Schroders plc

all in here so early so the reason we're not starting of course is we have people joining us on the zoom call so just bear with us for a couple of minutes it's astonishing how quiet you all are and you're seated already so we will be starting in a couple of minutes .

. Thank you.

Right. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us and investing your time with us this morning. It really is great to see you. And welcome to everyone who has joined us on the Zoom call. Joe, it is a great privilege to be stood in front of you as the CEO of this amazing company. And I know you've really come to hear about the results and what we're going to be doing from a strategy perspective. If you can indulge me, I want to spend a couple of minutes giving you my perspectives on that will hopefully also show why I'm super energized about the group. So I'm going to start with a little bit of a story. So every weekend, I sit down with my two teenage daughters and I scan the newspapers. And we have a chat about what's going on. You know, like any good parent, I thought that was all about me preparing them for the outside world. And then, of course, what I realize is I get all the benefit because they give me the views from a 19-year-old. So it's super interesting. But of course, the conversation is entirely dominated by what's all this geopolitical uncertainty, immigration, demographics, why is all this uneven growth leading to a changed political environment? And then, of course, we inevitably get onto the thing of the transformative impact of climate change and AI. Of course, they're way better than me on AI. But those are things that are going to impact their their lives and the next generation's lives and they're not going to go away so the key thing for me every week and it's not quite like sky read the press by the way at all but the thing that's always amazing is they sit there and say how do i get certainty in what is an uncertain world and the only advice i ever give to them is that now is not the time to be a follower I'm leaving that message with all of you to have in the back of your minds as we go through today. Because to lead, adapt and innovate, you have to be active. And I am a vocal advocate for active management because given the backdrop that came out of that conversation with my daughters, we've got to move the debate away from talking about barbells to actually how do we manage the balance between risk management return and cost. And in today's environment, if we can't have that debate, then I don't know when we can. We are the home of active management, a place where some of the industry's best talent aspires to work. And everything we do in managing those assets is in the best interest of our clients. So I know because I've read some of your broker reports that many of you think I obsess about numbers. But the thing that I have grown to obsess about in 30 years are clients. Because no matter what industry you're in, if you win with clients, it's going to drive better outcomes for shareholders and better outcomes for our employees. So my obsession when I'm here at Schroders is not going to change. It's my lens on the world. It's actually why I joined Schroders. So I made a commitment that I would see a client every single day. So I've been pretty busy in the last four months. I've seen more than 120 clients. Bottom line, their feedback's amazing. They tell me what a great organization I now lead. And what's crucial from those conversations is evidence of the depth and breadth of our client relationships. They drive how we innovate. And the deep relationships plus the breadth of capability in both public and private markets actually drives our revenue growth. And to maintain our relationships and our reputation, we need to drive and deliver strong performance, and not just investment performance, but business performance too. So Megan's going to talk to you about our 2024 results, but here is my headline you can write down. It's not good enough to deliver AUM growth and not operating profit growth. We care about delivering for value for our shareholders as well as our clients. But let's dwell for a moment on strong performance. Because strong, consistent performance is exactly why our clients come to us. It's at the heart of what we do. So Johanna is going to talk about the statistics that we normally talk about a little bit later. But I want to focus on this chart on the left. So thank you, UBS. It is always nice to have someone else tell you how good you are. What it actually shows you is that we are the most consistently high-performing listed asset manager in Europe, active or passive. And we've been one of the top two in every single quarter for the last 20 quarters. And I'm pretty convinced our investors are hungry to make sure that blue line goes to the very top. That's why clients come to us. That's why we raise a record amount of money in 2014. Our talented investors deliver through the cycle 20 quarters. And the depth of our bench here at Schroders is astonishing. So I hope you get a sense that I am quite passionate about what we do. And I actually really believe Schroders is a tomorrow company, not a today company. And put simply, we're committed to independent active management driven by exceptional talent. We have broad, deep relationships with clients that allow us to innovate and remain relevant. And we have a really strong performance as investors and we strive for that performance as a business. And I'll come back to this because it's really a great story. We have a brand position you just can't replicate. But look, I think it's important to recognize that Shredders is and will always remain an international business focused on growing markets, headquartered here in London, which we see as the center of talent and innovation for our industry globally. I don't have rose-tinted glasses on. I know there is a lot to do. We will simplify our business, scale it, and deliver to make the best from our brilliant assets. And the entire leadership team that you have in the room today are now focused on getting this business back to profitable growth. And that's why all of you are here today to understand what we're going to do about that. So here's what we're going to cover. First up, Megan, our new CFO, is going to quickly take you through the 2024 results. Then we'll do Q&A. After this, you get a 30-minute break, which gives you an opportunity to meet with all of my Exco colleagues. I've put their photos up behind you so you can spot them in the room. This is probably the best time for me to say that actually last week we were seeing that we announced that Marianne is stepping down. Where are you, Marianne? Right at the front. She's stepping down as the CEO of our wealth business. She joined us back in 2013 when Schroeder's acquired Casanova Capital, and she has been totally central to that amazing growth story. So I am going to thank her actually on behalf of all shareholders for the great work that she has done. But actually, for me personally, she's been a huge support over the last few months. But I'm also excited that Oliver Gregson is joining us in June. He brings a deep understanding of the wealth management business, most latterly at the J.P. Morgan Parish. I'm looking forward to working with him to deliver the next phase of growth for that business and exploring actually where we can accelerate beyond what we're outlining today. After the break, Megan and I were joined on stage by our third executive director, Johanna who's the Group CIO and CEO of Public Markets, and then we'll go through the strategy update. So without further ado, Megan, over to you.