StepStone Group Inc (STEP) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the StepStone second-quarter of fiscal year 2025 conference call and webcast. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that this conference is being recorded.

美好的一天，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加行健資本 2025 財年第二季電話會議及網路廣播。（操作員說明）請注意，本次會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Seth Weiss. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給今天的第一位發言人塞思‧韋斯 (Seth Weiss)。請繼續。

Thank you and good evening. Joining me on today's call are Scott Hart, Chief Executive Officer; Jason Vent, President and Co-Chief Operating Officer; Mike McCabe, Head of Strategy; and David Park, Chief Financial Officer. During our prepared remarks, we will be referring to a presentation, which is available on our Investor Relations website at shareholders.stepstonegroup.com.

謝謝你，晚上好。與我一起參加今天電話會議的是執行長 Scott Hart； Jason Vent，總裁兼聯合營運長；麥克‧麥凱布，策略主管；和財務長大衛·帕克。在我們準備好的發言中，我們將參考一份演示文稿，該演示文稿可在我們的投資者關係網站股東.stepstonegroup.com 上找到。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call, as well as the presentation, contains certain forward-looking statements regarding the company's expected operating and financial performance for future periods. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current plans, estimates, and expectations, and are inherently uncertain and are subject to various risks, uncertainties, and assumptions.

在開始之前，我想提醒大家，本次電話會議以及簡報包含有關公司未來時期的預期營運和財務表現的某些前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述反映了管理層目前的計劃、估計和預期，本質上具有不確定性，並受到各種風險、不確定性和假設的影響。

Actual results for future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements due to changes in circumstances or a number of risks or other factors that are described in the risk factors section of StepStone's periodic filings. These forward-looking statements are made only as of today and, except as required, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of them.

由於情況變化或行健資本定期文件的風險因素部分中描述的一些風險或其他因素，未來時期的實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果有重大差異。這些前瞻性陳述僅在今天作出，除非有要求，我們不承擔更新或修改其中任何陳述的義務。

Today's presentation contains references to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations for the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our presentation, and our filings with the SEC.

今天的演示包含對非公認會計準則財務指標的引用。最直接可比較的 GAAP 財務指標的調整包含在我們的收益發布、我們的簡報以及我們向 SEC 提交的文件中。

Turning to our financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2025, beginning with slide 3, we reported GAAP net income of $53.1 million. GAAP net income attributable to StepStone Group Inc. was $17.6 million, or $0.26 per share.

轉向我們 2025 財年第二季的財務業績，從投影片 3 開始，我們報告的 GAAP 淨利潤為 5310 萬美元。公認會計準則行健資本集團淨利為 1,760 萬美元，即每股 0.26 美元。

Moving to slide 5, we generated fee-related earnings of $72.3 million, up 65% from the prior-year quarter, and we generated an FRE margin of 39%. The quarter reflected retroactive fees primarily from our private equity secondaries fund, special situation real estate secondaries fund, and infrastructure co-investment fund.

轉到投影片 5，我們產生了 7,230 萬美元的費用相關收入，比去年同期成長 65%，FRE 利潤率為 39%。本季反映的追溯費用主要來自我們的私募股權二級基金、特殊情況房地產二級基金和基礎設施聯合投資基金。

Retroactive fees contributed $14.9 million to revenue, which compares to retroactive fees of $3.7 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Finally, we earned $53.6 million in adjusted net income for the quarter, or $0.45 per share. This is up from $30.2 million, or $0.26 per share, in the second quarter of last fiscal year, driven by both higher fee-related earnings and higher net realized performance fees.

追溯費用為收入貢獻了 1,490 萬美元，而 2024 財年第二季的追溯費用為 370 萬美元。最後，我們本季調整後淨利為 5,360 萬美元，即每股 0.45 美元。這一數字高於上一財年第二季的 3,020 萬美元，即每股 0.26 美元，原因是與費用相關的收益和淨實現績效費用增加。

I'll now hand the call over to Scott.

我現在將把電話轉給斯科特。

Thank you, Seth. And good evening, everyone. After posting record results last quarter, we generated even higher fee-related earnings in our fiscal Q2, driven by continued growth in our fee-earning assets. We achieved several fundraising milestones this quarter. We closed the fifth vintage of our private equity secondaries fund at a total fund size of $4.8 billion, our largest commingled fund to date.

謝謝你，賽斯。大家晚上好。繼上季公佈創紀錄的業績後，在收費資產持續成長的推動下，我們在第二財季產生了更高的收費相關收入。本季我們實現了幾個籌款里程碑。我們結束了第五期私募股權二級基金，基金總規模為 48 億美元，是我們迄今為止最大的混合基金。

We generated nearly $850 million in private wealth subscriptions and surpassed $5 billion in net asset value in our private wealth platform. We are benefiting from multiple evergreen funds and market, a strong distribution network, growing brand recognition, and strong investment performance.

我們的私人財富認購額接近 8.5 億美元，私人財富平台的資產淨值超過 50 億美元。我們受益於多個長青基金和市場、強大的分銷網絡、不斷增長的品牌知名度以及強勁的投資業績。

In the four years since the launch of S-Prime, our first retail-focused Evergreen fund, StepStone Private Wealth has evolved into a meaningful contributor to AUM and earnings growth. While we continue to invest in the platform, private wealth revenue growth is meaningfully outpacing our incremental investments, which is helping to drive operating leverage for the entire firm. Firm-wide, we grew fee-earning AUM by $4 billion and produced another strong quarter of gross AUM inflows of nearly $6 billion across the StepStone platform.

自從我們第一隻專注於零售的長青基金 S-Prime 推出以來的四年裡，StepStone Private Wealth 已發展成為資產管理規模和獲利成長的重要貢獻者。在我們繼續投資該平台的同時，私人財富收入的成長明顯超過了我們的增量投資，這有助於提高整個公司的營運槓桿。在全公司範圍內，我們的收費資產管理規模增加了 40 億美元，並在 StepStone 平台上實現了又一個強勁的季度資產管理規模總流入近 60 億美元。

Turning to our financial results, we generated $185 million in management and advisory fees and $72 million in fee-related earnings, which are up 30% and 65% year over year, respectively. This is our strongest fee-related revenue and fee-related earnings on record, even as retroactive fees moderated slightly from last quarter's record level.

談到我們的財務業績，我們產生了 1.85 億美元的管理和諮詢費以及 7,200 萬美元的費用相關收入，年比分別增長 30% 和 65%。這是我們有史以來最強勁的與費用相關的收入和與費用相關的收益，儘管追溯費用較上季度創紀錄的水平略有下降。

Excluding the impact of retroactive fees, our fee-related revenue and fee-related earnings increased 23% and 44% year on year, respectively, driven by robust growth in our fee-earning AUM, particularly in our commingled funds and our evergreen private wealth funds. Our FRE margin was 39% for the quarter. If you were to exclude the impact of retroactive fees, our FRE margin was 34% for both the quarter and the trailing 12 months, our best quarterly and 12-month core margin levels on record. We are reaping the benefits of operating leverage even as we continue to invest for long-term growth.

剔除追溯費用的影響，在我們的收費資產管理規模（特別是混合基金和長青私人財富）強勁增長的推動下，我們的收費相關收入和收費相關盈利分別同比增長 23% 和 44%資金。本季我們的 FRE 利潤率為 39%。如果排除追溯費用的影響，我們本季和過去 12 個月的 FRE 利潤率為 34%，這是我們有史以來最好的季度和 12 個月核心利潤水平。即使我們繼續為長期成長進行投資，我們也正在收穫營運槓桿的好處。

Shifting gears, in September we hosted the StepStone 360 conference, our annual event for private markets, clients, and investors. The sentiment from our clients at this year's conference was undoubtedly more positive than in its prior two years, and demand for our offerings and solutions remains very high.

換檔，我們在 9 月主辦了 StepStone 360​​ 會議，這是我們針對私募市場、客戶和投資者的年度活動。我們的客戶在今年的會議上的情緒無疑比前兩年更加積極，對我們的產品和解決方案的需求仍然非常高。

Global financial market performance has been strong in the last 12 months, but private market investors still face distinct challenges. While pressure from the denominator effect has abated, constraints on liquidity remain a challenge due to the extended period of subdued market activity and corresponding realizations.

過去 12 個月，全球金融市場表現強勁，但私募市場投資者仍面臨明顯挑戰。儘管分母效應的壓力減弱，但由於市場活動長期低迷以及相應的變現，流動性限制仍然是一個挑戰。

Appropriately, liquidity was a prevalent theme at our conference. I would like to share some insights from our SPI database on transaction volumes and asset valuations. When we look at the private markets over the last 25 years, annual realizations have averaged just over 20% of the prior year's net asset value. Over the last three years, this pace of monetization has been cut in half to the lowest levels we have seen since the dot-com bubble burst of the early 2000s and the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.

恰如其分，流動性是我們會議上的一個普遍主題。我想分享我們的 SPI 資料庫中關於交易量和資產估值的一些見解。當我們觀察過去 25 年的私募市場時，年度變現平均僅略高於上一年資產淨值的 20%。在過去三年中，這種貨幣化速度已減半，達到自 2000 年代初期網路泡沫破裂以及 2008 年和 2009 年全球金融危機以來的最低水準。

While the muted pace of realizations is similar to those periods, the duration of this slowdown has been more protracted compared to the decelerations of the dot-com era and the financial crisis. However, today's private markets are fundamentally different from those of 2002 and 2009. The slowdowns in monetizations in the 2000s were accompanied by significant price declines, but private market asset values today are broadly higher than they were a couple years ago. There are pockets of weakness in parts of the real estate and venture capital markets, but the corrections in those areas have been more modest than the bear markets of the past.

雖然實現速度緩慢與那些時期相似，但與網路時代和金融危機的減速相比，這種放緩的持續時間更長。然而，今天的私募市場與 2002 年和 2009 年有著根本的不同。2000 年代貨幣化的放緩伴隨著價格的大幅下跌，但如今的私人市場資產價值卻遠高於幾年前。房地產和創投市場的部分地區存在疲軟，但這些領域的調整比過去的熊市溫和。

Some of the drivers of today's mutual realizations, such as shifting interest rates and wide bid-ask spreads, have started to ease and are expected to continue easing in the coming periods. Other drivers, such as the emergence of longer-duration investments in infrastructure and venture capital, or the trend of general partners holding on to high-performing assets for longer periods of time, are more structural.

當今相互實現的一些驅動因素，例如利率變化和廣泛的買賣價差，已經開始緩解，並預計在未來一段時間內將繼續緩解。其他驅動因素更具結構性，例如基礎設施和風險資本領域長期投資的出現，或普通合夥人長期持有高效能資產的趨勢。

Over the last two and a half years, the median age of investments in the ground has steadily risen. Among mature US PE buyout funds, the number of unrealized investments that have been held for at least five years is now greater than 50%, which is the first time the median hold period has crossed the five-year threshold since we have tracked this data.

在過去的兩年半中，地面投資的中位數年齡穩步上升。在美國成熟的PE併購基金中，持有至少五年的未變現投資數量目前已超過50%，這是我們追蹤該數據以來持有期限中位數首次突破五年門檻。

While this is reflective of slower activity of the last three years, it also represents an opportunity for the coming years, as those assets are ripe for harvest. Encouragingly, we are starting to see liquidity pick up within StepStone funds. Realizations have slowly improved over the last year since hitting a low in the first half of fiscal 2024. We have not yet seen a widespread resumption of full asset sales, but sponsors are leveraging alternative means of harvesting investments, including partial asset sales, dividend recapitalization, and the use of continuation vehicles.

雖然這反映了過去三年的經濟活動放緩，但也代表了未來幾年的機遇，因為這些資產的收穫時機已經成熟。令人鼓舞的是，我們開始看到行健基金的流動性有所回升。自 2024 財年上半年觸及低點以來，去年實現率緩慢改善。我們尚未看到全面恢復全部資產銷售，但發起人正在利用其他方式來獲取投資，包括部分資產出售、股利資本重組和使用延續工具。

We expect liquidity to continue to trend up in the coming periods as full-scale M&A and IPOs come back into the market, but the path may not be linear. In this environment of shifting liquidity, we are continuously seeing clients approach StepStone for our solutions. This is particularly true as LPs and GPs have more options to manage liquidity with the continued development of the secondaries market. Our experience, data, and modeling capabilities provide increasingly valuable insights for our clients to model the likelihood of various outcomes and plan for their capital and cash needs.

我們預計，隨著大規模併購和首次公開募股重返市場，未來一段時期流動性將繼續呈上升趨勢，但路徑可能不是線性的。在流動性不斷變化的環境中，我們不斷看到客戶向行健資本尋求我們的解決方案。隨著二級市場的持續發展，LP和GP有更多選擇來管理流動性，這一點尤其如此。我們的經驗、數據和建模能力為我們的客戶提供了越來越有價值的見解，以模擬各種結果的可能性並規劃他們的資本和現金需求。

And I'll turn the call over to Mike to talk about fundraising and progression of fee-earning AUM in more detail.

我會將電話轉給 Mike，更詳細地討論募款和收費資產管理規模的進度。

Thanks, Scott. Turning to slide 8, We generated over $30 billion of gross AUM inflows during the last 12 months, our best 12-month period ever. Over $21 billion of these inflows came from our separately managed accounts, and nearly $9 billion came from our focused commingled funds. In the quarter, our commingled fund additions included approximately $600 million in our private equity secondaries fund for a final fund size of $4.8 billion.

謝謝，斯科特。轉向幻燈片 8，我們在過去 12 個月內創造了超過 300 億美元的總資產管理規模流入，這是我們有史以來最好的 12 個月時期。其中超過 210 億美元的資金流入來自我們單獨管理的帳戶，近 90 億美元來自我們的重點混合基金。本季度，我們的混合基金新增資金包括約 6 億美元的私募股權二級基金，最終基金規模為 48 億美元。

Other notable commingled fundraisers included interim closes in our Special Situations Real Estate Secondaries Fund and our Infrastructure Co-Investment Fund, which collectively contributed about $300 million in the quarter. As Scott mentioned, we also generated nearly $850 million of subscriptions in our StepStone Private Wealth Evergreen Funds.

其他值得注意的混合籌款活動包括我們的特殊情況房地產二級基金和基礎設施聯合投資基金的臨時關閉，這兩個基金在本季度總共籌集了約 3 億美元。正如斯科特所提到的，我們的 StepStone Private Wealth Evergreen Funds 也獲得了近 8.5 億美元的認購。

Our private wealth platform is now greater than $5 billion. While this still represents a relatively modest share of our total fee-earning AUM, our private wealth vehicles are making up an increasing share of new flows, which provides a positive boost to our growth and a favorable mix shift to our fee rates and our margin.

我們的私人財富平台現已超過 50 億美元。雖然這在我們的收費管理資產總額中所佔的比例仍然相對較小，但我們的私人財富工具在新流量中所佔的份額正在不斷增加，這為我們的增長提供了積極的推動力，並對我們的費率和利潤率產生了有利的組合轉變。

Turning to managed accounts, we generated nearly $4 billion of new additions, which more than replenished the deployment of $1.5 billion out of our undeployed fee-earning capital or UFEC balance. Slide 9 shows our fee-earning AUM by structure and asset class. For the quarter, we grew fee-earning assets by $4 billion. As mentioned, we continued to grow our undeployed fee-earning capital to nearly $30 billion, our highest level ever.

談到管理帳戶，我們新增了近 40 億美元，這超過了我們未部署的收費資本或 UFEC 餘額中 15 億美元的部署。投影片 9 按結構和資產類別顯示了我們的收費資產管理規模。本季度，我們的收費資產增加了 40 億美元。如前所述，我們繼續將未部署的收費資本增加至近 300 億美元，這是我們有史以來的最高水準。

The combination of our fee-earning AUM and UFEC grew to $134 billion, up 5% sequentially and up 27% year over year, providing us with a high degree of visibility for continued growth in management fees as capital is deployed or activated. We mentioned on our last call that we anticipated that we would activate over $4 billion of capital from our managed accounts by the end of this calendar year.

我們的收費 AUM 和 UFEC 合計增長至 1,340 億美元，環比增長 5%，同比增長 27%，這為我們提供了隨著資本部署或激活而管理費用持續增長的高度可見性。我們在上次電話會議中提到，預計到今年年底，我們將從管理帳戶中動用超過 40 億美元的資本。

We activated this capital in October, which will be reflected in our fee-earning AUM in the quarter ending December. Offsetting this will be a roughly $500 million distribution in our commingled funds from the roll-off of a legacy private equity secondaries fund, which we expect to be reflected in the upcoming quarter.

我們在 10 月啟動了這筆資金，這將反映在截至 12 月的季度的收費資產管理規模中。我們的混合基金中將透過遺留私募股權二級基金的滾存分配約 5 億美元來抵消這一損失，我們預計這將在下個季度反映出來。

Slide 10 shows the evolution of our management and advisory fees. We generated a blended management fee rate of 63 basis points for the last 12 months, higher than the 59 basis points from the prior fiscal year, as we benefited from retroactive fees and a higher fee rate from our private wealth offerings.

投影片 10 顯示了我們的管理費和諮詢費的演變。過去 12 個月，我們的混合管理費率為 63 個基點，高於上一財年的 59 個基點，因為我們受益於追溯費用和私人財富產品的更高費率。

I'll now turn the call over to David.

我現在將把電話轉給大衛。

Thanks, Mike. I'd like to turn your attention to slide 12 to touch on our financial highlights. As Scott mentioned, this was another very strong quarter for fee revenues and fee-related earnings. For the quarter, we earned management and advisory fees of $185 million, up 30% from the prior-year quarter. The increase was driven by strong growth in fee-earning AUM across commercial structures, a favorable impact from retroactive fees, and a higher blended average fee rate.

謝謝，麥克。我想讓您注意第 12 張投影片，了解我們的財務亮點。正如斯科特所提到的，這是收費收入和收費相關收入另一個非常強勁的季度。本季度，我們賺了 1.85 億美元的管理和諮詢費，比去年同期成長 30%。這一成長的推動因素包括商業結構中收費資產管理規模的強勁成長、追溯費用的有利影響以及更高的綜合平均費率。

Fee-related earnings were $72 million for the quarter, up 65% from a year ago. We generated an FRE margin of 39% for the quarter, up more than 800 basis points versus the prior-year quarter. Normalizing for retroactive fees, core FRE margins were over 34% and expanded 500 basis points versus the prior year period.

該季度與費用相關的收入為 7,200 萬美元，比去年同期增長 65%。本季我們的 FRE 利潤率為 39%，比去年同期成長了 800 多個基點。追溯費用正常化後，核心 FRE 利潤率超過 34%，較上年同期擴大 500 個基點。

Moving to expenses, cash-based compensation was $83 million, up 6% from last quarter and up 11% from the prior year. The growth reflected increased headcount, primarily driven by annual hires for our analyst class and continued investment in our business development and private wealth teams.

說到費用，現金薪酬為 8,300 萬美元，比上季增長 6%，比上年增長 11%。這一增長反映了員工人數的增加，這主要是由於我們的分析師類別的年度聘用以及對我們的業務開發和私人財富團隊的持續投資所推動的。

General and administrative expenses were $28 million, up $1.5 million sequentially, and up $5 million from a year ago. The sequential increase in G&A was mostly a function of our annual StepStone 360 conference, which occurred in September this year, as opposed to the typical October schedule.

一般及管理費用為 2,800 萬美元，較上一季增加 150 萬美元，比去年同期增加 500 萬美元。G&A 的環比成長主要是由於我們的年度 StepStone 360​​ 會議（該會議於今年 9 月舉行），而不是通常的 10 月日程。

Gross realized performance fees were $23 million for the quarter and $15 million net of related compensation expense. While down from last quarter, net performance fees were up over 150% from a year ago. As previously mentioned, realized performance fees can be lumpy quarter to quarter. When viewed over a rolling 12-month period, our net performance fees have increased each quarter since the low point from a year ago.

本季實現的總績效費用為 2,300 萬美元，扣除相關薪酬費用後為 1,500 萬美元。雖然淨績效費用較上季有所下降，但較去年同期成長了 150% 以上。如前所述，已實現的績效費用可能會按季度波動。從滾動的 12 個月來看，我們的淨績效費用自一年前的低點以來每個季度都有所增加。

Looking ahead, we expect to generate seasonal incentive fees in our upcoming fiscal third quarter primarily related to our Spring Private Wealth Fund. We expect these incentive fees to be larger than last year's private wealth incentive fees, given growth in the fund. As a reminder, the bottom-line contribution from private wealth incentive fees is relatively lighter compared to our other performance fees, after accounting for performance fee-related compensation and the profit's interest. Adjusted net income per share was $0.45, up 73% from a year ago driven by growth in fee-related revenues, FRE margin expansion, and higher net performance fees.

展望未來，我們預計將在即將到來的第三財季產生季節性激勵費用，主要與我們的春季私人財富基金相關。鑑於該基金的成長，我們預計這些獎勵費用將高於去年的私人財富獎勵費用。需要提醒的是，在考慮與績效費相關的報酬和利潤利息後，與我們的其他績效費相比，私人財富激勵費的底線貢獻相對較小。調整後每股淨利潤為 0.45 美元，較上年同期增長 73%，這主要得益於與費用相關的收入增​​長、FRE 利潤率擴張以及淨績效費用的提高。

Moving to key items on the balance sheet on slide 13, net accrued carry finished the quarter at just over $700 million, up 4% from last quarter, and up 10% from the last 12 months. We view our $700 million of net accrued carry as potential future performance fees that will convert to cash as realizations start to pick up. Our net accrued carry is relatively mature, with over 80% tied to programs that are older than 5 years, which means that these programs are ready to harvest.

轉向投影片 13 中資產負債表上的關鍵項目，本季末應計利得淨額略高於 7 億美元，比上季度增長 4%，比過去 12 個月增長 10%。我們將 7 億美元的淨應計利差視為未來潛在的績效費用，隨著變現開始回升，這些費用將轉換為現金。我們的淨應計收益相對成熟，超過80%與5年以上的項目相關，這意味著這些項目已經準備好收穫。

And of this amount, over 50% is sourced from vehicles with deal-by-deal waterfalls, meaning realized carry may be payable at time of investment exit. Our own investment portfolio ended the quarter at $232 million, and we had unfunded commitments to our investment programs of $117 million at quarter end.

其中，超過 50% 來自具有逐筆交易瀑布的車輛，這意味著已實現的利差可能在投資退出時支付。我們自己的投資組合在本季結束時為 2.32 億美元，而我們在季度末對投資計劃的承諾資金尚未到位，金額為 1.17 億美元。

Finally, I want to highlight the private debt offering we closed on last month. We issued $175 million of 5.52% senior notes with a five-year maturity. We are using the net proceeds of this issuance to pay down the outstanding balance of our revolver, which stood at $175 million as of September 30.

最後，我想強調我們上個月完成的私人債務發行。我們發行了 1.75 億美元、利率為 5.52%、期限為五年的優先票據。我們將使用本次發行的淨收益來償還我們的左輪手槍的未償餘額，截至 9 月 30 日，該餘額為 1.75 億美元。

By terming out this debt, we are lowering our interest costs by approximately 200 basis points, or a little more than $3 million per year based on our interest rates and outstanding debt balance as of September 30. Our revolver will stay in place as a source of liquidity to provide added flexibility.

透過償還這筆債務，我們將利息成本降低了約 200 個基點，或根據截至 9 月 30 日的利率和未償債務餘額，每年略高於 300 萬美元。我們的左輪手槍將保留作為流動性來源，以提供更大的靈活性。

This concludes our prepared remarks. I'll now turn it back over to the operator to open the line for any questions.

我們準備好的演講到此結束。現在我會將其轉回給接線員，以便解答任何問題。

(Operator Instructions) Alex Blostein, Goldman Sachs.

（操作員指示）Alex Blostein，高盛。

Hey, good afternoon guys. Thank you for taking the question. I was hoping we could start with a discussion on private equity, secondaries, business, and kind of piggybacking on your liquidity comments. Just curious to think about increase in velocity of capital with perhaps stronger M&A backdrop and maybe more equity issuance.

嘿，大家下午好。感謝您提出問題。我希望我們能夠先討論私募股權、二級市場、商業以及您的流動性評論。只是好奇地想考慮一下資本週轉率的增加，也許是在更強大的併購背景下，也許是更多的股票發行。

And how does that impact sort of growth and volumes in the secondary markets? Is it reasonable to think that secondary volumes could still sort of grow off of the recent levels, or do you think sort of healthier public markets backdrop could take away from some of that opportunity and kind of how you think about deploying that capital?

這對二級市場的成長和銷售有何影響？認為二級交易量仍可能比近期水準有所增長是否合理，或者您是否認為更健康的公開市場背景可能會剝奪一些機會以及您對資本部署的看法？

Sure. Thanks, Alex, for the question. This is Scott. So look, I think as we look at 2024, certainly it seems like we're in line for another record year of activity in the private equity secondaries market here. As we've talked about at length in prior quarters, that's driven by both the LP secondaries market as well as the trend towards more GP-led secondaries. I think for us, we probably think not only about the overall market activity, but our own level of activity within the business here. I think we are well-suited to capitalize on both the LP and the GP-led trend.

當然。謝謝亞歷克斯的提問。這是斯科特。因此，我認為，當我們展望 2024 年時，私募股權二級市場的活動似乎將再創歷史新高。正如我們在前幾個季度詳細討論的那樣，這是由 LP 二級市場以及更多 GP 主導的二級市場趨勢推動的。我認為對我們來說，我們可能不僅考慮整體市場活動，還考慮我們自己的業務活動水平。我認為我們非常適合利用 LP 和 GP 主導的趨勢。

And when you think about the overall size of some of our funds, again, we mentioned that this current private equity secondaries fund, the largest one that we've raised to date at $4.8 billion, that still leaves plenty of room for growth when you think about it relative to other players in the private equity secondaries market, not to mention some of the other asset classes outside of private equity where we are leaders in the asset class as well.

當你考慮我們一些基金的總體規模時，我們再次提到，目前的私募股權二級基金是我們迄今為止籌集的最大的一隻基金，達到 48 億美元，當你相對於私募股權二級市場的其他參與者來考慮一下，更不用說私募股權之外的其他一些資​​產類別，我們也是該資產類別的領導者。

So look, overall, we spent a lot of time looking at the supply and the demand side of the equation here, think that private equity secondary is still an area that is undercapitalized relative to the opportunity and that LPs and GPs alike will tap that market really through the cycle here, creating continued opportunities for groups like us.

因此，總體而言，我們花了很多時間研究方程式的供給和需求方面，認為私募股權二級市場相對於機會而言仍然是一個資本不足的領域，有限合夥人和普通合夥人都將利用該市場真正經歷這裡的周期，為像我們這樣的團體創造持續的機會。

Got it. Thanks for that. And then my second question, just around profitability and FRE margins ex-retro fees, sounds like north of 35% -- sorry, 34%, which is obviously quite healthy. Nice expansion there. How are you thinking about it going forward? I know you always try to balance sort of growth and top line and the investments you're making in the business, but do you guys feel like we're at a point where there's enough scale in the business to deliver a more consistent FRE margin expansion, obviously normalizing for retro fees for the next couple of years? And what's kind of the goalpost of where that could go?

知道了。謝謝你。然後我的第二個問題，關於盈利能力和 FRE 利潤率（扣除復古費用），聽起來像是 35% 以上——抱歉，是 34%，這顯然是相當健康的。那裡的擴張很好。您對未來的發展有何看法？我知道你們總是試圖平衡成長和營收以及你們在業務中所做的投資，但你們是否覺得我們現在的業務規模足夠大，可以提供更穩定的 FRE 利潤率擴張，顯然未來幾年的追溯費用正常化？那它的目標是什麼？

Hey, Alex. It's Mike here. We're very pleased with the way our margins have evolved over the last year or so, in line with many of the expectations that we had set over the last couple of years. So we're very pleased, and I think a lot of the margin expansion that you're seeing is the result of operating leverage and scale.

嘿，亞歷克斯。麥克在這裡。我們對過去一年左右的利潤成長方式感到非常滿意，這符合我們過去幾年設定的許多預期。因此，我們非常高興，我認為您看到的利潤率擴張很大程度上是營運槓桿和規模的結果。

But I think as a management team, our priority continues to invest in the platform for growth, where there are opportunities to grow the business organically and in other areas of the business, whether it's private wealth or data. So investing for growth is still our priority, but the scale that we're able to reach across the various asset classes and distribution channels is certainly generating some operating leverage that you're seeing flow through as we had expected. But David, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to add.

但我認為作為管理團隊，我們的首要任務是繼續投資於成長平台，在那裡有機會有機地發展業務以及業務的其他領域，無論是私人財富還是數據。因此，投資成長仍然是我們的首要任務，但我們能夠在各種資產類別和分銷管道上達到的規模肯定會產生一些營運槓桿，正如我們所預期的那樣。但是大衛，我不知道你是否還有什麼要補充的。

I just add that we've had 34% core FRE margins over the last two quarters. And I'd say that's a reasonable jumping off point going forward, but you should expect to see us continue hiring for the remainder of this fiscal year. So you should see incremental growth in compensation as well as G&A. And that's on the core margins.

我只是補充一下，過去兩個季度我們的核心 FRE 利潤率為 34%。我想說，這是一個合理的起點，但你應該期望看到我們在本財年剩餘時間內繼續招募。因此，您應該會看到薪酬和一般管理費用的增量增長。這就是核心利潤。

But on a reported FRE margin basis, you should expect additional retroactive fees for the remainder of the year. Our PE Secondaries Fund, which had its final close in September, was the largest contributor to the retro fees this year, but aside from that, we do have a few funds in market that will generate retro fees with each closing, and these include our Real Estate Secondaries Fund, our Infrastructure Co-Investment Fund, and our Growth Equity Fund.

但根據報告的 FRE 利潤率，您應該預期今年剩餘時間會產生額外的追溯費用。我們的 PE 二級基金於 9 月完成最終收盤，是今年追溯費用的最大貢獻者，但除此之外，我們市場上確實有一些基金在每次收盤時都會產生追溯費用，其中包括我們的房地產二級基金、基礎建設聯合投資基金及成長股票基金。

Great, thank you, guys.

太好了，謝謝你們，夥計們。

Ben Budish, Barclays.

本·布迪什，巴克萊銀行。

Hi, good evening and thanks for taking my question. Maybe following up somewhat on the margin question, just thinking about what a pickup and carry next year could mean. So I guess maybe on the carry side, Scott, you talked about how in a normal year, you might realize 25% of your accrued balance.

您好，晚上好，感謝您提出我的問題。也許對利潤問題進行一些跟進，只是想一下明年的皮卡和進貨可能意味著什麼。所以我想也許在套利方面，史考特，你談到了在正常的一年中，你可能會實現應計餘額的 25%。

What do you think that could look like next year, given your comments that this is sort of unlike past sort of crises where private market assets are looking quite healthy? And then the kind of margin component is, How do you think about what StepStone may do with those higher levels of proceeds? Is there an opportunity to accelerate your F-3 margin expansion, or how else do you think about deploying that capital?

鑑於您認為這與過去的危機有所不同，在過去的危機中，私募市場資產看起來相當健康，您認為明年會是什麼樣子？然後，保證金的組成部分是，您如何看待行健資本可以用這些更高水準的收益做什麼？是否有機會加速您的 F-3 利潤擴張，或者您認為如何部署該資本？

Yes, let me start by talking about the realization outlook and then we can come back on the second question around margins there. But as you heard me say during the call here, I'm certainly encouraged by the fact that we have seen things start to recover off of their lows in mid-2023. But that recovery stalled a bit in the first half of the year here, and so we certainly haven't seen anything like a return to 2021 levels, have not even seen a return to longer-term averages.

是的，讓我先談談實現前景，然後我們可以回到關於利潤率的第二個問題。但正如您在電話會議中聽到我所說的那樣，我們看到事情開始從 2023 年中期的低點開始復蘇，這一事實無疑讓我感到鼓舞。但這種復甦在今年上半年有點停滯，因此我們當然沒有看到恢復到 2021 年水平的情況，甚至沒有看到恢復到長期平均水平。

And again, some of the things that we point to as the reasons are that we've really seen much more activity that we would characterize as partial realizations as opposed to full realizations. I think in terms of what I would point you to for next year is, look, when you look at, since our IPO, the quarterly trend in net realized performance fees, you have now seen both the lows and the highs, right? The lows of COVID and of calendar 2023, as well as the highs of calendar 2021.

再說一次，我們指出的一些原因是，我們確實看到了更多的活動，我們將其描述為部分實現，而不是完全實現。我認為，就明年而言，我要向您指出的是，當您查看自我們首次公開募股以來，淨實現績效費用的季度趨勢時，您現在已經看到了低點和高點，對吧？新冠疫情和 2023 年的低點，以及 2021 年的高點。

And you can look at sort of what the longer-term averages are there or the kind of rolling LTM numbers to kind of give you a sense for how we would think about a slightly more normalized level of realizations next year. And then the only other thing I would add is, look, even when we look across our own portfolio, we are encouraged that while it doesn't show up in the numbers yet today, there have been some announced full realizations that we would expect to kind of work through the pipeline and close sometime during the next calendar year, which I think is encouraging us as well here.

你可以看看長期平均水平是什麼，或者滾動的 LTM 數字，讓你了解我們如何考慮明年稍微更正常化的實現水平。然後我要補充的唯一一件事是，看，即使我們審視我們自己的投資組合，我們也感到鼓舞，雖然今天還沒有出現在數字中，但已經宣布了一些我們期望的完全實現通過管道進行工作並在下一個日曆年的某個時候關閉，我認為這也鼓勵了我們。

But why don't I let Mike comment here about the second part of your question?

但為什麼我不讓麥克在這裡評論你問題的第二部分呢？

Yes, so Ben, on the margin question as it relates to any pickup in carried interest or performance fees, to the extent that we are seeing a pickup in performance fees, as you know, we build those -- the cash builds throughout the year. And like we did last year, we issued a supplemental dividend that's payable in June, subject to Board approval. And I think that number came out to roughly $0.15 per share last year. And as we experience a pickup in performance fees throughout the rest of this year, we'll continue to build and then distribute it at the end of the year.

是的，所以本，關於保證金問題，因為它與附帶利息或績效費的任何上升有關，就我們看到績效費的上升而言，如你所知，我們建立了這些——全年現金的積累。就像我們去年所做的那樣，我們發行了補充股息，該股息將於 6 月支付，但須經董事會批准。我認為去年這個數字約為每股 0.15 美元。隨著今年剩餘時間我們的業績費用有所上升，我們將繼續建設並在年底分發。

Does that answer your question, Ben?

這能回答你的問題嗎，本？

Yes. Yes, it does. Thank you. Maybe just one separate follow up and an industry wide question. At least yesterday's market reaction tells us that everyone expects that the next year or two are going to be fantastic for the alternative asset industry. Just curious, in your seat as a solutions provider, how are LPs thinking about, in particular, allocations to private equity?

是的。是的，確實如此。謝謝。也許只是一個單獨的後續行動和一個行業範圍內的問題。至少昨天的市場反應告訴我們，每個人都預期未來一兩年對另類資產產業來說將是美好的。只是好奇，作為解決方案提供者，有限合夥人如何考慮私募股權的配置？

Should a kind of meaningful pickup in DPI result in higher allocations? Or should we just think about it as more broadly in terms of like a healthy ecosystem? Because I think the sort of expectation is credit, infrastructure, some of these newer areas, there's room to go but private equity is quite mature. But just curious what your thoughts are there.

DPI 的某種有意義的提升是否應該導致更高的分配？或者我們應該從更廣泛的角度來思考它，例如健康的生態系統？因為我認為這種期望是信貸、基礎設施等一些較新的領域，還有發展的空間，但私募股權已經相當成熟。但只是好奇你的想法是什麼。

Yes, I think in the conversations that we have been having with LPs really around the world, and you've heard us say this in the past, but while we have seen that LPs in private equity were for a period of time temporarily overallocated relative to their target allocations, what we were hearing very few LPs talk about was reducing those private equity target allocations. If anything, those were flat to growing in certain parts of the world, growing from a low base and therefore had room to run.

是的，我認為在我們與世界各地的有限合夥人進行的對話中，你過去也聽過我們這樣說，但儘管我們看到私募股權領域的有限合夥人在一段時間內相對而言暫時過度分配對於他們的目標分配，我們很少聽到有限合夥人談論的是減少私募股權目標分配。如果有什麼不同的話，那就是世界某些地區的成長持平，成長基數較低，因此還有運作空間。

And so I would tell you that even in recent conversations at our 360 conference that we referenced during the call, the long-term commitment to the private equity asset class continues to be strong. The belief in the diversification benefits, the strong risk-adjusted returns, the control orientation of the asset class continues to be strong. So we feel the interest there is healthy, even if not starting from as low of a base as some of the other asset classes.

因此，我想告訴您，即使在我們在電話會議中提到的 360 度會議上最近的對話中，對私募股權資產類別的長期承諾仍然強勁。對多元化收益、強勁的風險調整回報、資產類別的控制導向的信念仍然很強。因此，我們認為人們的興趣是健康的，即使起點不像其他一些資​​產類別那麼低。

Okay, thank you very much.

好的，非常感謝。

Ken Worthington, JP Morgan. Your line is open.

肯‧沃辛頓，摩根大通。您的線路已開通。

Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking the question. If we look at the undeployed fee-earning capital, it seems like the pipeline is building at a faster pace. Now not just this quarter or last quarter, but this has been going on for some time, I guess maybe two questions here. One is, are the characteristics of this pipeline changing versus what you saw a couple years ago? Are you winning more business further in advance? Are the contracts longer tenured? Is more of it invested versus committed? Or maybe nothing has changed.

嗨，晚上好。感謝您提出問題。如果我們看看未部署的收費資本，管道的建設速度似乎更快。現在不僅僅是這個季度或上個季度，而且這種情況已經持續了一段時間，我想這裡可能有兩個問題。一是，這條管道的特徵與您幾年前看到的相比是否發生了變化？您是否能提前贏得更多業務？合約期限是否更長？投入的資金多於承諾的資金嗎？或者也許什麼都沒有改變。

So one, has anything sort of changed with what you're winning? And then secondly, the pipeline's $30 billion now. How long should we -- what's reasonable to think about the conversion of the pipeline into fee-paying AUM? And is it front-end loaded, back-end loaded? Is it just straight linear? How do we think about that? So those two questions. Thanks.

那麼，你所贏得的獎金有什麼改變嗎？其次，該管道目前價值 300 億美元。我們應該花多長時間——考慮將管道轉換為付費資產管理規模（AUM）的合理性是什麼？是前端加載還是後端加載？它只是直線嗎？我們對此有何看法？所以這兩個問題。謝謝。

Yes. Perfect. Thanks, Ken, for the question. You're right, the undeployed fear-earning capital balance has grown over time here to just under $30 billion. What I would tell you is actually the characteristics have not changed, other than perhaps the size of some of the accounts which have continued to grow.

是的。完美的。謝謝肯提出這個問題。你是對的，隨著時間的推移，未部署的、令人恐懼的資本餘額已經成長到近 300 億美元。我要告訴你的是，實際上，除了某些帳戶的規模持續成長之外，這些特徵並沒有改變。

You've heard us point in the past to our 90% plus re-up rate with separate account clients and the fact that on average those accounts tend to grow 30% upon re-up. So some of the numbers have grown larger, but overall, the characteristics in terms of the separate accounts, the strategy, the mix of asset classes, I would say has not changed dramatically.

您過去曾聽過我們指出，我們對獨立帳戶客戶的重新增加率高達 90% 以上，事實上，這些帳戶在重新增加後平均會增加 30%。因此，有些數字變得更大，但總體而言，我認為獨立帳戶、策略、資產類別組合的特徵並沒有發生巨大變化。

The only other thing I would highlight and it's going to kind of play into the second part of your question is that we have had some of these situations where the capital doesn't actually have to be deployed. It just has not been activated yet due to the timing of the fundraise, meaning that we brought on the new separate account or commingled fund before the prior one was fully invested.

我要強調的唯一另一件事是，這將在你問題的第二部分中發揮作用，那就是我們遇到過一些實際上不需要部署資本的情況。只是由於籌款的時間安排尚未激活，這意味著我們在前一個帳戶完全投資之前就引入了新的單獨帳戶或混合基金。

And so the reason I said it leads me to the second answer to your question, so that $30 billion we mentioned during the prepared remarks, we've had over $4 billion of that, that already activated here in October. So that brings us down to closer to $25 billion, $26 billion. And then when you look in our presentation where we show the sort of fee-earning AUM overview and walk through, you can see that we had about $1.5 billion of deployed capital from undeployed fee -- from the UFEC balance this quarter.

所以我這麼說的原因讓我想到了你問題的第二個答案，所以我們在準備好的發言中提到的 300 億美元，我們已經有超過 40 億美元，已經在 10 月份在這裡啟動了。這樣一來，我們的資金就減少到接近 250 億美元、260 億美元。然後，當您查看我們的簡報時，我們展示了收費AUM 概述並進行了瀏覽，您可以看到我們從未部署費用中獲得了約15 億美元的已部署資本——來自本季度的UFEC 餘額。

If you kind of run rate that and get to $6 billion of annual deployment, even though we haven't sort of fully recovered from a deployment standpoint, implies about a four-year time period to invest the rest of the capital, right in line with the three to five years that we have always guided to.

如果你以這個速度運行並達到每年 60 億美元的部署，即使我們從部署的角度來看還沒有完全恢復，這也意味著需要大約四年的時間來投資剩餘的資本，正好符合這一要求我們一直指導的三到五年。

So that's how we think about it. It's something we keep a close eye on in terms of whether we'll be able to be very selective while we deploy that capital over time. But I'd continue to point you that three- to five-year time period. And the one thing that is going to front-load it is, again, these activations as opposed to deployment, which have happened here in the fiscal third quarter.

這就是我們的想法。我們密切關注這一點，看看隨著時間的推移，我們在部署這些資本時是否能夠非常有選擇性。但我會繼續向您指出三到五年的時間段。再次強調，要提前加載的一件事是這些啟動而不是部署，這在第三財季發生了。

Okay. Perfect. Mike, to pick on you, wealth management is going swimmingly. What's next? Are the priorities distribution? Are the priorities product? As you think about the roadmap, where are you investing company resources to kind of continue the success that you've had thus far?

好的。完美的。麥克，對你來說，財富管理進展順利。接下來怎麼辦？優先權是否分配？優先事項是產品嗎？當您考慮路線圖時，您將在哪裡投資公司資源以延續迄今為止的成功？

Sure. Thanks, Ken. Maybe I'll take us back to the Investor Day dialogue that we had where we prioritized, I think Scott shared, a really interesting graph of the evolution of the various asset classes. And so what we think about what's next, if that's the question, that we expect the other asset classes, infrastructure, real estate, and credit to start hitting that inflection point that was presented during our Investor Day that showed call it 10, 12 years into our private equity business. We started achieving certain levels of scale, and scale matters in this business.

當然。謝謝，肯。也許我會帶我們回到投資者日對話，我認為斯科特分享了我們優先考慮的各種資產類別演變的非常有趣的圖表。因此，如果這是問題的話，我們對下一步的看法是，我們預計其他資產類別、基礎設施、房地產和信貸將開始達到投資者日期間出現的拐點，該拐點顯示為 10 年、12 年進入我們的私募股權業務。我們開始達到一定的規模水平，而規模對於這個產業來說很重要。

Our various other asset classes are now hitting those threshold pivot points of scale where we expect to see continued growth rates in those areas. So to the extent that there's investment in growth, you can expect us to continue to build out those teams backed by -- the second part of your question is continued investment in business development across the world, and we'll continue to bring on business development hires to support all the asset classes.

我們的其他各種資產類別現在正達到規模的閾值樞軸點，我們預計這些領域將持續成長。因此，就成長投資而言，您可以期望我們繼續建立由以下支援的團隊—您問題的第二部分是對全球業務發展的持續投資，我們將繼續開展業務開發人員僱用來支援所有資產類別。

But last but not least, the private wealth channel, as we mentioned on our prepared remarks, cleared the $5 billion mark this quarter, and all of our products seem to be being received quite well across our various distribution platforms, both domestically here in the US and abroad. So nothing too new, Ken, but I think you can expect to see the other asset classes continue to accelerate in growth, and distribution and wealth management continue to grow quite nicely going forward.

但最後但並非最不重要的一點是，正如我們在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，私人財富管道本季度突破了50 億美元大關，而且我們所有的產品似乎在我們的各種分銷平台上都受到了很好的歡迎，無論是在國內還是在美國。所以，肯，這並不是什麼新鮮事，但我認為你可以期待看到其他資產類別繼續加速成長，而分銷和財富管理未來將繼續良好成長。

Great, thank you very much.

太好了，非常感謝。

(Operator Instructions) Michael Cyprys, Morgan Stanley.

（操作員指令）Michael Cyprys，摩根士丹利。

Great, thank you. Good evening. Just a question on M&A. Over the years, you've done a number of acquisitions, expanding across to different asset classes, geographies, and distribution reach as well. I'm curious, as you look at the platform today, where there might be opportunities to expand even further, and how do you think about capturing the opportunities that are across the private markets as you look out over the next five years? Thank you.

太好了，謝謝。晚安.只是一個關於併購的問題。多年來，您進行了多次收購，擴展到不同的資產類別、地區和分銷範圍。我很好奇，當您今天看到這個平台時，那裡可能有進一步擴展的機會，以及您在展望未來五年時如何考慮抓住整個私募市場的機會？謝謝。

Thanks, Mike. Sure, M&A has been an important part of StepStone's growth in building out the various asset classes as well as distribution capabilities and in private wealth. I think from an M&A standpoint, we have built out the platform pretty much in line with the vision that we have set to be the trusted global partner in the private markets industry.

謝謝，麥克。當然，併購一直是行健資本在建構各種資產類別以及分銷能力和私人財富方面成長的重要組成部分。我認為從併購的角度來看，我們建立的平台非常符合我們成為私募市場產業值得信賴的全球合作夥伴的願景。

So I think as far as our platform is concerned, it's largely built out to the extent that there is a way to either accelerate or enhance something we're currently doing, like we did in 2021 with the acquisition of Greenspring, which really scaled up our venture capital capabilities. I think we have a great track record of onboarding senior experienced teams and bringing on organizations that will help accelerate or enhance something that we currently do.

因此，我認為就我們的平台而言，它很大程度上是為了有辦法加速或增強我們目前正在做的事情，就像我們在 2021 年收購 Greenspring 所做的那樣，這確實擴大了規模我們的風險投資能力。我認為我們在引進資深經驗豐富的團隊和引入有助於加速或加強我們目前所做的事情的組織方面擁有良好的記錄。

Hard to see us deviating much from our current platform design. But as we emphasized late last year and over the years, buying in the NCI is a form of internal M&A that we continue to focus on. And as you know, we've hardwired and pre-wired the buying of NCI over the next several years. And that is largely the focus of our M&A and do so in an accretive way.

很難看到我們與目前的平台設計有太大偏差。但正如我們去年年底和多年來所強調的那樣，收購 NCI 是我們繼續關注的內部併購形式。如您所知，我們已經在未來幾年內對 NCI 的購買進行了硬連接和預連接。這在很大程度上是我們併購的重點，並以增值的方式進行。

Great. Thanks for that. And then just maybe shifting gears over to the wealth side post-election here with scope for maybe more supportive regulatory environment for financial services. Just curious how you're thinking about the scope for all to penetrate and access the 401(k) channel which to this point has been out of reach [historically]. How might those be overcome? What products might be best suited for the 401(k) channel? How is StepStone positioning for that? And how might your ticker technology be employed here as an access to that channel?

偉大的。謝謝你。然後，也許在選舉後將重心轉向財富方面，為金融服務提供可能更具支持性的監管環境。只是好奇您如何考慮所有人滲透和訪問 401(k) 通道的範圍，而到目前為止，該通道還無法實現[歷史上]。如何克服這些問題？哪些產品最適合 401(k) 通路？行健資本對此有何定位？您的行情自動收錄器技術如何在這裡被用作存取該管道的途徑？

Thanks, Mike. Jason here. And I think it's on your end, but you're breaking up. But I think I've got the gist of the question. In terms of private markets for the US-defined contribution market, we think that the path forward is going to be within target date, first and foremost, as opposed to being line-item menu selection in the 401(k) lineup for the individual. It's not to say that it couldn't happen, but we think it's best suited inside the target date wrapper, leading to a better tenor match.

謝謝，麥克。傑森在這裡。我認為這就是你的結局，但你們正在分手。但我想我已經明白問題的要點了。就美國定義的繳款市場的私人市場而言，我們認為前進的道路首先將在目標日期內完成，而不是個人 401(k) 陣容中的行項目菜單選擇。這並不是說它不會發生，但我們認為它最適合目標日期包裝器內，從而實現更好的男高音匹配。

In terms of the products that are suited, there's already some adoption within the target date community of private real estate, typically in the open-end core and core-plus markets. And so clearly, that was a signal from the marketplace that the structure, right, being able to enter over time, being able to exit over time, was important.

就適合的產品而言，私人房地產的目標日期社區中已經有了一些採用，通常是在開放式核心市場和核心加市場中。很明顯，這是來自市場的信號，表明結構，對，能夠隨著時間的推移進入，能夠隨著時間的推移退出，是很重要的。

And so I think that the technology that's developed in the wealth channel for the individual personal account, whether it be the tender structures or otherwise, are relatively well suited, whether it stays in a 40 Act wrapper with a ticker or not, they tend to be well suited, I believe, for that target date community to adopt.

因此，我認為，在個人帳戶財富管道中開發的技術，無論是投標結構還是其他方式，都是相對合適的，無論它是否保留在帶有股票代碼的 40 法案包裝中，他們傾向於我相信，非常適合該目標日期社區採用。

The change in administration, surely, I would expect that, at the top level, a more deregulatory environment could be supportive. We don't believe here at StepStone that regulatory action is required in any way or legislative action is required in any way for the target date community to adopt private markets. And in fact, again, I would just point to the fact that it actually already is happening in the real estate market. And I think that's kind of proof that it works.

當然，我預計，在高階管理方面的變化，更放鬆管制的環境可能會起到支持作用。在行健資本，我們不認為需要以任何方式採取監管行動或以任何方式採取立法行動，以使目標日期社區採用私人市場。事實上，我只想指出這樣一個事實：房地產市場實際上已經發生了這種情況。我認為這就是它有效的證明。

We're still in the very early stages from an education perspective with that marketplace. There are a lot of different flavors of what D.C. looks like, who administers it within companies or within asset management platforms. And we're on a journey of educating that populus as to not only the investment merits but exactly how the product would work, how it would work with their mid- and back office, the vendors in that space to the extent they're different from the ones that we typically deal with, et cetera.

從教育的角度來看，我們仍處於該市場的早期階段。華盛頓特區的情況有很多不同的風格，由誰在公司內部或資產管理平台內管理。我們正在努力教育大眾，不僅讓他們了解投資優點，還讓他們了解產品的具體運作方式、產品如何與他們的中後台、該領域的供應商合作，以了解他們的不同之處從我們通常處理的問題等等。

So something that we are very focused on, have been for nearly a decade now in educating that populus, and something that when we look outside the US, we've been doing for nearly 15 years now and working with the defined contribution plans in a number of different geographies outside the US. So we've got kind of proven case studies of how it works and that it works well.

因此，我們非常關注的事情，近十年來一直致力於教育民眾，而當我們放眼美國以外的地區時，我們已經做了近 15 年，並​​以固定繳款計劃的方式開展工作。不同地區。因此，我們有一些經過驗證的案例研究，說明它是如何運作的，而且效果很好。

Great, thanks so much.

太好了，非常感謝。

(Operator Instructions) Dear speakers, there are no further questions. I would now like to hand over the call to the management team for any closing remarks.

（操作員說明）尊敬的發言者，沒有其他問題了。現在，我想將會議轉交給管理團隊，讓他們發表結束語。

Great. Well, in that case, thanks, everyone, for your continued interest in the StepStone story and for your time today. We look forward to connecting with you again next quarter. Thank you.

偉大的。好吧，那麼，感謝大家對 StepStone 故事的持續關注以及今天抽出寶貴的時間。我們期待下個季度再次與您聯繫。謝謝。

That does conclude our conference today. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.

我們今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。你們現在可以斷開連結了。祝你今天過得愉快。