BrightSphere Investment Group Inc.

Please note that this call is being recorded today, Thursday, February 1st, 2024 at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Melody Huang, SVP, Director of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Melody.

Good morning and welcome to Bryce Baer's conference call to discuss our results for the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2023. Before we get started, please know that we make forward-looking statements about our business and financial performance. Each forward-looking statement is subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Additional information regarding this risk and uncertainties appears in our SEC filings, including the form 8-K filed today containing the earnings released our 2022 Form 10-K, and our Form 10-Q for each of the first, second, and third quarters of 2023. 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 or 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 slides that we will use as part of today's discussion. Finally, nothing herein shall be deemed to be an offer or solicitation to buy any investment product. Surin Rana, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will lead the call. And now, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Surin.

Thank you, Malati. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Well, I'll start off with some of the main highlights on slide five of the deck, and then I can answer questions. So, for the fourth quarter of 23, We reported record E&I per share of 77 cents compared to 67 cents in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 45 cents in the third quarter of 2023. The 15% increase in E&I per share compared to the year-ago quarter was primarily driven by management fee revenue being 10% higher than the year-ago quarter due to higher AUM from market appreciation that we saw in 2023. Acadian's investment performance remained great and strengthened further in the fourth quarter. As of December 31, 2023, more than 90% of strategies by revenue outperformed their respective benchmarks across three-, five-, and 10-year periods. The net client cash flows for the quarter were negative $2 billion. As we saw some additional outflows in the quarter, related to our managed volatility strategies and select large reallocations. Our growth initiatives continue to be on track. Acadian's equity alternatives platform, seeded about a year ago in Q4 of 22, continues to show good investment outperformance. And Acadian's systematic credit initiative was just seeded in November 23 with $15 million of feed capital in the high yield strategy. and that has now started to build its track record. Turning to capital management, in 4Q23, the company's board provided a new authorization for share buybacks of up to $100 million. Starting in December of 23, and to date so far in 24, we repurchased approximately $43 million of shares, or 2.1 million shares, which was about 5.2% of our outstanding shares. Regarding our balance sheet, we had a cash balance of $147 million as of December 31, 23. Acadian fully paid down its revolver at the end of Q4 compared to the $13 million that was outstanding at the end of Q3. I'd like to end with reiterating that from a longer-term perspective, we remain focused on maximizing shareholder value. And we'll continue using our free cash flow to support organic growth and to buy back our shares. I'll now turn the call back to the operator and I'm happy to answer any questions at this point.