The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: There we go. No, happy to have you. All right.
Why don't we start with a question just around the business evolution? As I mentioned, over the last several years, a pretty
meaningful pivot. The Alternatives businesses now comprise over half of your run rate EBITDA. You obviously talked about
Alts comprising as much as two-thirds of the business over the next several years.
What's the roadmap of getting there? How much of that do you think is organic versus incremental acquisitions to build you
guys to that point?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Great. We'll talk a lot more about the existing Affiliates. Obviously, a lot to unpack there.
But, first, I was hoping to get your thoughts on just the acquisition strategy from here. The way you framed it, you went with
your capital, where client allocations have been going for the last several years.
Talk to us a little bit about what does AMG pipeline for M&A look like today, in terms of both size, types of strategies, perhaps
structures? As we think about the forward, should we be thinking about similar smaller type of deals that can really scale
nicely, once they join the platform; or there's scope to do something maybe a little bit larger in the old space?
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DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 9:20PM, AMG.N - Affiliated Managers Group Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial
Services Conference
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Great. No, no. That's clear. Okay.
Let's shift gears talk about organic growth for a couple of minutes. There's a lot to go over here. Maybe we'll start with the
liquids, the liquid Alts part of the business.
That's probably seeing the most significant turnaround in the franchise, as a whole, over the last couple of years. It struggled
a bit over the last few years. The pace of outflows subsided a lot last year. You turned the corner this year. It's been a huge
contributor to organic growth for you guys.
Now, lots of it is driven by AQR. A twofold question there.
First, talk to us about the competitive differentiation and the durability of the flows in AQR's tax-aware strategies. That's
obviously been a big source of inflows. I think it's about $45 billion in assets, give or take. How much more room for growth
do you see there? That's part one.
Part two, outside of this specific business, what else are you seeing underneath the surface in liquid Alts that could help,
perhaps, differentiate or sustain this pace of organic growth across the franchise?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Mostly. Just one follow-up on that. When you think about capacity for something like that, just given the pace of growth for
the tax-aware strategy -- particularly, at that higher end -- how much runway do you think (inaudible) they have?
And then, when you think about -- sorry, two questions -- and when you said that they are on roughly half of the RIA platforms,
where are they, in terms of the wire houses and other, like, larger; like, high net-worth networks?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: The distribution front, you mentioned half of the RIA network -- what about the --?
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DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 9:20PM, AMG.N - Affiliated Managers Group Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial
Services Conference
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: That's helpful. Okay. Let's pivot to private markets; like, the other one-third of the Alt flows that you talked about earlier. Again,
a really good story; perhaps, a little bit more tilted towards Pantheon. That's one of the larger Affiliates you guys have.
When we think about the world where institutional LPs are looking to do more with fewer managers -- that's something we're
going to continue to see in here from some of the larger Alts -- where does AMG's strategy fit in within that? How do you think
about the ability to sustain growth, as LPs consolidate their interest with fewer GPs?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Just maybe double-clicking into that, wealth has been important. For now, it feels like it's really Pantheon's private equity fund
that's driven the bulk of the flows for AMG in this private Alts wealth channel. How do you think about the product roadmap
evolving from here, both for the existing products and whatever else new things you're trying to do?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Yeah. That all makes sense. That makes sense.
When you think about seating product for something like BBH, are you guys using your own capital? Or is it also in combination
with BBH balance sheet?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Got it. Okay. All right. We have seven, eight minutes left on the clock. I want to get to some financial items, as well.
Starting maybe from the bottom up, let's go from capital return and share repurchases. We talked about M&A already so we
probably don't need to go there again. But when I look at AMG's earnings growth profile, it's really been super impressive to
see 40%-ish decline in your share count, I think, over the last, like, five years or something like that. A pretty powerful part of
the story.
How do you think about the payout in a more normalized way, taking into account your forward-growth prospects? How should
we think about the pace of share repurchases, going forward?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Right. Well -- look, the growth has improved; the multiples improved but, probably, not quite enough so it still feels like a good
--
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Look, another important attribute of the model that people pay attention to but maybe don't think about:
The structural change in this line, too much, is performance fees; and, really, the quality of the performance fees being probably
more durable than not, in your case, just given diversity of the underlying managers; and also, the fact that the private bid is
growing which, theoretically, should drive larger performance fee contribution, over time, in some of those fund seasons.
Two-part question on that, as well. When you look at the last five years -- you talked about averaging about $160 million in
annual performance fees. This year, I think the guide suggests $110 million to $155 million.
One, any update to that, given we're pretty far in the quarter? Two, how should we think about the movement in that $160
million somewhere higher, over time?
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Right. Right. Okay.
With about a minute left on the clock, I do want to end on 2026.
On the last earnings call, you talked about, really, material acceleration in growth. You alluded to a number of these factors,
even (inaudible) the course of the last half an hour or so, between strong organic growth and sources of that organic growth
really coming from areas with higher fees and, really, higher, like, economic margin to AMG.
Curious what that actually means for you guys into '26; not sure if you're ready or would like to give us a '26 EBITDA guide.
We'll take it if you have it. But, if not, at least the flow through from some of these tailwinds to earnings, as you think about
next year.
Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst
: Yes. Well, hopefully, more to go.
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