Affiliated Managers Group, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the AMG first quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the call over to your host, Patricia Figueroa, Head of Investor Relations for AMG. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss AMG's results for the first quarter of 2026. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during this call, we may make a number of forward-looking statements which could differ from our actual results materially due to a number of factors, including those described in today's earnings press release and our most recent Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC. And AMG assumes no obligation to update these statements. Also, please note that nothing on this call constitutes an offer of any products, investment vehicles, or services of any AMG affiliate. A replay of today's call will be available on the investor relations section of our website, along with a copy of our earnings release and reconciliations for any non-GAAP financial measures, including any earnings guidance provided. In addition, we have posted an updated investor presentation to our website, and encourage investors to consult our site regularly for updated information. With us today to discuss the company's results for the quarter are Jay Horgan, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Deva Ritchie, Chief Financial Officer. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jay.

Thanks, Patricia, and good morning, everyone. AMG reported record results for the first quarter, with adjusted EBITDA of approximately $317 million and economic earnings per share of $8.23, representing year-over-year growth of 39% and 58% respectively. Rising demand for liquid alternative strategies and ongoing strength in private markets fundraising generated record quarterly net client cash flows of more than $22 billion. bringing net flows over the last 12 months to $52 billion, an organic growth rate of 7% over the period. In the quarter, given our confidence in AMG's business profile and growth prospects, we repurchased shares at an elevated pace, deploying approximately $186 million and bringing share buybacks over the past 12 months to more than $700 million. a reduction of 10% in our shares outstanding. AMG generated these excellent first quarter results against the volatile market backdrop, highlighting the value of AMG's differentiated model and the ongoing strength of our diverse business. As we have seen over AMG's history, our business is resilient and well positioned to navigate periods of uncertainty and dislocation. AMG's highly diversified profile has once again demonstrated that resilience as we ended the first quarter in a position of even greater strength relative to the beginning of the year with record assets under management and record fee-related EBITDA. And we have continued to build on this momentum in April. With 40 affiliates managing a broad range of private markets, liquid alternatives, and differentiated long-only strategies, this is the type of environment where we expect AMG to not only weather a volatile environment well, but outperform. Given that we have strategically evolved towards alternative strategies over the last several years, a number of important secular trends are driving our organic growth story today. In private markets, where our affiliates manage $148 billion in assets, we see opportunities for growth across all 11 affiliates with the strongest momentum coming in two areas, infrastructure and real estate, where our affiliates manage more than $60 billion, and secondary solutions, where our affiliates manage approximately $50 billion. We expect rising demand for infrastructure strategies. as infrastructure investment has become a global imperative due to population growth, the need to modernize aging assets, and an evolving economy shaped by energy security, supply chain realignment, and the rapid growth of digital infrastructure, all against the backdrop of rising inflation. We also expect ongoing demand for secondary solutions across private equity, infrastructure, and credit, Given the role such strategies play in underlying portfolio management for both GPs and LPs to address liquidity, manage duration, and adjust exposures, attributes that are even more important in the environment today given monetization headwinds in private equity. Together, infrastructure and secondary solutions have generated substantial organic growth from both institutional and individual investors over the past 12 months. In liquid alternatives, where our affiliates manage more than $261 billion in assets, we are benefiting most from growth in two trends, institutional demand for absolute return strategies and a growing focus on after-tax compounding in the wealth channel. Absolute return strategies. which account for approximately $180 billion in assets, include multi-strategy, global macro, relative value fixed income, and trend following, and are designed to generate returns that have low or no correlation to broader markets. They provide AMG's business with ballast relative to pro-cyclical strategies in private markets and differentiated equities, enhancing the stability of our earnings over time. For the same reasons, clients globally are increasingly attracted to these absolute return strategies, especially as the outlook for the macro environment has become more uncertain. As a result, we had a meaningful uptick in flows in the quarter, driven by institutional demand for absolute return strategies, with contributions from nearly all of our affiliates in liquid alternatives. And we expect continued organic growth momentum in these strategies. In addition, within liquid alternatives, we are benefiting from significant client demand for tax-aware long-short strategies. These strategies account for approximately $69 billion of our AUM in liquid alternative strategies for about 8% of AMG's business. And while tax-loss harvesting has been a secular trend for decades, clients and advisors are increasingly attuned to the impact of their portfolio allocation decisions on compounding returns after tax. AMG has benefited from this underlying secular trend through ongoing organic growth, which has been significant over the past year. As I mentioned, these four growth areas, infrastructure, secondary solutions, absolute return strategies, and beta-sensitive long-short strategies have driven organic growth in the quarter and over the past 12 months. Looking ahead, given the continued tailwinds in these areas and our affiliates' excellent long-term track records, AMG is well positioned for further growth. As demonstrated over the past five years, our business is strong, diversified, and dynamic. Through our ability to shape AMG's business profile and scale our earnings power by allocating our capital to investments in new and existing affiliates, we will further evolve our business towards areas of growth and return. Our unique approach and track record as a partner are continuing to resonate with the highest quality independent firms. We have had an active start to 2026 in this area. In January, we completed our investment in BBH Credit Partners, a leading taxable fixed income and credit franchise. In February, we announced a new partnership with Highbrook Investors, a private markets manager operating in the real estate sector. And we also announced an incremental minority investment in Garda Capital Partners, an existing, highly successful affiliate operating in Liquid Alternatives. Stepping back from the quarter and to take a longer term view of our business and our strategy. Over the past five years, we have transformed AMG and evolved our business profile in a way that we believe will benefit shareholders for years to come. During this period, our business generated more than $5 billion in capital, all of which, through our disciplined capital allocation strategy, we have reallocated to both high conviction growth investments and meaningful return of capital to shareholders, demonstrating our commitment to long-term value creation. Together, these strategic actions have resulted in exceptional earnings growth, generating mid-teens compound annual growth rate in economic earnings per share over the past five years. And this growth is accelerating. In 2025, economic earnings per share grew by more than 20%. and we expect that growth rate to increase to more than 30% this year. As we look ahead, our capital allocation decision-making will continue to be the most impactful element of our strategy. We anticipate our business will generate significantly higher levels of capital cumulatively over the next five years, and we expect the impact of deploying it towards growth investments and capital return will further shape and diversify our business profile and fuel our earnings growth. With our unique, partnership-centric, cash-generative, return-focused model, we will continue to press our advantages, executing the same proven strategy with the same level of discipline that brought us here. Today, AMG's reputation, value proposition, and capital flexibility have never been stronger. a powerful combination for our firm and for our shareholders. And with that, I'll turn it over to Deva.