Affiliated Managers Group Q4 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Record financial performance: AMG reported full-year economic earnings per share of $26.05 (up 22% YoY), $29 billion in net client cash flows, and roughly $700 million of share repurchases (about 11% of shares outstanding), with full-year Adjusted EBITDA of $1.1 billion.
• Shift into alternatives drove growth: The firm added about $97 billion of alternative AUM in 2025 (a 35% increase), with $74 billion of alternative net inflows—including $51 billion to liquid alternatives and $24 billion to private markets—and closed over $1 billion of new affiliate investments and partnerships expected to be accretive in 2026.
• Capital allocation, guidance and leadership change: AMG guided Q1 Adjusted EBITDA to $310–$330 million and Q1 economic EPS to $7.98–$8.52, plans at least $400 million of share buybacks in 2026, expects ~ $170 million of performance fees for 2026, and announced President/COO Tom Wojcik will depart to pursue other opportunities.

Affiliated Managers Group NYSE: AMG reported what management described as one of the strongest years in the company’s history, driven by record economic earnings per share, a return to organic growth, and continued expansion in alternatives across private markets and liquid alternatives.

Chief Executive Officer Jay Horgen said AMG generated full-year economic earnings per share of $26.05 in 2025, up 22% year-over-year, supported by strong organic growth and share repurchases. The company’s affiliates produced about $29 billion in annual net client cash flows, the highest level since 2013, representing 4% organic growth for the year. In 2025, AMG repurchased approximately $700 million of shares, which management said equated to about 11% of shares outstanding.

Alternatives growth and new affiliate investments

AMG emphasized that its business mix continues to shift toward areas of “secular demand,” particularly private markets and liquid alternatives. Horgen said AMG added approximately $97 billion in alternative assets under management (AUM) in 2025, lifting total alternative AUM by 35%. That total included $74 billion in net inflows from existing affiliates’ alternative strategies and $23 billion in additional alternative AUM from new affiliate partnerships.

Management highlighted more than $1 billion of capital committed across five new investments during 2025, including:

• Northbridge, a private markets manager focused on industrial logistics
• Verition, a multi-strategy liquid alternatives firm
• Montefiore, a European private equity firm focused on the services sector
• Qualitas Energy, an infrastructure manager focused on renewables and the energy transition
• A strategic collaboration with Brown Brothers Harriman to develop structured and alternative credit products for the U.S. wealth market

Horgen also said AMG recently announced a new partnership with HighBrook, a private markets real estate manager investing across the U.S. and Europe in areas including logistics, data centers, and housing, along with an incremental minority investment in liquid alternatives affiliate Garda. Management said both transactions are expected to be accretive to earnings in 2026.

Flows: liquid alternatives and private markets offset equity outflows

President and COO Tom Wojcik said 2025 marked an “inflection point” as AMG returned to organic growth, powered by client demand for liquid alternative strategies and fundraising strength in private markets. Fourth-quarter net inflows were $12 billion, bringing full-year inflows to $29 billion. Alternative strategies generated $74 billion of net inflows for the year, more than offsetting $45 billion of outflows in active equities, according to Wojcik.

Liquid alternatives posted $15 billion in net inflows in the fourth quarter and $51 billion for the full year, which Wojcik said represented a 36% annualized organic growth rate. He cited AQR as the primary driver, with additional contributions from Capula, Garda, and Verition. Wojcik added that AMG was seeing both ongoing U.S. wealth demand—including for solutions focused on after-tax returns—and improving institutional sentiment for liquid alternatives.

In private markets, affiliates raised $9 billion in the quarter and $24 billion for the year, which management said equated to an 18% annualized organic growth rate. Wojcik cited Pantheon, as well as fundraising at Ara, Abacus, EIG, Forbion, and Montefiore. Meanwhile, equities experienced net outflows of about $12 billion in the quarter and $45 billion in the year, and multi-asset and fixed income were flat for both the quarter and full year.

U.S. wealth platform expansion and product development

Management repeatedly pointed to the wealth channel as a key growth avenue for alternatives. Wojcik said AMG has reshaped its U.S. wealth platform from one focused largely on long-only mutual funds into a platform with a “proven track record” of developing, launching, and distributing alternative products. Alternatives AUM on AMG’s U.S. wealth platform reached about $8 billion in 2025, including $2.2 billion of alternative net new flows during the year.

Wojcik said the platform now has five continuously offered alternative solutions, including Pantheon offerings spanning private equity, credit secondaries, and infrastructure. In December, AMG filed to register the AMG BBH Asset-Backed Credit Fund as part of its structured and alternative credit initiative with Brown Brothers Harriman. Executives said they expect to collaborate on multiple alternative credit products over the next several years, combining BBH’s structured credit investment capabilities with AMG’s evergreen product development and distribution.

AMG also discussed wealth growth beyond its own platform. Wojcik said global wealth AUM across AMG and its affiliates totals more than $100 billion and “grew organically at more than 100% in 2025.” Executives said both AMG’s distribution platform and affiliates’ own distribution capabilities—particularly at Pantheon and AQR—contributed to that expansion.

Financial results, guidance, and capital allocation

Chief Financial Officer Dava Ritchea reported fourth-quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $378 million, up 34% year-over-year, including $125 million of net performance fee earnings. For the full year, Adjusted EBITDA was $1.1 billion, up 11%, including $161 million of net performance fee earnings. Fee-related earnings (excluding net performance fees) rose 20% year-over-year in the fourth quarter and 8% for the full year, which Ritchea attributed to investment performance, organic growth, and margin expansion at some large affiliates.

For the first quarter, AMG guided Adjusted EBITDA to $310 million to $330 million, including net performance fees of $40 million to $60 million. The company guided first-quarter economic earnings per share to $7.98 to $8.52, based on an adjusted weighted average share count of 27.4 million. Ritchea said the guidance includes the impact of announced 2025 investments and affiliate sales, plus a partial impact from the incremental investment in Garda and new investment in HighBrook. She added that the two newly announced transactions are expected to contribute an incremental $20 million to full-year Adjusted EBITDA, with a portion in the first quarter.

Ritchea also provided expectations for performance fees, stating AMG anticipates net performance fee earnings of about $170 million for 2026, consistent with the company’s five-year average from 2021 to 2025, while noting management plans to update later in the year. On share repurchases, she said AMG anticipates buying back at least $400 million of shares in 2026, beyond the conversion premium related to trust preferred securities, subject to market conditions and other capital allocation activity.

On financing and balance sheet actions, Ritchea said AMG repaid a $350 million ten-year senior institutional bond at maturity in August 2025. In December 2025, the company issued a $425 million ten-year senior note at a 5.5% coupon and used proceeds to redeem and settle conversions tied to its 2037 junior convertible trust preferred securities, which were settled fully in cash in January 2026. Ritchea said the total refinance cost was $516 million, including a $174 million conversion premium that effectively represented the repurchase of about 600,000 adjusted diluted shares at a stock price of $293, removing dilution from the capital structure for purposes of the 2026 share count guidance.

Separately, management noted liquidity events in 2025 tied to Peppertree, Comvest, and MBI transactions. Horgen said AMG received more than $730 million in pretax distributions and sale proceeds across those transactions, described as more than 2.5x invested capital with an average IRR above 35%. Ritchea also cited aggregate pretax proceeds of about $570 million from the sale of minority stakes in Peppertree, Comvest’s private credit business, and Montrusco Bolton, which helped support what she described as $1.7 billion of gross capital deployment in 2025 across new investments and repurchases.

During the call, Horgen announced Wojcik will depart AMG to pursue other leadership opportunities, after joining in 2019 and serving as CFO and later President and COO.

About Affiliated Managers Group NYSE: AMG

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc NYSE: AMG is a global asset management holding company that partners with boutique investment firms. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, AMG invests in and collaborates with independent investment managers to foster growth while preserving their entrepreneurial culture. Through equity stakes and strategic support, the company aims to enhance its affiliates' distribution capabilities, operational infrastructure and access to capital.

The company's core business activities include providing capital solutions, distribution services and operational support to affiliated investment firms.

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