Acadian Asset Management Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Acadian Asset Management Inc. Earnings Conference call and webcast for the third quarter 2026. During the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. To be added to the queue, please press the star followed by one at any time during the call. If you need to reach an operator, please press the star followed by zero. Please note that this call is being recorded today, Thursday, October 29th, 2026 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Melody Huang, Senior Vice President, Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Melody.

Good morning and welcome to Acadian Asset Management Inc.'s conference call to discuss our results for the third quarter in this September 30th, 2026. Before we begin the presentation, please note that we may make forward-looking statements about our business and financial performance. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risk and certainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information regarding this risk and certainties appears in our SEC filings, including the Form 8-K filed today containing the earnings release, our 2025 Form 10-K and our Form 10-Q for the first and second quarter of 2026. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them as a result of new information of future events. We may also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information about any non-GAAP measures referenced, including a reconciliation of those measures to GAAP measures, can be found on our website, along with the slides that we will use as part of today's discussion. Finally, nothing herein shall be deemed as an offer or solicitation to buy any investment products. Kelly Young, our President and Chief Executive Officer will lead the call. And now I'm pleased to turn the call over to Kelly.

Thanks, Melody. Good morning, everyone. And thanks for joining us today. I'm pleased to report another strong quarter for Acadian with outstanding investment performance, continued positive client flows, record assets under management and record profitability. As we mark Acadian's 40th anniversary, our business continues to build significant momentum. Assets under management have more than doubled since the end of 2024, and we're seeing the benefits of that growth translate into our financial results. Before turning to the quarter, I'd like to offer some broader perspective on the progress we're making across the business. First, on client flows. We've now delivered 11 consecutive quarters of positive net client flows. Following organic growth of more than 20% in 2025, we've generated 28.3 billion of net inflows in the first nine months of 2026, representing 21% annualised organic growth. These are exceptional levels of growth and reflect sustained demand for our investment capabilities. Institutional funding will naturally vary from quarter to quarter, but our pipeline continues to replenish and we're encouraged by the level of client activity and the opportunities ahead of us. Enhanced equity remains an important growth engine, now representing more than 30% of our assets under management. Our extension strategies also continue to attract strong institutional interest and now represent approximately 5% of AUM. Second, our investment performance remains exceptional. Across the firm, 96% of our revenue weighted strategies are outperforming their benchmarks over three, five and 10 year periods. And our shorter term performance has strengthened considerably with a proportion of revenue represented by outperforming strategies over the trailing one year period increasing to 95% from 73% a year ago. We believe this combination of strong long-term track records and improving recent performance reinforces our competitive position and provides a solid foundation for continued client demand. Third, we're making progress and expanding our growth opportunities. In systematic credit, we expect to receive our first external institutional funding later this year from a prominent US asset owner, an important milestone. We're also seeing encouraging early traction in our Tax Aware strategy, which launched in May and has received initial client funding. And we're continuing to expand our reach in the wealth channel. During the quarter, Acadian was selected as an inaugural investment manager for UBS Global Wealth Management's new exclusive manager access fund program in Asia, creating another opportunity to bring our institutional investment capabilities to wealth clients. These initiatives are still at different stages of development, but they represent additional avenues for growth alongside our established strategies. Finally, the growth in our business is translating into strong financial performance. Reoccurring management fees increased 38% year over year, while our E&I operating margin expanded to 42.6%, reflecting the operating leverage in our business model. Taken together, I believe these results demonstrate the strength of our investment franchise, the consistency of client demand, and the opportunities we have to continue growing the business. With that context, let me turn to our third quarter results. As seen on slide two, we continue to deliver outstanding results across key metrics in the third quarter. Our US GAAP net income attributable to controlling interests was up 135%, and EPS was up 138% compared to the prior year, driven by increased management fees and partially offset by non-cash expenses representing changes in the value of Acadian LLC equity and profit interests. ENI up 78% to $48.3 million and our ENI diluted EPS of $1.36 was up 79% driven by revenue growth, the highest ever EPS in the firm's history. Our adjusted EBITDA was up 67%. We realised 2.6 billion of positive net client cash flows in Q3 2026, representing a 4% annualised organic growth rate driven by enhanced and extension strategies. and finally, AUM grew 44% from Q3 2025 to 239.6 billion as of September 30th, 2026, marking another record high for Acadian. Turning to slide three, Acadian's investment performance track record remains strong. Five major implementations comprise the majority of our assets. As of September 30, 2026, global equity, Emerging Markets Equity, Non-US Equity, Small Cap Equity and Enhanced Equity have 100% of assets outperforming benchmarks across 3, 5 and 10-year periods. Global equity markets advanced modestly in Q3 2026. Impacts from resilient economic growth and continued AI-driven investment more than offset elevated geopolitical tensions as well as higher energy prices. Developed markets outperformed emerging markets, while value and quality significantly outperformed growth and momentum factors in general. AAMI generated strong alpha in the third quarter across most major strategies, driven primarily by the strength of Acadian's factor model, with particularly strong contributions from EM, small cap, and extension strategies. Our short-term performance continued to post meaningful improvement in the quarter. 95% of assets outperformed over the trailing one-year period. We believe these exceptional performance results reinforce the consistency and resilience of our disciplined, systematic investment process, which has been built and refined over Acadian's 40-year history. Slide 4 details how our investment process has generated meaningful long-term alpha for our clients. Our revenue-weighted five-year annualised return in excessive benchmark was 4.8% as of the end of Q3 2026 on a consolidated firm-wide basis. Our asset-weighted five-year annualised return in excessive benchmark was 3.9% as of the end of Q3 2026. By revenue weight, 96% of Acadian's strategies outperformed their respective benchmarks across 3, 5 and 10-year periods as of September 30, 2026. And by asset weight, at least 94% of Acadian's strategies outperformed their respective benchmarks across 3, 5 and 10-year periods. Turning to net flows, we continue to see positive momentum across the business. We generated 2.6 billion of net inflows in Q3 2026, representing a 4% annualised organic growth rate and bringing year-to-date net inflows to 28.3 billion, or 21% annualised organic growth. This marks our 11th consecutive quarter of positive net flows. Gross inflows remained healthy and diversified across products and client types, led by our enhanced and extension strategies. Our extension strategies, which provide clients with a higher conviction approach to systematic investing, now represent approximately 13 billion of AUM, reflecting continued strong demand. While net flows moderated this quarter, this largely reflected certain clients rebalancing portfolios following strong equity market appreciation. And with that, I'll turn it over to Scott to review our financial results and capital allocation priorities.