The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Harvey Schwartz: That’s fine. It’s my responsibility, Glenn. I appreciate the question. So let’s just go back to sort of how I think about it and how the team thinks about it. And our approach really is, what I’ll call, not to sound boring, our textbook as principles based. And by that, I mean, there’s a very methodical process that we’re going through that ranges from business reviews, interactions with LPs, making sure we have all the adjacencies where we think we can provide the most value to our investors, how we can drive growth, how we can manage expenses and how we want to create operating flexibility across the entire platform. So all those things are in process. In terms of specific areas of growth and progress we’ve made to date, I feel really good about the momentum.

If you and I were catching up back in February and you had said, hey, Harvey, where do you think the team would be with you in November. I don’t think we would have made this much progress. I don’t — nobody — I’m not patting anybody in the back here, but I don’t know that we would have transitioned the CFO, put in a new Head of Technology, brought in a new Head of Distribution, brought in a new Head of Wealth and really begun to shape the architecture of the firm in a way, which I think really allows the firm and the entire leadership team to mobilize the firm. So I feel really good about that. In terms of update, what you call yourself an outsider, update for outsiders. As I’ve said to you before, that’s really a — to me, that’s an output and we have to run this very sort of surgically methodical process.

But the foundation is really coming together quite well. And so we’ll come back to you as soon as we’re ready to hit. But to me, that’s an output. And the last thing I’ll say is I truly appreciate your urgency around this. I can promise you, John, myself, the whole leadership team, folks in the businesses, we have way more urgency than you do. So as soon as we’re in a position to do all that, we will. I know it’s not a great answer for you, but that’s our process.

Operator: Our next question comes from Michael Cyprys with Morgan Stanley.

Michael Cyprys: I wanted to ask on private credit. Just curious how you see the impact of the new proposed bank capital rules on the opportunity set for private credit? And in particular, which product areas do you anticipate banks pulling back from the most? And which areas and which opportunities that’s you think are most attractive for Carlyle versus which areas may be less attractive? And maybe you could talk to some of the steps you may need to take in order to capture the opportunities set. Are there any areas you need to fill in a bit more?

Harvey Schwartz: Sure. So I think as you all know, I was the Chief Financial Officer at Goldman from 2012 to 2017. And so that was really the first significant wave of regulatory change that came through the banking system. And so I saw that process upclose. I would expect this process to be similar across the entire banking system, particularly on the back of Silicon Valley Bank, Republic Bank, et cetera. And so my expectation, and I’d say there’s a very wide distribution of potential outcomes here, but I’ll give you my personal expectation. My personal expectation is there’ll be sort of a flurry of activity, maybe one-off transactions. We’re involved in several dialogues on our side, but I think you’ll see a flurry of activity.