team here.

因此，讓我退後一步，告訴您我們作為領導團隊是如何考慮的。首先，感謝您注意到資本市場的勢頭，資本市場的環境實際上相當平靜。團隊真正團結在一起並抓住了焦點。我們認為這肯定會持續到 2024 年。 - 就薪酬模式的變化和範圍而言，約翰之所以超出該範圍的原因之一是，對我們來說，首先也是最重要的是，這與人才有關。這是為了吸引和留住最優秀的人才。我們這裡有一支非凡的團隊。

And we want to make sure that as we introduce this, we actually have the flexibility to make sure that we do this methodically patiently and over time. So you'll see us move within this range and you'll see periods of outperformance and periods where basically this acts as a shock absorber, but this is an output. We're going to manage the talent and make sure our talent gets paid for their performance first and foremost. That's the most critical thing because that will deliver for everyone in the long run, that will deliver for investing clients and that it'll deliver for our shareholders. But that's how we designed the model. I don't think we can hear you. Who's up?

我們希望確保，當我們引入這一點時，我們實際上具有靈活性，以確保我們能夠有條不紊、耐心地、隨著時間的推移進行這項工作。所以你會看到我們在這個範圍內移動，你會看到表現優異的時期和基本上充當減震器的時期，但這是一種輸出。我們將管理人才，並確保我們的人才首先根據他們的表現獲得報酬。這是最關鍵的事情，因為從長遠來看，這將為每個人帶來好處，為投資客戶帶來好處，為我們的股東帶來好處。但這就是我們設計模型的方式。我想我們聽不到你的聲音。誰上？

Our next question comes from Ben Budish with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的本·布迪什。

Harvey, in the deck, you identified Investment Solutions as one of your strategic initiatives. And I'm just curious, typically, we see sort of your 2 major funds kind of go and raise flagships around the same time. And so we see like very large pickup in AUM, followed by maybe a period of flatter AUM growth. You indicated that we should see a sharp upswing in 2024 in terms of FRE. But just curious, given that you identified that as a strategic initiative, how might that cadence change in 2025 and 2026? Does this mean potentially more vehicles or more sort of run-of-the-mill fundraising? What should we expect to see there?

哈維，在演講中，您將投資解決方案確定為您的策略舉措之一。我只是很好奇，通常情況下，我們會看到你們的兩個主要基金大約在同一時間開始籌集旗艦資金。因此，我們看到資產管理規模大幅上升，隨後資產管理規模可能會出現一段平穩成長的時期。您表示，2024 年 FRE 應該會大幅上升。但只是好奇，鑑於您認為這是一項策略舉措，那麼這種節奏在 2025 年和 2026 年會如何變化？這是否意味著可能會有更多的車輛或更多普通的募款活動？我們應該在那裡看到什麼？

So in '24, look, I showed up a year ago, literally almost everyday. And I was the lucky recipient of some amazing franchise businesses and some great talent. One of those things is our secondary business. And over the course of the year, their growth. And as we indicated in our prepared remarks, we're expecting a doubling of FRE. It's an incredibly talented team with a huge amount of momentum.

所以在 24 年，你看，我一年前就出現了，幾乎每天都出現。我很幸運地獲得了一些令人驚嘆的特許經營業務和一些偉大的人才。其中之一就是我們的次要業務。在這一年裡，他們的成長。正如我們在準備好的發言中指出的那樣，我們預計 FRE 會增加一倍。這是一支非常有才華的團隊，有著巨大的動力。

There's aspects of that business that we continue to build is a financing component in that business. Obviously, I mentioned the fact that we've just launched recently CAPM. I think this is a tremendous opportunity for wealth clients, it's a diversified portfolio with really consistent performance. So I think you'll just -- you'll see us grow this business in a prudent way. I think historically, maybe it didn't get highlighted as much. but this is a really strong team with a lot of momentum.

我們繼續建立的業務的某些方面是該業務的融資部分。顯然，我提到了我們最近剛推出 CAPM 的事實。我認為這對財富客戶來說是一個巨大的機會，它是一個具有真正穩定表現的多元化投資組合。所以我認為你會看到我們以謹慎的方式發展這項業務。我認為從歷史上看，也許它並沒有得到那麼多的重視。但這是一支非常強大的團隊，充滿動力。

Our next question comes from Brennan Hawken with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的布倫南霍肯。

So understanding you guys have touched on this a little bit, but I'm hoping maybe we could peel a little because you've made a couple of references to the comp change John indicated it was phased in over time. And Harvey, I believe you indicated that it was a function somewhat as a shock absorber. So I'm sure there's nuance and layers to it, but maybe could you help us distill a little bit, what is the phase-in going to look over time.

所以理解你們已經觸及了這一點，但我希望我們可以稍微討論一下，因為你們已經提到了一些補償變化，約翰表示它是隨著時間的推移逐步實施的。哈維，我相信你指出它的功能有點像避震器。因此，我確信其中存在細微差別和層次，但也許您可以幫助我們提煉一下，隨著時間的推移，逐步實施的內容會是什麼。

And even once it's fully phased is the entire range still in play allowing for the shock absorbers. Could you just help us understand the difference in between how those 2 will play out in the next coming years?

即使它完全定相，整個範圍仍然在發揮作用，允許減震器。您能否幫助我們了解這兩者在未來幾年中將如何發揮作用之間的差異？

So what I would say, again, we're talking about incentive alignment across all our constituencies, pay for performance and really managing this process over a very long period of time. It's not for a quarter or a year. And so again, when I said stock absorber, the way I think about the compensation ratio is it will be dynamic reflecting the performance.

所以我想說的是，我們正在討論所有支持者之間的激勵調整、績效工資以及在很長一段時間內真正管理這個過程。這不是一個季度或一年。因此，當我說到股票吸收者時，我對薪酬比率的看法是，它將動態地反映業績。

And we want to make sure that we are investing in our talent, rewarding our talent consistently. But there'll be years where there'll be lower realizations and you may see the compensation ratio tick up a little bit. We're giving ourselves that flex. The most important thing about the financial targets we put out because I know that's new is our confidence around the margin, the $1.1 billion FRE target and the fundraising. And of course, obviously, the announcement around our share repurchase capacity.

我們希望確保我們對人才進行投資，並持續獎勵我們的人才。但未來幾年，實現率會降低，你可能會看到補償率略有上升。我們正在給自己靈活性。關於我們提出的財務目標，最重要的是我們對利潤率、11 億美元 FRE 目標和籌款的信心，因為我知道這是新的。當然，很明顯，還有關於我們的股票回購能力的公告。

So we feel highly confident around those numbers, but we're giving you some insight into how we think about things as a leadership team.

因此，我們對這些數字非常有信心，但我們正在向您提供一些關於我們作為領導團隊如何看待事物的見解。

Got it. John, though, you referenced a phase-in period. Could you help us understand what that would look like?

知道了。不過，約翰，你提到了一個階段性的時期。你能幫助我們理解那會是什麼樣子嗎？

Yes. I think Harvey covered that. I mean, look, it's -- we're going to phase it in over a couple of years. We're going to be very deliberate in terms of how we do this. This is -- this is compensation. We're a human capital business. It's a very important component of our business. So you should think of it over a couple of years. And quite frankly, I don't know what the markets look like. So we're going to kind of react to how the markets are.

是的。我認為哈維涵蓋了這一點。我的意思是，看，我們將在幾年內逐步實施它。我們將非常慎重地考慮如何做到這一點。這就是——這就是補償。我們是一家人力資本企業。這是我們業務的一個非常重要的組成部分。所以你應該花幾年時間考慮一下。坦白說，我不知道市場是什麼樣的。因此，我們將對市場的情況做出反應。

Again, I think the important thing to walk away from is not only do we create better stockholder alignment. Our intent is not to pay people more or less. Our intent is really to have a performance-based, success-based compensation structure in place, and that's what we've achieved with this structure.

再說一遍，我認為重要的是我們不僅要建立更好的股東聯盟。我們的目的不是增加或減少人們的工資。我們的真正目的是建立一個基於績效、基於成功的薪酬結構，而這正是我們透過這個結構所達成的目標。

Our next question comes from Will Katz with TD Cowen.

我們的下一個問題來自 Will Katz 和 TD Cowen。

I was wondering -- just wondering if we could unpack the $40 billion just a little bit further. And I know you went through at a very broad level, but could you sort of underline just in terms of where you think you are in terms of Europe and Asia in terms of success of fund opportunity. And then perhaps you said this in your prepared comments, I missed it in the supplement. How many incremental shares are you issuing to management? And what are some of the sort of the key return assumption to test that stock?

我想知道——只是想知道我們是否可以進一步解開這 400 億美元的資金。我知道您經歷了非常廣泛的層面，但您能否強調一下您認為在歐洲和亞洲基金機會的成功方面您所處的位置。然後也許你在準備好的評論中說了這一點，我在補充中錯過了它。您向管理階層發行了多少增量股票？測試該股票的關鍵報酬假設是什麼？

Yes. In terms -- let me take the fundraising first. As Harvey said, in terms of investment solutions, we have great momentum in secondaries in co-investment. In terms of private equity, we have great demand for our Japan buyout fund. We'll soon be in the market with our real estate product, which has fantastic returns.

是的。就而言－讓我先談談募款活動。正如Harvey所說，在投資解決方案方面，我們在二級市場跟投方面勢頭強勁。在私募股權方面，我們對日本收購基金的需求很大。我們很快就會將我們的房地產產品推向市場，該產品將帶來豐厚的回報。

In terms of our Asia buyout and European buyout, look, I think they will continue to face in 2024, industry headwinds that we're seeing in our peers are seeing as well. But we do have a couple of private equity products in the market that I think will be very well received with good demand, and I covered some of the multiple credit products in the market, which we're very, very optimistic about.

就我們的亞洲收購和歐洲收購而言，我認為他們將在 2024 年繼續面臨我們在同行中看到的行業逆風。但我們在市場上確實有一些私募股權產品，我認為這些產品會受到良好的需求而受到歡迎，而且我介紹了市場上的一些多種信貸產品，我們對此非常非常樂觀。

In terms of the PSUs, again, these were targeted to the senior-most level professionals in Carlyle. These professionals are really the individuals that are accountable for growth. And these are the individuals that are driving growth. I think these are very shareholder-friendly instruments. I think our shareholders will want these to vest. Think of it as roughly $300 million of value in the share price appreciation targets are 20%, 40% and 60%. Again, these are very shareholder-friendly instruments.

就 PSU 而言，這些目標同樣是針對凱雷的最高級專業人士。這些專業人員確實是對成長負責的人。這些人是推動成長的人。我認為這些都是對股東非常友善的工具。我認為我們的股東會希望這些股份歸屬。可以認為價值約 3 億美元，股價升值目標分別為 20%、40% 和 60%。同樣，這些都是非常有利於股東的工具。

If our share price doesn't hit those targets, these shares do not vest.

如果我們的股價沒有達到這些目標，這些股票就不會歸屬。

Our next question comes from Daniel Fannon with Jefferies.

我們的下一個問題來自傑弗里斯的丹尼爾·範農。

Wanted to follow up on non-comp expense. John, I think last quarter, you mentioned $40 million in run rate savings so far with more to come. Can you talk about kind of 2024 and what those numbers might look like and/or other initiatives you have in place to also complement that FRE margin expansion in addition to the comp stuff you announced today?

想要跟進非補償費用。約翰，我想上個季度，您提到到目前為止運行率節省了 4000 萬美元，未來還會節省更多。您能否談談 2024 年的情況以及這些數字可能會是什麼樣子和/或您除了今天宣布的補償之外還採取的其他舉措來補充 FRE 利潤率擴張？

Thanks, Daniel. Look, I think if you look at our fourth quarter margin of 43%, which is a record for us, I think it really shows the progress we've made. To be honest, I think we've made progress faster than I anticipated. We're just going to continue to focus on expenses. We're not done. We're just going to manage the firm prudently in terms of expenses. I still think there's some opportunity going into 2024.

謝謝，丹尼爾。看，我認為如果你看看我們第四季度 43% 的利潤率（這對我們來說是創紀錄的），我認為這確實顯示了我們所取得的進步。老實說，我認為我們取得的進展比我預期的要快。我們將繼續關注支出。我們還沒完成。我們只會在費用方面謹慎管理公司。我仍然認為 2024 年還有一些機會。

But look, more importantly, this isn't going to be an expense story. We're much more focused on growth. We're investing in the businesses. But I would say there's probably some additional opportunity on expenses that we'll get out in 2024, but that's not going to be the story. It's going to be more about growth.

但更重要的是，這不會是個開支故事。我們更加關注成長。我們正在投資企業。但我想說的是，2024 年我們可能會在支出方面有一些額外的機會，但故事不會是這樣。這將更多地與增長有關。

Our next question comes from Steven Chubak with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wolfe Research 的 Steven Chubak。

I wanted to ask on the CLO business. The originations in the liquid credit business picked up nicely in admittedly remains fairly subdued, but the outlook in the space appears to be improving. How has the deployment landscape evolve just given the improving capital markets backdrop that you cited? And how should we think about the pickup in that business as we look out to '24?

我想問一下CLO的事情。誠然，流動信貸業務的起源仍然相當低迷，但該領域的前景似乎正在改善。鑑於您所提到的資本市場不斷改善的背景，部署環境發生了什麼樣的變化？當我們展望 24 世紀時，我們該如何看待該業務的回升？

So it's again an incredible franchise business for Carlyle, market leader. In the quarter, we raised our first captive equity fund, CLO partners. I think it's accurate to say against what many people would have thought was a tough market backdrop. It really speaks to the strength of the franchise, the quality of the team, a 20-year franchise with long history of performance. The fund -- the raise was oversubscribed as they were literally in and out of the market in a few months.

因此，對於市場領導者凱雷來說，這又是一項令人難以置信的特許經營業務。本季度，我們籌集了第一隻自保股權基金 CLO Partners。我認為，在許多人認為嚴峻的市場背景下，這個說法是準確的。這確實說明了球隊的實力、球隊的品質、一支擁有 20 年悠久歷史的球隊。該基金——募集資金被超額認購，因為它們實際上在幾個月內進出市場。

I think it's the fastest CLO captive equity fundraise maybe in the history of time. And so really, really proud of the work that they've done and the momentum they have. Now again, the market backdrop has been improving. You're starting to see banks picking up investing in AAAs again. This is all a reflection of credit spreads coming in tighter. So we feel good about the business momentum here. And the team is extraordinary.

我認為這可能是史上最快的 CLO 自保股權融資。因此，他們為他們所做的工作和他們所擁有的動力感到非常非常自豪。現在，市場背景再次改善。您開始看到銀行再次開始投資 AAA。這都是信用利差收緊的反映。因此，我們對這裡的業務勢頭感到滿意。而且團隊非常出色。

Our next question comes from Mike Brown with KBW.

我們的下一個問題來自 KBW 的 Mike Brown。

Okay. Great. The large share buyback authorization certainly makes sense here given the valuation disconnect versus the peer group. Just wanted to ask about the potential for strategic M&A and if that could start to enter the equation a little more when you think about capital allocation? I know it hasn't been a top priority for you, Harvey, in your first year, but it seems like that could eventually become an effective lever for Carlyle to consider down the road.

好的。偉大的。考慮到與同業的估值脫節，大規模股票回購授權在這裡當然是有意義的。只是想問一下策略併購的潛力，以及當您考慮資本配置時，這是否可以開始更多地進入等式？我知道哈維，這對你來說並不是第一年的首要任務，但這似乎最終可能成為凱雷未來考慮的有效槓桿。

Yes. So I would say, certainly open to it, let me give you my framing. Again, many of you know me, but (inaudible) my family, sort of first principles approach. We see marginal opportunity that's very clear to us in growing and building on the base of the franchise, right? We have all the footings.

是的。所以我想說，當然願意，讓我給你我的框架。再說一次，你們中的許多人都認識我，但（聽不清楚）我的家人，是一種第一原則方法。我們看到了在特許經營基礎上成長和建立的邊際機會，這對我們來說非常清楚，對吧？我們已經具備了一切基礎。

We have a world-leading corporate private equity business world-leading real estate franchise, world-leading secondaries business, a world leading credit growing business. I just talked about this a little business. So all the footings of what we need to, as a global private markets manager, they're all in place and the brand. So we have a lot we can build off of, and you start to see, again, that momentum in the record results from last year and in the numbers we've given you for this year.

我們擁有全球領先的企業私募股權業務、全球領先的房地產特許經營業務、世界領先的二級市場業務、世界領先的信貸成長業務。我只是講了這個小事。因此，身為全球私募市場管理者，我們所需的所有基礎都已就位，品牌也已就位。因此，我們有很多可以藉鏡的地方，你們開始再次看到去年創紀錄的業績和我們今年給你們的數字中的這種勢頭。

I think, again, first principles, we would never take anything off the table. I think if the industrial logic makes sense, it's good for our investing clients. Our teams and our shareholders, we'd be open to it, and we'll certainly consider things, but we're not feeling any pressure at this stage, not with this kind of momentum.

我再次認為，首要原則是，我們永遠不會放棄任何事情。我認為如果工業邏輯有意義，對我們的投資客戶來說是有好處的。我們的團隊和股東，我們對此持開放態度，我們當然會考慮一些事情，但現階段我們沒有感受到任何壓力，沒有這種勢頭。

Our next question comes from Michael Cyprys with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的邁克爾·賽普里斯 (Michael Cyprys)。

Just wanted to ask on credit insurance. If you could just elaborate a bit on the deep pipeline of growth opportunities that you alluded to for credit and insurance. Maybe you could just update us on some of the steps that you're taking to accelerate growth there and best capture the opportunity set that you see in credit and insurance, what new products can make sense? And in any areas that could make sense to fill in with hiring?

只是想問一下信用保險。您能否詳細說明您提到的信貸和保險領域的深層成長機會。也許您可以向我們介紹您為加速成長而採取的一些步驟，並最好地抓住您在信貸和保險領域看到的機會集，哪些新產品有意義？在哪些領域可以透過招募來填補？

So again, you saw really strong performance out of the credit insurance platform. John referenced the $9 billion inflows in the fourth quarter. I think that we really like our positioning here. So the capital-light model gives us a huge amount of flexibility and allows us to be able to pivot in a number of different directions. And so I feel very good about the future here.

再次，您看到了信用保險平台的強勁表現。約翰提到了第四季 90 億美元的流入。我認為我們真的很喜歡我們在這裡的定位。因此，輕資本模式為我們提供了巨大的靈活性，使我們能夠向多個不同的方向進行調整。所以我對這裡的未來感覺非常好。

I think the pipeline potential activity really reflects the partnership we have with Fortitude and really what will be happening for the foreseeable future in the insurance sector and the opportunity to build on the Fortitude platform is quite clear. So we have a number of different steps we can take to keep growing. So the outlook over the next couple of years feels quite good.

我認為潛在的管道活動確實反映了我們與 Fortitude 的合作夥伴關係，以及保險業在可預見的未來將會發生的情況，並且在 Fortitude 平台上建立的機會是非常明確的。因此，我們可以採取許多不同的步驟來保持成長。因此，未來幾年的前景感覺相當不錯。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Glenn Schorr with Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Glenn Schorr。

Sorry, one more. I'm curious to put a finer point on the buyback versus investing conversation. So Part A is just will this result in a net reduction of shares? Or is this offsetting stock-based comp? But the bigger point I want to make is I hear you on all the growth areas and I see the momentum. There are also a bunch of areas that you're not yet scaled in across private markets and there's so much growth. So I'm just curious on how you balance this return of capital versus this plethora of opportunity across private markets that you could be putting money to work in?

抱歉，再來一張。我很想對回購與投資的對話進行更詳細的闡述。那麼A部分只是這會導致股份淨減持嗎？還是這是抵消股票補償？但我想說的更重要的一點是，我聽到了你們對所有成長領域的看法，並且我看到了這種動力。還有很多領域尚未在私募市場上擴展，但成長速度如此之快。所以我只是好奇你如何平衡這種資本回報與你可以投入資金的私人市場上的大量機會？

Yes. So again, that's why I understand and Glenn, you've known this about me for a long time. That's why I underscore, and I think I step back and say, listen, we want to think about the approach to capital management. This gives us the flexibility to return capital to shareholders because we think the enterprise value is so compelling here. At the same time, we're not sacrificing growth. And so when we look forward over the next couple of years, we wanted this flexibility, and we will move back and forth, but we are 100% making sure we invest in growth.

是的。再說一次，這就是我理解的原因，格倫，你很早就知道我的這一點了。這就是為什麼我強調，我想我退後一步說，聽著，我們想要考慮資本管理的方法。這使我們能夠靈活地向股東返還資本，因為我們認為企業價值在這裡非常引人注目。同時，我們不會犧牲成長。因此，當我們展望未來幾年時，我們需要這種靈活性，我們會來回移動，但我們 100% 確保投資於成長。

And we think the growth opportunities for Carlyle are pretty extraordinary, and we have the momentum. And I think you see it in the financial targets. So I would agree with you.

我們認為凱雷的成長機會非常非凡，而且我們有動力。我認為你可以在財務目標中看到這一點。所以我同意你的觀點。

Net buyback, shares go down?

淨回購，股價下跌？

I think -- I don't know what John said it earlier, what is it about 10% of the market. I think the math should be pretty easy on that. So I think if we end up utilizing all of this, over the next several quarters, I think the math is pretty easy.

我想——我不知道約翰之前說過什麼，10% 的市佔率是多少。我認為數學應該很容易。所以我認為，如果我們最終在接下來的幾個季度利用所有這些，我認為數學是相當簡單的。

Thank you. There are no further questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Daniel Harris for any closing remarks.

謝謝。沒有其他問題了。我想將電話轉回給丹尼爾·哈里斯，讓其結束語。

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining our call today, for your time and for your questions. Should you have any follow-ups, please give Investor Relations a call. Otherwise, we look forward to talking with you again next quarter.

謝謝接線員，也謝謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議，抽出寶貴的時間並提出問題。如果您有任何後續行動，請致電投資者關係部。否則，我們期待下個季度再次與您交談。

Thanks, everyone.

感謝大家。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Thank you for your participation. This does conclude the program, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

感謝您的參與。這確實結束了程序，您現在可以斷開連接。大家，祝你有美好的一天。