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

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Ali Dibadj: Yes, it’s a great question, Patrick. Thank you. So you’re right that we’ve made a lot of change in 2022, which we’d characterize as a transition time. I would argue that from the outside, and it’s tough to see our hypothesis, I hope is right. I think is right is that it’s also a year of tremendous progress. Tremendous progress in repositioning Janus Henderson to meet our clients’ needs and meet their clients’ needs and set up for the future, whether that be bringing new talent, whether it be developing the Fuel for Growth, doing the reorg, simplifying our business, adding new teams, you’re correct, where it doesn’t serve the client and our current teams, changing those teams. That was part of our Fuel for Growth, building the Strategic Leadership Team, creating a strategic road map, which we’re now executing.

We’re doing a lot. And when we speak to clients, to your point, they want stability but they understand that we are — stability does not mean stagnation. They want improvement, and we are improving for them. We are improving along all those dimensions. And honestly, I couldn’t be happier with my colleagues at Janus Henderson. I’m very grateful to the efforts that they’ve made and the steps forward that we’ve made. So the changes are well thought out. They’re well thought out to deliver better for our clients. We don’t see any of these changes driving the outflows that we’ve seen so far. And I feel pretty comfortable saying that we’re on track.

Roger Thompson: Pat, if I could just add to that, just a couple of facts as well because — we’re excited to talk about the changes. We’re excited about the people joining and rejoining. But again, I don’t want to make sure that we’re very clear. We’ve got some very strong established teams and particularly portfolio management teams. Our global portfolio management team has got an average of 23 years in the financial industry, 13 years of which Janus Henderson and our analyst team is 14 years in the industry, and 7 of those with the firm. So we’ve got some really strong roots in the team. But yes, we’re pretty excited about some of the joiners across the organization as well.

Patrick Davitt: And then a quick follow-up on the expense savings. I think last quarter, you expected one-third of that to be realized in 4Q, but maybe you hinted it was more than that. So as we try to pack maybe how much that acceleration helped the fourth quarter result? Where did you come out on that number? And how should we think about the cadence through the rest of 2023?

Roger Thompson: Yes, we’re on track for that delivery. I think as I said on the call, the delivery of the — we’ve been very clear that we’re excited about the opportunities we’ve got, and we’re investing — reinvesting that fuel for growth. And as I said on the call that ran slightly ahead the savings ran slightly ahead of the investments we’re making in Q4.

Ali Dibadj: Patrick, just to add a little bit to Roger. It’s more of a timing question than being ahead or behind the track.

Operator: The next question comes from Ed Henning from CLSA. Please go ahead, Ed, your line is open.

Ed Henning: Just the first one, can I just have a follow-up on the first question on the call, just a clarification. Are you saying despite the strong capital position while you doing stuff organically and potentially looking at doing stuff inorganically, but it’s going to be disciplined. We shouldn’t think about you restarting the buyback anytime soon and even future buybacks, you’re really focused on both organic and organic opportunities. So buybacks are really off the agenda at the moment?

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