Janus Henderson Group PLC at UBS Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : So we'd love to start out with 2024, transformational year for Janus in a couple of different ways, right? Both organic growth, but also inorganic, a few inorganic growth perspectives for 2024. As you progress through the strategic shift that you guys have laid out, what's in focus for 2025?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right. Okay. Well, we touched on this a little bit -- and thanks. That's a lot to think about. We touched on this a little bit before, but I'd like to go with an unconventional question here. I'm new, really, to paying close attention to Janus. What you're doing seems really interesting. But give me the pitch. I come with this with zero baggage. So why do you think Janus -- why does Janus make a compelling investment case now?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Okay. That's interesting, and I'll commit to continue to think on it. How's that?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Fair enough, fair enough. You guys recently purchased Victory Park, right? $6 billion private credit manager focused on asset-backed finance. There's a lot of attention to the asset-backed market recently. How is that integration going? Which areas are you finding most complementary to the existing franchise?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Got it, yeah. And you sort of anticipated my follow-up, which is Privacore and how it fits in. So that's still a work in progress, I guess, right?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Yeah.

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right, okay. One of the big pieces driving success last year and what you guys were able to achieve in 2024 was on the ETF side, right? So innovation at notably within the fixed income side of things. So it's kind of shocking that you went from pretty much nowhere in ETFs to the fourth largest fixed-income ETF provider. But help me understand, given your equity heritage, why start with bonds? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 4:20PM, JHG.N - Janus Henderson Group PLC at UBS Financial Services Conference

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Got it. I was chatting with actually Greg Trinks, by the way. Great, tremendous hire. Comes from UBS. I mean, what you were doing just sort of had -- had his fingerprints on it from my perspective. So we went out and we were talking, and rate's coming down, so JAAA is very front-end loaded. I know you were sort of trying to pull me into the equity side, and we'll get there, but I just want to hit on this really quickly first. So front-end sensitivity for JAAA and JBBB, right? They're priced off SOFR. Have you noticed any change in demand or how -- or excitement or interest now that we've had front-end rates starting to come down?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Okay, fair enough, yeah. Okay, so the active equity ETF to JXX, but also, I believe JMID is another. It's an interesting development. It's sort of my growing sense that maybe the fixed-income ETF offering was a proof of concept, so to speak, right? And then you can show the PMs and whatnot. Hey, this can work. We can pull it. Look at all these assets we can pull in. Is that fair? And what would you add to that?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Okay, fine. I overplayed the hand, no problem. Okay, so Tabula is now closed, right, and launched your first ETF in Europe. So how quickly do you expect to scale those strategies?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : You touched on this before, but Europe, the distribution dynamics in Europe were very different than they are in the US, right? Might have a little something to do with why the ETF adoption is -- but do you think those differences will result in a different trajectory and a different ending point as well?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Yeah, sure, fair. Shifting gears a little bit to the institutional pipeline, right? Rebuilding of that is a big focus for investors, so where does that stand?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right, okay. And there were some stats quoted on the call, right? Ali said that's 30% and 35%, Europe and North America, right, with RFPs, RFP activity. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 4:20PM, JHG.N - Janus Henderson Group PLC at UBS Financial Services Conference

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Yeah. Do you have any guess about the range of time that you think it's going to take to get to where you would prefer?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Sure. Fair. So we've seen performance improving with at least three-quarters of AUM-beating benchmarks. What have you noticed on the back of that as far as engagement goes? I know we can all see the flows and the gross sales and everything like that. But to me, sort of engagement is more forward-looking, right? So have you noticed any changes?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Right. I mean, there's basically two deliverables in the industry. It's performance and it's service. Okay. Ali's used a term that intuitively makes sense to me: profitable AUM, right? But could you maybe give a few examples of what he means by that and how are you managing the business through that lens?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Sure. Yeah, I'm sympathetic for that. We came up with a metric many years ago that flows less than fee rate, kind of a net growth. Right, kind of a net growth. So Ali's talked -- I'd love to shift gears and touch on expenses with our last few minutes here. Ali's talked previously about making your expense base more variable. And certainly, positive signs with the operating leverage you delivered in 2024. Do you see a pathway for further operating leverage in your business? And how much investment spend is needed to continue these early positive signs we have around the organic growth and all of this innovation that you're doing as well?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : For the last question, I'd love to just touch on capital. So you have been investing in the business, both directly and through inorganic means. Are you now -- do you have the pieces that you were looking for, or should we continue to expect that kind of a capital allocation? Obviously, I don't want you to let me know what you're going to do on the inorganic side. You don't want to take my hand. But is this the general approach to the strategy to add on, and should we continue to expect that, or is there a shift?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Is that the stack rank, though, like invest in the business inorganic?

Question: Brennan Hawken - UBS Securities LLC - Analyst : Perfect. Great. It was a really interesting conversation. Thanks for your time, Roger. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 11, 2025 / 4:20PM, JHG.N - Janus Henderson Group PLC at UBS Financial Services Conference