MSCI Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the MSCI fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session where participants are requested to ask one question at a time, then add themselves back into the queue for any additional questions. We will have further instructions for you later on. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeremy Ulin, Head of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, and good day and welcome to the MSCI fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our results for the fourth quarter 2025. This press release, along with an earnings presentation and brief quarterly update, are available on our website, msci.com. under the Investor Relations tab. Let me remind you that this call contains forward-looking statements which are governed by the language on the second slide of today's presentation. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date on which they are made, are based on current expectations and current economic conditions, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, please see the risk factors and forward-looking statements disclaimer in our most recent Form 10-K and in our other SEC filings. During today's call, in addition to results presented on the basis of U.S. GAAP, we also refer to non-GAAP measures. You'll find a reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to the equivalent GAAP measures in the appendix of the earnings presentation. We will also discuss operating metrics, such as run rate and retention rate. Important information regarding our use of operating metrics, such as run rate and retention rate, are available in the earnings presentation. On the call today are Henry Fernandez, our chairman and CEO, Andy Wishman, our chief financial officer, and Bear Pettit, our president. Lastly, we wanted to remind our analysts to ask one question at a time during the Q&A portion of our call. We do encourage you to ask more questions by adding yourselves back to the queue. With that, let me now turn the call over to Henry Fernandez. Henry?

Thank you, Jeremy. Good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. MSCI is generating impressive momentum across product lines and client segments. Our leadership in the global investment ecosystem and relentless focus on innovation has enabled us to drive a strong financial performance. In the fourth quarter, we achieved organic revenue growth of over 10%, adjusted EBITDA growth of over 13%, and adjusted EPS growth of almost 12% for the quarter, and almost 14% for the full year. our attractive all-weather franchise, client-centricity, and alignment with favorable long-term secular trends have positioned us to deliver on the long-term growth targets we have set for MSCI. Since MSCI's IPO a little over 18 years ago, we have achieved a compound annual growth rate of nearly 13% for total revenue, nearly 15% for adjusted EBITDA, and over 16% for adjusted EPS. In addition, we have now delivered 11 consecutive years of double digit adjusted EPS growth. We intend to continue with all these records at MSCI for the years and decades to come. In the fourth quarter and through yesterday, we also bought back nearly $958 million of MSCI shares at an average price of about $560 per share. Over the last two years, we have repurchased almost $3.3 billion of our shares at an average price of $554. As you can see, we have a very strong conviction on the prospects and potential of MSCI, and we believe our franchise remains undervalued. In Q4, MSCI's operating metrics included net new subscription sales of $65 million and non-recurring sales of $31 million, bringing total net sales to over $96 million. Q4 was, in fact, our second best quarter ever. for recurring net new subscription sales, and we grew a growth rate of 18%. Across MSCI, our retention rate was over 94% for the full year. All of this resulted in total run rate of over $3.3 billion, growing 13%, and comprised of total ABF run rate of $852 million, growing 26%, and recurring subscription run rate of over $2.4 billion, growing over 9%. Q4 showed how MSCI is using our deep-rooted competitive advantages to drive growth. With newer client segments in particular, we are doubling down on key opportunities while reinforcing our position as the essential intelligence layer of global investing. So for example, our index flywheel is helping clients form thematic baskets, gain global exposures, unlock new distribution channels, launch tradable products, and hedge exposures. In Q4, we delivered our best quarter ever for new recurring subscription sales in index. Meanwhile, total ETF and non-ETF AUM linked to MSCI indexes reached approximately $7 trillion, driven by record inflows into our clients' ETF products linked to MSCI indices, particularly listed ETF products in Europe. In general, asset-based fees remain a consistently strong contributor to our top line. with a durable track record of positive annual cash inflows into ETFs linked to MSCI indices every year, stretching back more than a decade. We also had a strong quarter in analytics, where we posted our second best Q4 on record for new subscription sales. private capital solutions, we drove recurring sales growth of 86%, supported by our rollout of innovative new products and landing new client relationships. In sustainability and climate, our new subscription sales were lower than last year's levels, with particular softness in the Americas. In sustainability, MSCI is expanding our solutions across all client segments and asset classes to address emerging risks and opportunities that go beyond environmental, social, and governance matters. Examples include AI and supply chain disruptions on companies and fixing instruments in people's portfolios. In climate, MSCI is emphasizing physical risk and energy transition tools that promote consistent standards and a common language across companies, industries, and regions. Physical risk is just one area where we have been leveraging AI to enhance our capabilities with tools such as geospatial asset intelligence. We're also harnessing AI to enhance our solutions in custom indices, risk insights, ESG controversies, and private assets. For example, MSCI has decades worth of historical data on private markets. And we're now using AI to process this data in significantly larger volumes and then feed it into our total portfolio insights. Our company-wide total embrace of AI represents a technology power transformation that will increase the value of our tools for clients across the board. I will now review our Q4 performance among individual client segments. In general, MSCI is unlocking significant opportunities across high-growth client segments. With hedge funds, MSCI delivered 13% subscription run rate growth and 26% recurrent net new sales growth. One prominent deal in the quarter was the index rebalancing team at a top global hedge fund for MSCI's new extended custom index module, which spans almost 5,000 custom indices. This highlights the growing appeal of our index product ecosystem and the need for more tools from MSCI. Moving on to wealth managers, MSCI achieved nearly 11% subscription run rate growth, including 15% recurring sales growth as we drive further adoption of our index and analytics tools among home offices and wealth platforms of large investment managers. For example, In Asia, we closed two major CIO office deals for our multi-asset class factor models, which helped make 2025 our best year ever in new recurring subscription sales in the wealth segment in APAC. Among asset owners, MSCI posted close to 11% subscription run rate growth. along our strongest recurring net new sale growth in five years, driven by private capital solutions and analytics. For example, we are seeing rise in demand across regions from pension and sovereign wealth funds for our total portfolio solutions, spanning public markets, multi-asset classes, and especially private markets as clients increase their private asset allocations. Shifting to banks and broker-dealers, MSCI delivered subscription run rate growth of over 9%, with large deals from index and analytics. The expansion of basket trading among banks has created new opportunities for us. given our capabilities in quantitative investment strategies and custom indexing. In Q4, this trend helped MSCI secure a landmark deal for our new basket builder solution with a prominent bank in the Americas. Using our tool, traders can rapidly create standard and custom index baskets across client and internal workflows with MSCI index content and IP forming a fundamental basis of these baskets. Turning finally to active asset managers, MSCI achieved recurring net new sales growth of 13%, primarily driven by index, along with subscription run rate growth of over 7%. Our Q4 results bode well for the gradual recovery of our performance with this important client segment. Active ETF products remain an exciting opportunity for active asset managers and for MSCI. In 2025 alone, MSCI supported our client's launch of over 50 new fee-generating products. active ETF products in the market. As Q4 demonstrated, we are well positioned to benefit from AI, accelerate innovation, and drive adoption of new and existing products for established and emerging client segments while still delivering compounded EPS growth for shareholders. And with that, Let me turn things over to Andy.