Cohen & Steers Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
April 17, 2025

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cohen and Spheres First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode and afterwards we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Thursday, 04/17/2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Heller, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Cohen and Steers.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, and welcome to the Cohen and Steers first quarter twenty twenty five earnings conference call. Joining me are Joe Harvey, our Chief Executive Officer Raja Dacore, our Chief Financial Officer and John Chae, our President and Chief Investment Officer. I want to remind you that some of our comments and answers to your questions may include forward looking statements. We believe these statements are reasonable based on information currently available to us, but actual outcomes could differ materially due to a number of factors, including those described in our accompanying first quarter earnings release and presentation, our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks and our other SEC filings. We assume no duty to update any forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

Further, none of our statements constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of any fund or other investment vehicle. Our presentation also contains non GAAP financial measures referred to as as adjusted financial measures that we believe are meaningful in evaluating our performance. These non GAAP financial measures should be read in conjunction with our GAAP results. A reconciliation of these non GAAP financial measures is included in the earnings release and presentation to the extent reasonably available. The earnings release and presentation as well as links to our SEC filings are available in the Investor Relations section of our website at ww.cohenandsteers.com.

Speaker 1

With that, I'll turn the call over to Rajan.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. My remarks today will focus on our as adjusted results. A reconciliation of GAAP to as adjusted results can be found in the earnings release and presentation. Yesterday, we reported earnings of $0.75 per share compared to $0.78 sequentially. Revenue for Q1 decreased from the prior quarter to 133,800,000.0 The change in revenue from the prior quarter was driven by several items.

Speaker 2

The primary driver was lower average AUM during the quarter. Also impacting revenue was lower day count compared to the prior quarter. As a reminder, we had also recognized performance fees in Q4 related to certain institutional accounts. These items were partially offset by improvement in our effective fee rate. Our effective fee rate was 59 basis points, which was slightly higher than the prior quarter.

Speaker 2

The primary driver of this was mix change in our average AUM. Our operating margin was 34.7 compared to 35.5% in the prior quarter. As noted, we experienced lower average AUM as compared to the prior quarter. However, ending AUM increased compared to Q4. AUM was $87,600,000,000 as of Q1 compared to $85,800,000,000 at prior quarter end.

Speaker 2

The change in ending AUM was driven by a number of factors. We generated overall net inflows during Q1 primarily due to open end funds. These open end fund flows were partially offset by institutional outflows that were anticipated. This is the third consecutive quarter of net inflows. In terms of our strategies, global listed infrastructure experienced strong flows during the quarter.

Speaker 2

Lastly, end of period AUM was positively impacted by market appreciation during the quarter. Joe Harvey will provide additional insights regarding flows and pipeline. Total expenses were lower than the prior quarter, primarily due to a decrease in compensation and benefits. During the quarter, the change in comp and benefits was in line with the sequential decrease in revenue. As a result, the compensation ratio for the quarter was 40.5%, consistent with our planning.

Speaker 2

To a lesser extent, expenses were also impacted by decreases in distribution and service fees while G and A expense levels remained consistent with the prior quarter. Regarding taxes, our effective rate was 25.3% for the quarter. Our earnings material presents liquidity at the end of Q1 and prior quarters. Our liquidity totaled $295,000,000 at quarter end, which represents a decrease versus the prior period. This quarterly change is in line with prior years and driven by our annual incentive compensation cycle.

Speaker 2

Let me now touch on a few items regarding rest of year guidance. With respect to comp and benefits, we would expect our compensation ratio to remain at 40.5% in line with Q1. We expect G and A to increase in the range of 6% to 7% as compared to the prior year. This is driven by continued infrastructure investments, including completion of our foreign office upgrades. Also impacting G and A are expenses related to our recent ETF rollout as well as business development activities.

Speaker 2

Lastly, regarding 2025 guidance, we expect our effective tax rate to remain at 25.3% on an as adjusted basis. I'll now turn over to John Chae, who will discuss investment performance. Thanks, Raja. I'll cover three topics. First, our performance scorecard second, the market environment in the first quarter and last, our investment outlook and how we see our asset classes and strategies playing a bigger role in client portfolios.

Speaker 2

Beginning with our performance scorecard, the first quarter saw 81% of our AUM outperform its benchmark. On a one year basis, 89% of our AUM has outperformed, while our three, five and ten year rates are all above 95%. Our one, three and five year excess returns of two fifty seven basis points, 189 basis points and two fifty four basis points respectively are near or above our expectations. 92% of our open end fund AUM is rated four or five star by Morningstar. In short, we continue to provide meaningful long term alpha for our investors.

Speaker 2

Turning to market conditions. In the first quarter, U. S. Equities declined 4.3%, while developed market ex U. S.

Speaker 2

Equities rose 5.4% in dollar terms. U. S. REITs gained 2.8% and global listed infrastructure rose 4.8%, in both cases outperforming the corresponding broad equity index. Additionally, listed real assets performed well as investors rotated into more defensive or attractively valued hard assets ranging from utilities to gold as anticipation of tariffs and sticky inflation raised macro concerns.

Speaker 2

This rotation, in our view, is not an anomaly. In November of last year, we published a paper called Reversals of Fortune and the Opportunity in Real Assets. The punch line being that decade long market leadership tends to mean revert. To us, this one quarter rotation is a harbinger of what the new market leadership might look like, spearheaded by real assets and potentially non U. S.

Speaker 2

Equities, a shift built on a mix of attractive valuations and macro forces. Either way, we believe that diversification and a balanced strategic asset allocation is a requirement in a world of macro and geopolitical change. Of course, Q1 performance has taken a back seat to what has transpired in the first few weeks of the second quarter. So what's our interpretation of what has happened and where do we go from here? Coming into the year, we expected a slowdown due to a combination of a tiring consumer, fiscal tightening, immigration reversals, and trade impacts offset by economic benefits from deregulation.

Speaker 2

When combined with U. S. Equities at all time highs, tight credit spreads and expensive price to earnings multiples, financial markets were vulnerable to a negative surprise. Global investors had become complacent. The April 2 tariff announcements represented just such a surprise and in our view will lead to a meaningful stagflationary impact on The U.

Speaker 2

S, at least in the short run. As we've seen over the last few weeks, it's a fluid situation, But the impact of tariffs and business uncertainty has meaningfully boosted the odds of a U. S. Recession, although our base case is that we narrowly avoid a recession. We continue to expect core U.

Speaker 2

S. Inflation to remain above the Fed's long term target. Tariffs and potential trade wars only add to this pressure, certainly in the short and likely in the medium term. U. S.

Speaker 2

Equities have recently stabilized, but were down approximately 17% on the year at one point. Despite the correction, U. S. Equities still look relatively expensive and appear to have gone from trading at roughly 22x earnings to about 20x today. Although after some expected negative earnings revision that 20x may still be closer to 22x.

Speaker 2

We would expect some combination of both earnings and multiple contraction over time to drive disappointing U. S. Listed equity performance. In contrast, we believe listed real assets combine three highly important attributes: less sensitivity to tariffs and slowing growth, attractive relative valuations and liquidity at a time when both the explicit and opportunity cost of illiquidity are high. To the first point, listed real assets are likely to feel less of the brunt of the negative impact of tariffs.

Speaker 2

To illustrate this point, estimates of the impact of tariffs on S and P 500 earnings are around 10%. Based on our current estimates by comparison, U. S. REIT earnings are likely to be down only 0% to 1% and infrastructure down 2% to 3% because of the direct impact of tariffs. Real estate and infrastructure companies largely are not importers or exporters.

Speaker 2

Within real assets, natural resource equities face the biggest headwinds with direct pressure to EPS of around 10 to 15%, but with wide divergences between winners and losers, though higher commodity prices could provide some offset. As it relates to slowing growth, real asset companies also tend to generate more predictable revenues due to longer term leases or contracts or less economically sensitive demand. On valuation, in contrast to U. S. Equities, all core real asset categories are either neutrally or attractively valued versus history.

Speaker 2

We see companies in the space as positioned for higher profitability levels driven by factors such as commodity undersupply and a move away from globalization or onshoring and reindustrialization. Persistent inflationary pressures as well as geopolitical uncertainty also support real assets. As the FOMO piece I referenced earlier highlights, the primary reason why decade long mean reversion occurs is because investors get too complacent over a period of years, and valuations move too far in one direction or the other. In our conversations with our clients, we see growing evidence that investors are beginning to embrace this idea of new market leaders and a potential market rotation and fund flows towards the valuation laggards of the last ten years, like real assets. My last comment relates to the importance of liquidity and how investors value it.

Speaker 2

First, we believe the cost of illiquidity have not been analyzed or discussed sufficiently. So we will publish our in-depth research on it in the second half of the year. At a high level, we believe the presence of the illiquidity return premium is taken as a given, but the data indicates it has been more inconsistent than reported across different asset classes. Specifically, the historical data indicates a negative illiquidity return premium in private real estate and a more neutral premium in infrastructure. But the explicit cost of illiquidity is only one element.

Speaker 2

The opportunity cost of illiquidity happens in three ways. First, investors not being able to rebalance when their illiquid assets don't provide realizations as planned. Second, needing to sell their liquid assets when needed in a major market downturn as opposed to when optimal. And last, the frictional costs of the j curve that occurs in most private closed end funds. Only recently we see university endowments having to contend with questions about significant uncertainty around both the revenue side and potential endowment taxation.

Speaker 2

In a regime of high uncertainty, the opportunity cost of liquidity is high. To summarize, as always, economic uncertainty and financial market dislocations create opportunities to identify winners and losers. Across all of our markets, we believe active management can capitalize on these divergences and is important to boost returns. Combined with a more favorable backdrop for asset allocation, we remain positive about the environment for real assets. With that, let me turn the call over to Joe.

Speaker 3

Thank you, John, and good morning. I will start by addressing the current state of our business, then review our key business trends in the quarter and close with a discussion of our strategic priorities. Four weeks ago, we published our 2024 annual report to shareholders entitled Positioned for Growth. On April 2, so called Liberation Day, the administration announced a tariff policy that was more severe than expected and turned the global economic and geopolitical regimes on their heads with the financial markets following suit with powerful volatility. Everyone quickly recognized that business decision making would slow or cease entirely raising the spectrum of recession.

Speaker 3

As a firm, we're still positioned for growth notwithstanding the post quarter setbacks in markets and asset levels. Our relative investment performance, as John reviewed, is still strong and is the leading edge of our optimism. As I will discuss further, our institutional advisory unfunded pipeline declined in the quarter, but our business activity remains healthy. Our wealth channel has led the way to firm wide net inflows for the past three quarters. In addition, the case for real assets is gaining momentum as the reality of a nagging inflation backdrop gains wider acceptance.

Speaker 3

Meantime, portfolio liquidity has become a priority for clients as the cost of illiquidity and private allocations have become increasingly evident. Depending on how long the tariff roulette wheel spins and considering its knock on effects, our eyes are on potential for recession. While this could slow the ramp up of some of our recent vehicle launches, we are committed to these initiatives, which we view as must dos to enhance our market position. And as our habit, we would expect to further innovate to capitalize on any dislocations and opportunities that emerge. Behind this executive summary is a well organized and highly motivated leadership team that is backed by a very strong balance sheet.

Speaker 3

Looking at key fundamentals, in the first quarter we had our third consecutive quarter of net inflows firm wide at $222,000,000 which followed $860,000,000 in the preceding quarter and $1,300,000,000 in the third quarter of last year when the Federal Reserve commenced its rate cutting cycle. Leading flows in the quarter were open end funds with $585,000,000 of net inflows, offset by outflows in both advisory at $108,000,000 and all sub advisory at $258,000,000 Our inflows stand out considering that most of our strategy categories have been in outflows according to Morningstar open end fund data. Our positive differential to me comes down to a combination of our outstanding investment performance, brand recognition and strong client relationships. Accordingly, our market share of active open end fund AUM continued to increase in U. S.

Speaker 3

Real estate, global real estate, preferreds and global listed infrastructure. Leading flows in the quarter was global listed infrastructure, had $586,000,000 of net inflows, offset by net outflows in U. S. Real estate of $217,000,000 global real estate at $166,000,000 and preferreds at 76,000,000 Highlights for open end funds include the breadth and flows across most key segments such as wirehouses, RIAs, independent and regional broker dealers, bank trusts and defined contribution. Our gross sales for open end funds annualized at $12,800,000,000 in line with our average over the past several years.

Speaker 3

SMAs and models had outflows of $44,000,000 and offshore CCAVs had inflows of $71,000,000 And we had modest inflows into our newly launched active ETFs, which I will discuss in a moment. Institutional Advisory's net outflows of $108,000,000 were comprised of five new mandates totaling $347,000,000 offset by two account terminations totaling $231,000,000 and negative rebalancings of $223,000,000 by existing clients. The weak spot in the quarter is our one unfunded pipeline, which ended the quarter at $61,000,000 compared with $531,000,000 last quarter. Obviously, that is a low number for us and reflects a lot of completed fundings and the timing of a number of finals competitions we are anticipating plus some customized mandates we continue to work on. While it is tempting to attribute a low pipeline to the market environment, the regime change in interest rates has already occurred and thus we need to translate the solid level of activity in institutional advisory to wins.

Speaker 3

Last quarter, we indicated that we had approximately $800,000,000 in pending redemptions. The majority of those have occurred and the known redemptions now stand at $290,000,000 after the addition of one pending rebalancing outflow of $64,000,000 Turning to strategic initiatives. In February, we launched our first three active ETFs in real estate, preferreds and natural resource equities. The strategies are compelling, differentiated and by design not thematic, but core strategies for asset allocators. They were seeded with firm capital and we have begun to see inflows.

Speaker 3

We're pleased with the pace of flows particularly through the natural resource equities ETF. We believe these vehicles will open access to investors who use them exclusively and thus expand our addressable market considerably. Given that AUM and active ETFs has surpassed $1,000,000,000,000 industry wide. At the same time, there are advisers who are converting their business away from open end funds to ETFs. These vehicles will help us retain those assets, particularly with RIAs who have growing asset bases.

Speaker 3

Our long term strategy includes the development of ETFs for all of our core strategies, and we're working on round two, understanding that implementation from here could vary based on how the market adopts different structures such as ETFs as a share class of open end funds. One small but percolating market for us is the offshore wealth market. We now have six CCAV vehicles with $1,200,000,000 in AUM and which have had inflows in 19 of the past twenty one quarters. We launched our sixth ETF or excuse me, CCAP sub fund in the quarter, a short duration preferred stock strategy. This strategy's investment universe has attractive attributes with $1,300,000,000,000 in size and yields of 7.7%, duration less than three years and an average credit rating of BBB.

Speaker 3

We've had a lot of positive feedback in premarketing and look forward to being in the market. We are making good progress on our private real estate initiative. Cohen and Steers Income Opportunities REIT or CNS REIT is the top performing non traded REIT for the twelve months ended February. CNS REIT returned 13.4% compared with 4.4% for the average non traded REIT over that period. Among private wealth alternative choices, private credit has been the most popular, certainly compared with real estate recently, but we're seeing early signs of caution in credit and emerging interest in the bottoming of the commercial real estate cycle.

Speaker 3

We continue to work on additional anchor investors while ramping up our engagement with RIAs. We are live on the Schwab, Kerridge, Bing and Fidelity platforms, which provide access to the majority of RIAs. CNS REIT's portfolio now comprises five shopping centers with a mix of power centers and grocery anchored centers. Shopping centers should be better equipped to defend against a more challenging economy, and we still believe they are mispriced considering their fundamentals. In the category of expanding our real estate franchise, we expect to launch late in the second quarter a strategy to provide a better way for institutions to invest in core real estate using both listed and core private real estate.

Speaker 3

We expect to announce a partnership with a sub advisor to collaborate on a vehicle designed for institutional real estate allocations, which tend to be a larger share of the real estate portfolio. Our aim is to provide better risk adjusted returns than core private real estate along with better liquidity and broader property sector allocations. John and I have been highlighting global listed infrastructure as a strategy that is generating a lot of interest and that began to show in our flows this quarter. We see more behind it with demand from new allocations and takeaways from underperforming managers. Private infrastructure still dominates the allocation landscape, but we believe just as in real estate that listed infrastructure complements private allocations resulting in better portfolio construction and performance.

Speaker 3

Fundamentally, secular trends including digitalization of the world's economies, rebuilding core infrastructure, higher power demand, decarbonization and deglobalization combined are accelerating infrastructure spending. An estimated $94,000,000,000,000 of infrastructure investment is needed globally by 02/1940. With more angst about the stickiness of inflation and now tariffs, we're seeing more interest in real assets from the retirement segments, model builders and target date managers. This is welcome and overdue in my opinion considering the preponderance of financial assets and four zero one plans. Notably, the private equity firms are pushing for private allocations in these plans.

Speaker 3

Aside from the plumbing in these plans, which cannot even accommodate ETFs at this point, our view is that private allocations are difficult in 401s and listed real assets are a smart solution. With our multi strategy real assets portfolio, for example, 401Ks can have a single line item turnkey allocation to real assets and have efficient pricing and daily liquidity. The only potential negative is the perceived volatility compared with private. But given the long term investment horizon for most retirement savers, volatility should not be a major concern. I will close with a reminder that this year and next we are focusing on investment in our distribution capabilities with the wealth channel being a high priority and more resources planned for the RIA and multifamily office segments specifically.

Speaker 3

Our new vehicles and strategies have been designed for these advisors and allocators, which represent the leading investment models in the wealth channel and where AUM is growing the fastest. We look forward to reporting our second quarter results in July. Meantime, please call us with any questions. And now I'll turn the call back to Abby to facilitate Q and A.

Operator

Thank you. And we will now begin the question and answer And your first question comes from the line of John Dunn with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

Hi, guys. Wondering to get maybe a little more color on the wealth management channel and kind of like the temperature there so far in April? Maybe what areas or your areas maybe are seeing like a flow bid or maybe not? And where do you think the redemption trends could go if we the status quo sticks around for a while?

Speaker 3

Well, obviously, as John, and we all know, post quarter end, the markets have been very volatile and that, you know, creates uncertainty and starts to stem decision making. So it's not been a road robust slow environment. But, you know, what we've been seeing, you know, more broadly is interest in US REITs in particular because, you know, we've been as we've been talking about the past several quarters that, investors are have have been in anticipating the bottoming of the commercial real estate cycle, which is happening. And, at the same time, continued easing by the Federal Reserve. Those historically have been positive conditions for real estate securities performance.

Speaker 3

And we've seen some of that play out, but we would expect investors to continue to be most focused on that. Secondly, we've been talking about, I mentioned, more interest in listed infrastructure And for the wealth channel, you know, listed as a way to invest in it. There are some private solutions too, but that's not been as developed, and some of the choices in real estate or in private, credit. But the other attraction of infrastructure is that the portfolios tend to be less economic sense economically sensitive than other things. And so we've seen some of that dynamic in the institutional market, and it could, you know, also, you know, flow through to the to the wealth channel.

Speaker 3

What we have not been seeing are strong flows into our preferred stock strategies. And that's been a little bit of a surprise. We've actually had some outflows in the preferred stock vehicles. There's been a resurgence in fixed income allocations in investor portfolios, but I think there's a little bit of a still a little bit of a hangover with the many regional banking crisis a couple of years ago and how that affected, some preferred securities. And, there's just more choices in fixed income, as well.

Speaker 3

But our preferred portfolios have performed very well over for the past year and a half on an absolute basis and on relative basis. If there's one of our strategies that's not so affected by tariffs, it's certainly you know, the preferred market, which, you know, are mostly issued by banks, which are in terrific capital positions and and insurance companies. So those are some of my my thoughts. Ask anybody else in the room if they can add to it.

Speaker 4

Okay. Great. And then you guys took us through the impacts of tariffs on your different strategy areas, and that listed real infrastructure doesn't have most of it doesn't have much direct tariff exposure. But could you I wonder if you could talk about kind of the second order impacts from tariffs that you might see coming down the pike.

Speaker 2

Well, from an investment standpoint, as you say, it's much more second order effects or indirect effects. So that'll be economic growth, interest rates, and inflation. Generally speaking, we think economic growth was already gonna be a little bit slow and now it'll be slower, and inflation will be a bit higher. Infrastructure really stands out frankly as being the stagflationary strategy, if you will. And that's why despite everything that's going on so far this year, Infrastructure as a category is still positive on the year.

Speaker 2

It's up roughly 5% on the year. So, yeah, we think the economy is going slow, that will have a negative impact most on natural resource equities being relatively more cyclical. Second, most insulated would be on real estate, and then areas like preferreds and realist oh, sorry. Infrastructure, as Joe talked about, we we don't really see, any kind of, major impact. So it's it's all very indirect impacts as opposed to direct impacts.

Speaker 3

And and, John, if if your question was getting at what are we doing as a as a firm, you know, it's it's you know, the first order of business is always to to interact with our clients to help share our best thinking on what's going on with with them. But, know, we're we're not gonna make any, you know, rash short term, you know, changes in in how we're operating. But as I said in my comments, clearly, have have our eye on the the potential for recession. And so, you know, one of the reactions to that would be to raise the bar on hiring, you know, until we see how all of this plays out. You know, we're not stopping on the strategic hires that that we we need to make, but if we if we have things that are more nice to haves or, you know, investments for a couple years down the road, we'll put the brakes on that.

Speaker 3

As you know, our balance sheet is extremely strong, so we're prepared for whatever comes down the pike. But you know, we'll we'll continue to focus on portfolios and and, you know, really bear down on the new launches that we have because, you know, those those are it's a critical time, and and and it and and we'll see what happens. I don't know. For the ETF launch, for example, you know, we've our head of wealth has seen and and other and other examples how volatility, you know, can create some activity for for, ETFs because investors are more apt to to switch if they can take a tax loss or, you know, move in a in a in a down market to a a better, better vehicle. So so those are some of the things that we're thinking about.

Speaker 4

Right. Yes. Maybe on active ETFs, is there a difference in selling those products versus the open end funds? And you mentioned some of it is keeping about keeping assets in house. Are there also new people coming into that kind of vehicle?

Speaker 4

And maybe it's early days, but like do you have any idea of what kind of steady state level of flows you'd you know, like like to get to?

Speaker 3

Well, in terms of, quote, unquote, selling, I mean, it's it's it's it starts with a process of helping our our advisers make allocations to the to the things we we do. So it's education about our asset classes, how they fit into a portfolio, how they enhance the return and and the risk profile of a of a portfolio. What is different is that the the initial investors will will come from the RIA market. They won't come from the wirehouses, which have criteria to gain, you know, size and scale of the and the vehicles and and some cases go through a research process. Although, you know, for all the strategies we have, you know, we're we're, you know, pretty much we've got that box checked with the wirehouses.

Speaker 3

But what what's different is, you know, they're you know, the, you know, initial investors in the ETFs are are RIAs that, you know, we we maybe don't have relationships with. So it's building relationships with model builders and and, you know, RIA allocator specialists to to active ETFs. But in terms of, you know, the, you know, so called sales process, it's no different than than what we do, you know, everywhere in in wealth. And as I as I said in my comments, you know, our our strategy revolves around, not thematic approaches to strategies in ETFs, which, you know, some firms do. It's it's rather, you know, core allocations that that we're known for that that could be, you know, a a for, you know, our

Speaker 4

one of our

Speaker 3

open end mutual funds. So as it relates to some of the initial activity, and it's it's still early days. I wouldn't say we have a statistically significant sample set yet to to really bear bear down on. But we've seen situations where there are RIA allocators who only use ETFs, and that is money that we would never have ever seen before. So it's a great validation of our launch and gives us confidence because we're kind of seeing this type of thing more and more in the industry.

Speaker 3

There will be examples where we have existing open end fund investors who have been converting their business to using only ETFs. We've an example of two where they're swapping out of our open end funds into ETFs because that's what they've chosen for their business models. So in that case, we say, okay. Great. So we've retained assets, but more importantly, these advisers are are are are growing.

Speaker 3

And, you know, had we not, you know, provided these vehicles, we would have ultimately, you know, lost a client and lost another growth engine. So in our underwriting, we factored in some swapping of open end fund assets for ETFs, But it's too early to start to try to quantify all of that. As it relates to what pace we would like, I would like it to be a lot, but the market is what's going to tell us what the right pace is. But we've been pleasantly surprised with the activity we've seen so far in some volatile conditions.

Speaker 4

Got you. And in your prepared remarks you talked about looking to further innovate to take advantage of dislocation. Was that a reference to maybe like working on round two of ETFs or were there other things you kind of had in mind?

Speaker 3

It could be round two of ETFs. It could be potentially inorganic growth. You know, we've been going through a process to identify strategies for, you know, what's next, you know, several years down the road. And, you know, one of the things that's happening happening in the industry with the interest in in the wealth channel is that, that there are more small asset managers who want to get access to wealth, and they're realizing in light of the competition and and race to gain share from the private equity funds that that's gonna be increasingly difficult. We have a a strong market position in wealth, and that that's pretty well known in in the industry.

Speaker 3

So there might be a firm with a strategy that would meet our criteria. And so we would be open to looking at some acquisitions. So that could come by way of dislocations with the market environment right now.

Speaker 4

Gotcha. And then maybe one on the pipeline. Do you think we'll look back and look at this quarter as kind of an anomaly? Or we could we hang out at a low level versus because for quite a while you'd been kinda leveled up to the more than a billion level. You you think it's just the timing or or how are in it this period for a a little bit?

Speaker 3

You know, as I've been talking about on these calls, we we we have good levels of activity, but we need to translate those into real, you know, one mandates. When you look at the history, it does shows consistency and and, you know, you know, strength in in the in the in in the pipeline. So, you know, I'm not I'm not looking over this data point, and and we're gonna dig in and and do all of everything that we can to to drive it. You know, one of the things that, you know, I talked about a little bit is that in the institutional market, there's there's been more, you know, stresses on portfolios with the high levels of private allocations. And, of course, the regime change in in interest rate, which caused plans to up their fixed income allocations, and that had to come from somewhere.

Speaker 3

So that that, you know, that yeah. That's been a thing out in the market, but, you know, I I I I feel like we're we're we're getting through that phase, you know, the interest rate regime change and the restoration of fixed income allocations. So, you know and and as John laid out, we we believe that that the the future looks better for allocations to real assets, so we need to go make that happen. Our activity is is solid, and it's, you know, it's got nice dimensions to it, as I said, which which means to me that there are new allocations. There are new allocations not just in US, but also outside of The US.

Speaker 3

There are underperforming managers, but but also there are investors who who want to work with us to collaborate to do something differentiated. I I mentioned the the real estate strategy that we've been working on to combine listed and private listed and private core real estate, and and, you know, we'll be we'll be launching that and and announcing it before the middle of the year. And so we look forward to talking more about that because it's pretty exciting and, you know, that that can be an another another way we can get in front of more institutions and do something that's different with them.

Speaker 4

Gotcha. And then maybe just one more on the I think it's smart to see if you can take advantage of dislocation by adding maybe getting a better price on a deal. But you haven't done a deal in a long time, so it's a bit of a change. Maybe talk through like whole deals versus team lift outs versus maybe some of the areas you might be interested in. Just any more color there would be great.

Speaker 3

Well, it could be a be a spectrum of things, you know, including, you know, work working, you know, a a partnership with another, firm where we would sponsor a vehicle and in the case of this real estate vehicle combined listed in private. And, you know, it's been a vision of ours, and we're pleased to see some of our peers announce some of these types of arrangement. And and so that that would be the the one of the easier short term easier, maybe longer term harder ways to bring on new new capabilities. But in in terms of you're you're right. We we have not been acquisitive firm historically.

Speaker 3

There have been many reasons for that including the fact that we've had a great opportunity to build out our capabilities and and, you know, broader real assets investing. But also looking backward, there there it's it's been an environment where, you know, firms weren't weren't so interested in, you know, selling majority interest. They would. There are a lot of players who would buy a minority interest and let the let them do their thing on their own. But the the the dynamics in in the in the that I talked about in the wealth channel and, you know, firms wanting to get access to the wealth channel are changing the equation a bit.

Speaker 3

So, you know, you know, we'll we'll we'll see. You know, we're we're we're we're thinking about the things that we would be interested in, you know, but we're we're, as you know, very conservative and disciplined and and and have a very strict set of criteria. And so we're spending some time on it.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

And that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the conference back to Mr. Joe Harvey for closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Well, thank you, everyone, for listening. We look forward to touching base with you in July. And Abby, thank you for the call today.

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call, and we thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Cohen & Steers Q1 2025
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