Virtus Investment Partners, Inc.

Good morning, my name is Joelle, and I'll be a conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to the Virtus Investment Partners quarterly conference call. The slide presentation for this call is available in the investor relations section of the Virtus website, www.virtus.com. This call is also being recorded and will be available for replay on the Virtus website. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period and instructions will follow at that time. I will now turn the conference to your host, Sean Roark.

Thank you, Joelle, and good morning, everyone. On behalf of Virtus Investment Partners, I'd like to welcome you to the discussion of our operating and financial results for the fourth quarter of 2020. Our speakers today are George Elward, President and CEO of Virtus, and Mike Angerthal, Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we'll have a Q&A period. Before we begin, I direct your attention to the important disclosures on page two of the slide presentation that accompanies this webcast. Certain matters discussed on this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and as such are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those factors set forth in today's news release and discussed in our SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the statements. In addition to results presented on a GAAP basis, we use certain non-GAAP measures to evaluate our financial results. Our non-GAAP financial measures are not substitutes for GAAP financial results and should be read in conjunction with the GAAP results. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the applicable GAAP measures are included in today's news release and financial supplement, which are available on our website. Now I'd like to turn the call over to George. George?

Thank you, Sean. Good morning, everyone. I'll start today by giving an overview of the results we reported this morning, as well as an update on the Allianz GI Partnership, which has been finalized, before turning it over to Mike to provide more detail on the quarter. Then, before taking questions, I will make some comments on our announcement yesterday of our agreement with Westchester Capital Management. Turning to the results, we are pleased with the continued strong financial and operating performance of the business, which for the quarter included positive net flows representing an annualized organic growth rate of more than 9 percent, our second highest level of quarterly sales, our highest level of AUM revenues and earnings per share, continued excellent investment performance, and consistent return of capital to shareholders in debt reduction. We're especially pleased with the trends over the course of 2020, which was a challenging year in many ways. In spite of that, we reported record earnings, generated positive net flows for the year, with an organic growth rate of nearly 5%, and increased sales by more than 60%. We have reported positive organic growth in four of the past five quarters, with the favorable trends reflecting the differentiated nature of our investment strategies, strong investment performance, and effective distribution. In 2020, our free cash flow supported continued return of capital to shareholders and debt reduction, including the $32.5 million to repurchase stock, representing 3.6% of beginning of period shares, increasing the quarterly dividend by 22% and reducing debt by 28%. At December 31st, our cash balance exceeded gross debt by $41 million. Turning to a review of the results, long-term assets under management at December 31st reached their highest level, increasing sequentially by nearly $16 billion, or 14%, to $130.7 billion as a result of both market appreciation and positive net flows. Total assets ended at 132.2 billion. Sales momentum continued with 8.6 billion of inflows, representing our second-best quarter of sales, with significant increases in open-end funds, retail separate accounts, and institutional. For the quarter, we had 2.6 billion of positive net flows with sequential increases across product categories. Open-end net inflows were 0.7 billion, which included positive net flows in both equity and fixed income. Retail separate accounts continued to deliver consistently positive net flows, reaching another high at $1.3 billion. Institutional net flows were $0.6 billion, an improvement from the net outflows in the prior quarter, which included one large redemption. For the year, institutional generated $1.5 billion in positive net flows, an organic growth rate of nearly 5%, with contributions from existing mandates and new accounts across multiple affiliates, reflecting continued traction in distribution. In terms of what we saw in January for flows, there was a general continuation of the trends from last year, but we are seeing an increase in demand for our fixed income strategies, and we were pleased that mutual fund gross sales in the month of January were higher than any month in 2020. Our financial results for the quarter reflected positive market returns, strong organic growth, and ongoing expense discipline. Operating income has adjusted of $61.9 million and the related margin of 40.3%. increased from 54.1 million to 39.3 percent, respectively, in the third quarter. Our earnings per share, as suggested, reached its highest level, increasing 15 percent sequentially to $5.15, primarily due to higher revenues. Turning now to capital, our approach to capital management remains consistent, to invest in the growth of the business, return capital to shareholders, and maintain appropriate levels of debt. During the quarter, we reduced gross debt by 8%, and we closed the year in a net cash position. We also returned capital to shareholders through our common dividend, which we increased, as well as with the repurchase of approximately 40,000 shares, or 0.5% of common shares outstanding. Turning to Allianz GI, or AGI, as we announced yesterday, we have finalized our partnership, which adds $29.3 billion of assets under management, for pro forma AUM of $161.4 billion at December 31st, as well as $3.6 billion of other fee-earning assets. We are excited to welcome NFJ, a global value equity team, to Virtus as a new affiliate and to begin our relationship with Allianz GI, representing their compelling strategies in the U.S. retail market. The partnership at scale diversifies our assets with complementary strategies, including multi-asset and thematic equity and provides incremental growth opportunities. We will largely be leveraging our existing strong retail infrastructure, but we are pleased the relationship has provided us the opportunity to enhance our business intelligence, digital marketing, and distribution resources by adding select talented individuals from AGI. Regarding the financial benefits, we continue to expect accretion to earnings per share as adjusted at more than 30% on an annualized basis. With that, let me turn the call over to Mike to provide more detail on the results. Mike?