Janus Henderson Group plc (NYSE:JHG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Bill Katz: And just a follow-up for you. So now you’ve had another 3 months in the seat and make nice progress. As you think about some of the shape shifting that’s going on in the industry, sort of the acceleration of the retail democratization, fixed income over equity, et cetera, maybe non-U.S. opportunity set. How is your thinking between sort of the footprint that sits today and the improvements you can make versus the bolt-on opportunities? And what I mean by that is, is the sort of the mindset here that M&A may be more important, all else being equal? Or is it so you need to see what’s under the hood first or a combination of the two? I’m just trying to get a sense on how you’re thinking about using that free cash flow.

Roger Thompson: Yes. Thanks for the question, Bill. Look, the industry is dynamic, but it’s never dynamic in the same direction or else it would be easy to predict. I don’t think coming under the hood, I’ve seen anything different than what I saw last time we spoke. In fact, if anything, I feel much more confident about our ability to deliver for the current client and the future client needs, whether it be having delivered the Fuel for Growth savings so far, whether having it be bringing in really strong talent, whether it be some of the early wins we’ve had in emerging market debt or JAAA or what have you. I feel much better actually now that I have more comfort with what we have that we are very, very well positioned. That solid foundation I talked about way back when is absolutely here and we’re able to grow from it.

That doesn’t mean that we have everything that our clients want from us exactly as you described it. We are looking to buy, build and partner across the board to find areas where we can deliver better service for our clients and our clients’ clients. And that may be investment strategies that we have gaps in. We’ve talked about some things in the private world, for example, that may be other tools that we can bring to bear to our clients within client service or distribution more broadly. I wouldn’t say that the importance of M&A has gone up or down. I’d say that my confidence in the foundation that we have to buy, build or partner on top of has certainly gone up.

Operator: The next question comes from Nigel Pittaway from Citi. Please go ahead, Nigel, your line is now open.

Nigel Pittaway: Just wanted to return, if I could, to the comments you’ve made on SMID and Mid. I mean, obviously, you’re saying that there was very strong performance in ’22, yet it’s still a big contributor to equity outflows. Is that just a matter of time? Or is there something else going on that’s sort of not really connecting the performance with the flows?

Roger Thompson: I would — look, having a product that is a very high-quality product does not always mean that you will be successful financially or from a P&L or growth perspective in those products. There are different drivers obviously. The two most important of which is that it has to meet up to client demand, and you have to be able to deliver to those clients. So think about step number one. Over the past 10 years, deciding between haves and have-nots, particularly in Small and Mid-Cap, maybe wasn’t quite as important because money was free and they have and have not companies that one would invest in had a pretty good shot at doing okay. And so the differentiation skill set that we have as Janus Henderson, our portfolio management teams, our analysts, our associates spent all their time understanding which companies a have and have not kind of less important in the past 10 years.

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