Invesco Ltd. (NYSE:IVZ) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

In terms of the actual net revenue yield from the published fee rate, it would be about half net of all of the costs there. So it is — it would be one of the lower-yielding capabilities, again, part of what we were pointing to in terms of the business mix that is driving some of the pressure on net revenue yield overall. So it’s a two-sided coin but one that is certainly well positioned to capture client demand.

Andrew Schlossberg: The relationship with the NASDAQ on the Q goes back celebrating, I think its 25th year coming up soon. And very much what Allison was describing, how we’ve been growing that relationship. In addition to it being the QQQM being an alternative — it’s also — we’re creating a situation where the Q – the traditional Q is really for traders and the QQQM can be more for buy-and-hold investors. And I think it’s indicative of what’s happening in the ETF industry in general is it’s a preferred vehicle now for people that have short-term interest and long-term interest. And so I think part of our strategy is just indicative of that. You should expect to see more of that from us, whether it’s passive or active.

Brian Bedell: Great. That’s great color. And then maybe just a follow-on. I think Allison, you mentioned it, of course, you are investing in the business as well, sort of reinvesting some of those cost saves. Maybe if you can just talk about the top two or three areas from an investment management perspective in terms of product that you are investing in to Catalyst growth? You just talked about the QQQ franchise, maybe you can leave that one out. And I think on private markets, you mentioned that’s an investment area, however, that can also be an area where M&A can play a role. So maybe if there — if you can talk about any other say, a couple of areas that you’re most excited about in terms of investment dollars that you’re putting in and growth that could result from that?

Allison Dukes: Sure. I’d probably point you back to our key capability areas and those being the areas where we’ve really focused the most on continuing to grow and invest. So certainly, within our ETFs, SMAs factor and indexer capabilities, we continue to look at how do we build those capabilities out to really capture the client demand that’s there. Private markets both for the retail channel and the institutional channel. The institutional product capability really being our legacy capabilities and our strength where we’ve got a tremendous amount of history and success and continuing to build those out, invest in those capabilities and position those for client demand, but increasingly so on the retail side. And I think as we’ve talked about before, it’s not just seeding and launching the product that’s really building out the distribution capabilities there, and working closely with our clients as we expect that shift to be a multi-year shift in transformation in the education that’s involved there and investing significantly in the education that’s involved on that side.

I’d also point to China and continuing to invest in our capabilities there. That is a — it is self-funded and largely speaking, as we’ve discussed before, it is a very attractive business, highly profitable, cash flow positive but we are able to continue to invest in those capabilities. Your question was primarily around our product and client-facing capabilities, but I would also note a lot of what we invest in the benefit of clients, is it just the products, but the systems, the client experience and really streamlining the overall client experience behind the themes there. A lot of our investment goes into our platform, our technology and our capabilities in order to continue to deliver a better client experience.

Andrew Schlossberg: And to a forward room on our shelf for that, I mean, we’ve been routinely pruning and closing parts of the product line that we haven’t seen demand in and closed several hundred strategies over the last few years. The only other thing I’ll point to beyond what Alison covered would be it’s probably less investment capabilities that you’ll see extensions on and more how it gets delivered to the market. So the trend towards vehicles like ETFs and SMA and bringing things beyond passive capabilities or fixed income capabilities is something we’re going to continue to seek to lead in.

Brian Bedell: Okay. That’s great color. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Siegenthaler with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Craig Siegenthaler: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. My first question is on the 40% to 60% payout target after you reach your goal of zero net debt later this year. So why not a higher payout target because it sounds like M&A isn’t a big part of the intermediate-term strategy?

Allison Dukes: Reasonable question. I would say, as Andrew said, we do continue to think about the opportunities we have from a bolt-on perspective with certain capabilities from an M&A perspective. And given our balance sheet, is returning to a better position, but we want to be in a position to continue to build cash as we think about some of those opportunities and making sure we’re in position should we find the right bolt-on capabilities to be able to execute. So it’s a balance of making sure we have the ability to execute on several of those priorities, and it’s not going to be all in returning cash to capital to shareholders.

Craig Siegenthaler: Makes sense, Allison. And just as my follow-up, with the $3 billion in alt seed capital for MassMutual, can you remind us, which products the $3 billion has been invested in and then to date, how successful has that been? Like one way to quantify that is how much third-party AUM have you been able to attract around that $3 billion of initial seed capital from MassMutual?

Andrew Schlossberg: Let me start and then Allison can pick up. Probably the two most important strategies were the non-traded REIT or in REIT strategy where MassMutual was – or early seating partner. I don’t have the exact percent that they have, but I would say it’s still relatively large, although we’ve been generating a decent amount of volume over time from one of the big wealth platforms in the US. And then the second one was our real estate debt strategy that we just brought to the wealth management market. That was the other sort of strategically important strategy. But I’ll turn it to Alison maybe for more specifics on the numbers you asked about.