And ultimately, in a declining and stable environment, almost all of that cash becomes part of the sort of the money market franchise. It’s only when you start to see interest rates start to go back up that it becomes a little bit more transitory in the context of strategic and operating, trying to capture those higher yields for a longer, or the yields for a longer period of time. So it’s ultimately something that, we’ve kind of seen as a trend in the flows over time and expect it. In the last rising rate environment of 16, 17, and 18, we saw that, we saw it similarly change on the decline during COVID. But our expectations are that there’s nothing really that drives it. There’s no different products in the marketplace that would drive different dynamics in this current cycle.
William Katz: Okay, thank you. And Chris, thanks for the well wishes. Good to be back. Just one follow-up. I don’t know if it’s for Saker or for Tom. Just sort of wondering, as your private markets business continues to get a bit larger and you are building some more performance fees and/or carry opportunities, is there a way to help us understand how much you have in terms of carry eligible AUM or how to think about trying to monitor or track for performance fees? It’s becoming a bigger number, and it’s not that much transparency versus some of your peers. I was wondering if you could help us triangulate how to think that through. Thank you.
Christopher Donahue: Yes, it’s, yes, we, I understand your dilemma there. We’ve tried to give out the numbers in the past, and we know that we cannot predict it. And we’ve kind of said, hey, here’s the range of what the performance fees has been over the past. And we’re willing to do that again. We’re just not willing to go out and say how much is going to come each quarter or for the year. So I’m not really giving you much guidance there. Is Saker on? Saker, I don’t know if you have a follow-up to my non-answer.
Saker Nusseibeh: So no, other than to reiterate what you just said, Tom, and maybe to kind of explain, the other difference about our private markets business is we’re building a very diversified private markets business which makes us different. So we carry performance fees from our private equity. And, yes, that’s comparable to other private equity players, for example. But if you take our real estate where we also have performance fees that is varied. Some of it has to do with renting out the buildings when we finish place making. Some has to do with achieving targets. And in other strategies, we have also similar performance fees. So I’m afraid it’s not much help. The only thing we can say to you is, here are the historical numbers.
You can look at what they look like. We can’t predict whether we win performance fees over time or not, that is not right and proper. But look at our track record. And then we’re growing our private market business which implies a future growth. Obviously, assuming that we hit our performance target, which is something we can’t guarantee. So I’m afraid not much help other than to tell you it’s just the nature of our business.
William Katz: Okay, well I tried. Thank you.
Operator: Your next question is coming from Kenneth Lee with RBC Capital Markets.
Kenneth Lee: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. In terms of the equity outflows in the quarter, was there anything to call out there, any changes in mandates that you saw? Thanks.
Christopher Donahue: One comment I would make on those, if you just — it’s getting less worse, let’s put it that way. And the way I would phrase that is that if you look at the strategic value dividend fund, and sure, there were pretty good sizable redemptions for the whole year. In October, it were about negative 350. In November, they were negative 280. In December, they were negative 250. And so far this year, they’re negative about 30 or 35 this month. And so it’s declining. What’s going on there? Well, what’s going on there is that some of the clientele is wanting to go out into the market more, a little more risk on. And they see the beauty of a product that does just what it says, namely a dividend product with growth of dividend. And the people who are selling it understand that that’s what it is. So that’s one observation that I would make.
Kenneth Lee: Got you. Very helpful there. And just one follow-up, if I may. Given the meaningful share repurchases in the quarter, wondering if you could just give any updated thoughts around outlook for potential M&A acquisitions, especially in this environment. Thanks.
Thomas Donahue: Yes, Ken. It’s Tom. Yes, we bought shares, and we continue to think that we will be active doing that. In terms of M&A, we have our group out there active, and they’re working on some different things. We’re always interested in the roll-ups. We’re interested in money funds. We’re looking a little more actively in Europe, as maybe we’ll be able to buy some roll-up type things there. And then, as we’ve talked before, in the private markets, we’ve put some efforts in to see what we can purchase in the U.S. to complement our U.K. team. And there’s nothing to announce or talk about specifically, though.
Kenneth Lee: Got you. Very helpful there. Thanks again.
Operator: Your next question is coming from Dan Fannon with Jefferies.
Daniel Fannon: Thanks. Good morning. One more question just on the alts business and the backlog, I think, was around $1.9 billion that you mentioned. Can you give us a expectation of what’s a reasonable time to see that fund and/or show up as a flow? And then what is the kind of average fee rate of that backlog?
Raymond Hanley: Yes, Dan, the private markets money has a longer runway than the other wins that we talked about. So that’s really will take up to two years to fund and be fee earnings. And that’s typically we get commitments. And then depending on the strategy when the money is actually drawn down and investing, that’s when it would become an actual flow, move out of the pipeline, move into the flow numbers when it becomes fee earning, but that typically happens over longer time frames. Equity and fixed income are more a couple of quarters the private market is out a year or two.
