AGF Management Limited

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q2 2025 AGF Management Limited Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Tseng.

You may begin. Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. I'm Ken Tsang, Chief Financial Officer of AJF Management Limited. Today, we will be discussing the financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2025. Slides supporting today's call and webcast can be found in the investor relations section of AJF.com. Also speaking on the call today will be Kevin McCready, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. For the question and answer period following the presentation, Judy Goldring, President and Head of Global Distribution, and Ash Lawrence, Head of AGF Capital Partners, will also be available to address questions. Slide four provides the agenda for today's call. After the preferred remarks, we will be happy to take questions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Kevin.

Thank you, Ken, and thank you everyone for joining us today. The second quarter of 2025 saw continued volatility as global markets grappled with the potential implications of ongoing trade wars. Despite the market volatility, Q2 was another strong quarter for AGF. I'll begin with some highlights. AUM and fee-earning assets were $53.5 billion at the end of Q2, up 12% from a year ago. Compared to Q1, our average AUM was down 3% due to the market volatility experienced throughout the quarter. AGF Investments' retail mutual fund business reported net sales of $65 million in the quarter, with 20 basis points of mutual fund AUM. outpacing the Canadian mutual fund industry. Our SMA and ETF business remains strong. AUM increased 54% year-over-year to $2.8 billion. We reported adjusted and diluted EPS of $0.39 in the quarter. In addition, we have $426 million in short- and long-term investments on our balance sheet, net debt of $50 million, with $166 million available on our credit facility. We have capital available and flexibility in our capital allocation strategy. Subsequent to the quarter, AGF Investments won the Mutual Fund Provider of the Year Award at the 2025 Wealth Professional Awards Ceremony. This recognition celebrates our involving and innovative product lineup, as well as our dedication to delivering exceptional value to our clients. AGF was also honored as an Excellence Awardee in the Employer of Choice category. Finally, the Board declared a $12.50 per share dividend for Q2 of 2025. Starting on slide six, we will provide updates on our business performance. On this slide, we break down our total AUM and fee earning assets in the categories disclosed in our MD&A and show comparisons to the prior year. AGF Investments' mutual fund AUM was $31 billion, up 15% year over year, outpacing the industry increase of 11%. The growth of our ETF and SMA AUM remains strong. I'll provide more color on our mutual fund business and ETF and SMA AUM in a moment. Segregated accounts and sub-advisory AUM increased by 2% compared to the prior year. Our private wealth AUM increased by 7% compared to the prior year to 8.6 billion. And our AGF Capital Partners AUM and fee earning assets were 4.7 billion at the end of the quarter. As a reminder, New Holland Capital AUM of 9 billion is not consolidated into AGF's total AUM and fee-earning assets at this time. Turning to slide seven, I'll provide some details on the mutual fund business. On the back of the volatility in the equity markets in the quarter, the Canadian mutual fund industry saw net positive sales in the quarter of $1 billion, or five basis points of AUM. AGF's investments retail mutual fund business outpaced the industry and achieved 65 million in net sales in the quarter, or 20 basis points of AUM. AGF's equity funds continue to see net inflows in the quarter with particular interest in the AGF Enhanced US Income Plus Fund and AGF European Equity Class. Our AGF Enhanced US Income Plus Fund, which was launched earlier this year, aims to provide long-term capital appreciation and generates a high level of consistent income by employing dynamic option strategies. Our award-winning European Equity Class has garnered interest from clients and advisors on the back of a strong European equity market relative to the U.S. in the first half of 2025 and renewed interest in this category. I want to now give a quick update on our investment performance. AGF Investments measures mutual fund performance by comparing gross returns before fees relative to peers within the same category with the first percentile being the best possible performance. Our one-year performance was in the 46th percentile Our three-year performance was in the 51st percentile, and our five-year performance was in the 41st percentile. Approximately half of our strategies are outperforming our peers on a three- and five-year basis. Turning now to slide eight, I will talk about our ETF and SMA AUM. The AUM in this category has grown 41% on a compounded basis over the last two years. Included in this number are Canadian and U.S.-listed ETFs and SMA platforms globally. In a volatile market environment, one of our liquid alternative products, our U.S.-listed market-neutral anti-beta ETF, stood out for its ability to offer a hedge to equity markets by providing protection during drawdowns while maintaining upside participation. For example, in the recent market downturn from mid-February to early April, while the S&P was down 19%, this ETF produced positive returns of plus 18%. Further, we have seen consistent growth and momentum in the SMA business across the U.S., Canada, and now Asia, where many of our strategies are available on leading SMA and wealth management platforms. I will now pass it over to Ken to discuss our financial results.