Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:PFG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Josh Shanker: Yes, on the institutional fixed side, are you seeing any changes in the strategies that you’re winning mandates for given views about recession or given views about inflation or whatnot? Have these styles that you engage in change on the fixed side?

Pat Halter: Yes, it’s really great sort of follow-up too. We’re seeing the fixed income side some real strong interest, particularly right now auto blocks and 2023 and high yield. We’re seeing also a pivot again toward the emerging market debt space and we continue to see private debt, private credit interests from institutional investors. So institutional investors are engaged and fixed income in a very clear, purposeful way right now. And I think we’ll continue to see very long-term trends from institutional investors towards alternative investment classes, including real estate and including the debt capabilities in the private space.

Josh Shanker: Thank you very much.

Dan Houston: Thanks, Josh.

Operator: And we have reached the end of our Q&A. Mr. Houston, your closing comments please.

Dan Houston: Yes, thanks for joining the call today and again, apologies for those in the queue that we did not have a chance to get to Humphrey and his team will follow-up accordingly. From our perspective, 2022 was a transformative year. We de-risked our portfolio, reduced the balance sheet, and our businesses are less capital intensive and they’ve been historically. We’ll continue to focus on investing in our growth drivers, managing our expenses and revenues and returning excess capital to shareholders. We’ll share more about our 2023 outlook and long-term guidance on March 2 outlook call. Thank you for taking time out of your valuable day to be part of this Q&A. Thanks so much.

Operator: Thank you for participating in today’s conference call. This call will be available for replay beginning at approximately 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time until end of day March 23, 2023. 1373-5216 is the access code for the replay. The number to dial for the replay is 877-660-6853 for U.S. and Canadian callers or 201- 612-7415.