Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I'm Jenny Quinn, Vice President and Interim Chief Financial Officer of AGF Management Limited. Today, we will be discussing the financial results for Q1 fiscal 2023.. Slides supporting today's call and webcast can be found in the Investor Relations section of AGF.com. Also speaking on the call today will be Kevin McCreadie, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer. For the question and answer period with investment analysts following the presentation, Judy Goldring, President and Head of Global Distribution, will also be available to address questions. Turning to slide 4, I'll provide the agenda for today's call. We will discuss highlights of Q1 2023, provide an update on the key segments of our business, review our financial results, discuss our capital and liquidity position, and finally, close by outlining our focus for the remainder of 2023.
After the prepared remarks, we will be happy to take questions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Kevin.
Thank you, Jenny, and thank you everyone for joining us today. In the Q1 of 2023, markets experienced volatility. That volatility has continued into March and will likely remain for as long as there is uncertainty about the overall state of the economy and the banking system. Despite the volatility, we reported AUM and fee-earning assets of CAD 41.9 billion at the end of Q1, which was flat from Q1 of 2022. This reflects our strong business momentum as the S&P 500 was down 9% over the same comparative period. Our mutual fund business reported net sales of CAD 221 million in the quarter, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of positive mutual fund net sales. Supporting our positive fund flows was our strong investment performance.
AGF measures mutual fund performance by comparing gross returns before fees relative to peers within the same category, with the first percentile being the best possible performance. We target an average percentile ranking versus peers of 50% over any 1-year period and 40% over the 3 years. At the end of Q1, our average percentile ranking was in the 36th percentile over the past 1 year and the 33rd percentile over the past 3 years. 60% of our Series F funds have a 4- or 5-star overall Morningstar rating. We are also pleased to report that at the end of Q1, 70% of our strategies on a 1-year basis and 75% on a 3-year basis outperformed our peers.
In addition, four of our funds, AGF Global Select Fund, AGF American Growth Class, AGF Global Convertible Bond Fund, and the AGF Fixed Income Plus Fund earned the FundGrade A+ Awards, which are given annually to investment funds and their managers who have shown consistent, outstanding, risk-adjusted performance throughout the year. Diluted EPS for the quarter was CAD 0.26 per share. Finally, the board declared a CAD 0.11 per share dividend for Q1 of 2023 for shareholders of record on April eleventh, representing a 10% increase in the dividend. This is the third consecutive year where we have increased our dividend. The increase is a recognition of our strong business momentum and capital position and is in line with our balanced capital allocation approach. Starting on slide six, we will provide updates on our business performance.
On this slide, we break down our total AUM and fee-earning assets in the categories disclosed in our MD&A and show comparisons to the prior year. Mutual fund AUM increased 2% year-over-year. I'll provide some color on our mutual fund business in a moment. Institutional sub-advisory and ETF AUM decreased by 3% compared to the prior year, mainly due to the market. Our US SMA relationships continue to generate positive flows as we continued our strategy to expand the US SMA business. We're currently onboarding one of our strategies onto one of the largest wealth management platforms in the US and expect AUM in this category to grow gradually over time. Our liquid alternative products continue to attract interest from investors who are looking for a strategic or tactical hedge for their portfolios.
Managed by our quantitative team in the U.S., our market neutral anti-beta strategy is designed to generate positive returns in volatile markets and preserve capital in a downturn. At the end of the quarter, AUM for this strategy has increased by 63% to CAD 932 million over the past year. We continue to see interest from institutional investors across multiple strategies and jurisdictions, which bodes well for future sales. Our private wealth business continues to demonstrate resiliency, with AUM decreasing 2% year-over-year due to market declines. Our Private Capital AUM and fee-earning assets were CAD 2.1 billion at the end of the quarter. It is our goal to grow and diversify our private markets business and to be one of Canada's emerging leaders in private markets investing.
We have a pipeline of private capital opportunities that we are working through, and we'll continue to take a measured approach to evaluating the opportunities to ensure alignment to our strategic plan and to deliver shareholder value. Turning to slide 7, I will provide some details on the fund business. The mutual fund industry experienced net outflows for the fourth consecutive quarter reporting net redemptions of approximately $8.5 billion. Despite the challenging industry backdrop, our mutual fund business remained in positive net inflows for the tenth consecutive quarter and recorded $221 million of net sales. AGF's outperformance to the industry is attributable to our strong investment performance, our strong brand, and the diversity of our sales channels and our team's continued efforts to build key relationships with our clients and partners. With that, I will turn the call back over to Jenny.
Thanks, Kevin. Slide 8 reflects a summary of our financial results for Q1 with sequential quarter and year-over-year comparisons. EBITDA before commissions for the current quarter was $27.1 million, $3.1 million lower than Q4 2022, and $12.9 million lower than the prior year. As a reminder, Q1 2022 results included $3.9 million of interest income related to a pre-previously resolved transfer pricing matter. New this quarter, we have presented management, advisory, and admin fees net of trailing commissions and investment advisory fees. Net management fees are directly related to our AUM levels and are a more relevant key performance indicator to measure as our business continues to expand into various fee structures. This does not include revenues from the private capital business, DSC revenue, and other income, which are separately shown as other revenue on slide 8.
Net management fees for the quarter were CAD 73 million, which was in line with the increase in average mutual fund assets compared to Q4. Compared to Q1 of last year, net management fees decreased by CAD 4 million due to lower mutual fund average assets and a lower net management fee rate. SG&A for the quarter was CAD 53 million. Excluding severance, SG&A for the quarter was CAD 52.8 million, which is CAD 3.8 million higher than Q4 and CAD 4.9 million higher than prior year. The increase against Q4 includes a $2 million timing impact of higher government-regulated employee benefit expenses, which are paid annually in Q1. SG&A in the quarter was also influenced by performance and stock-based compensation, reflecting strong investor performance with an average one-year percentile ranking improving from 41% at year-end to 36%.
We saw a 39% increase in the AGF.B share price. The year-over-year expense increase also reflects investments into the business as we continue to execute against our strategy. AGF Private Capital contributed EBITDA of CAD 4 million in the quarter, which is CAD 4.5 million lower than Q4 and CAD 3.6 million lower than Q1. EBITDA from private capital managers this quarter included CAD 400,000 of carried interest revenue, recognizing strong performance in one of our long-term private capital investments managed by SAF. As a reminder, Q4 results included CAD 1.2 million of carried interest revenue. EBITDA from Private Capital LP Funds was CAD 2.9 million, which is CAD 4 million lower compared to both Q4 and Q1 of last year.
AGF participates as an investor in the units of Private Capital LP Funds, benefiting from valuation increases and distributions for the funds, which can be variable quarter to quarter and impacted by the timing of monetizations. On a long-term basis, we expect to earn returns of 8% to 10% from investing in Private Capital LPs. Diluted EPS was CAD 0.26 this quarter, compared to CAD 0.32 in Q4 and CAD 0.18 in Q1 of last year. The decrease against Q4 is mainly due to lower contributions from Private Capital LP Funds, which can be lumpy. The increase against prior year was supported by the elimination of the deferred selling commission purchase option, which came into effect June first, 2022. Turning to slide 9, I will walk you through the yields on our business in terms of basis points.
This slide shows our net management fees, operating expenses, and EBITDA before commissions as a % of average AUM on the current quarter, as well as sequential quarter and trailing 12-month view. As a reminder, to provide a more normalized view of the yield we earn, we've excluded AUM and related results from the private capital business as well as DSC revenue, other income, severance, and corporate development costs. The Q1 2023 net management fee yield is 75 basis points, which is flat to prior quarter and 1 basis point lower than the trailing 12 months. The decline versus the trailing 12 months is driven by the mix of underlying products and series. The net management fee rate is impacted by the % of mutual fund assets and the product and series mixed within those assets.
Gradually, over seven years, the DSC will increase the trailing commission rate as assets come off schedule and move to a front-end trailing commission rate. Scaling our AUM across various products and fee structures, specifically with our strategic partners, will help offset the rate decline impact on revenue. We will continue to monitor this. SG&A as a percentage of AUM was 54 basis points this quarter, 2 basis points higher than Q4 and 3 basis points higher than the trailing 12 months, driven by a combination of increased performance compensation, additional investments into the business, and timing, as previously mentioned. EBITDA yield was 21 basis points in the quarter, which is 2 basis points lower than Q4 due to the timing impact of government-regulated employee benefits mentioned previously. Adjusted for the timing impact of our SG&A, EBITDA yield was in line with Q4.
Turning to slide 10, I will discuss free cash flow and capital uses. This slide represents the last five quarters of consolidated free cash flow on a trailing 12-month basis, as shown by the orange bars on the chart. The black line represents the percentage of free cash flow that was paid out as a dividend. Our trailing 12-month free cash flow was CAD 76 million, and our dividend payout ratio was 35%. In the same period, we returned CAD 65 million to shareholders. That includes dividends, share repurchases under our NCIB, and the CAD 24 million substantial issuer bid completed in November 2022. Since the monetization of our investment in S&WHL in the fall of 2020, we have returned CAD 159 million to our shareholders.
Our cash balance at the end of February was CAD 24 million. We had $243 million in short and long-term investments. We had $120 million remaining on our credit facility, which provides credit to a maximum of $150 million. We are comfortable increasing our net debt to EBITDA up to 1.5 times should the right opportunity arise. Our remaining capital commitment to our Private Capital business is $34 million. Not included in this is our anticipated commitment of $50 million USD to an upcoming third fund managed by Instar. Capital commitments may be funded from excess free cash flow, keep in mind there will also be further recycling of capital as monetizations occur, which will help to fund future commitments. Taking all that into account, we currently have excess capital available.
Our future capital allocation will be balanced and includes returning capital to shareholders in the form of dividends, share buybacks, as well as investing in areas of growth. Redeploying our excess capital to generate recurring earnings is a key strategic priority. We will have further updates on this in coming quarters. Turning to slide 11, I will turn it back over to Kevin to wrap up today's call.
Thanks, Jenny. In the Q1, we continued to make progress against a number of our strategic objectives. Despite the market environment, our AUM and fee-earning assets remained resilient. We continued to outperform the industry and recorded the 10th consecutive quarter of positive mutual fund net flows. We also continued to deliver strong investment performance through our disciplined processes and focus on risk management. Finally, the board declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.11 per share, representing an increase of 10%. As we continue to navigate through the uncertainties in the market, we remain focused on building on the momentum from the past few years, managing the risks and our results, and creating value for our shareholders over the long term. On our Q4 call, we communicated SG&A guidance for fiscal 2023 of CAD 202 million.
Our guidance does not include costs related to corporate development and severance and assumed investment performance, the AGF stock price, and sales at a certain level. Due to the variable nature of performance and stock-based compensation, changes in any of these areas can result in a change to variable compensation expenses. At this point, we are holding expense guidance to CAD 202 million for the year as we continue to monitor the trends. As a reminder, our strategic priorities are to continue to deliver consistent and repeatable investment performance, maintain our sales momentum, and generate net inflows while building a diversified private markets business. We'll meet our expense guidance and continue to invest in key growth areas and enhance our corporate sustainability programs. We have a strong balance sheet to strategically invest and redeploy excess capital to generate recurring earnings and return capital to shareholders.
Finally, I want to thank everyone on the AGF team for all their hard work. We will now take your questions.
Thanks, good morning. Kevin, can you talk about the increase in seed capital to $224 million in this quarter versus $200 million at Q4? What strategy was that put into? Are there any other imminent capital calls? Then just on the fair value adjustment as well, it was a little bit light versus last year. It sounds like, you know, you're still expecting that 8% to 10% return on seed capital over the long term. Are there something else that's running through that line this year, just given the marks on those assets in a higher rate environment?
Yeah. Thanks, Gary. Let me take that in order. Yeah, we did have 2 investments that were made on 2 calls that were capital calls, 2 different strategies. One on the a new partnership with a First Ascent Ventures, and then one of our capital calls on one of our infrastructure funds. That was the reason you saw the increase in the alternative line. In terms of the marks, Q1's always a little lumpy because we wait upon some of our GPs to get their audited financials in. As we've always said, this is a line item that will be lumpy from time to time. We still think $4 million-$5 million per quarter is kind of an average way to think of it for the year.
CAD 20 million-CAD 25 million, you know, or think of it as CAD 20 million per year, through that one.
Okay. Got it. Second question, just moving on to the higher SG&A this quarter. I know Q1 can be a bit lumpy. Kevin, you mentioned, you know, several items that could move that SG&A line, including investment performance, AGF share price, et cetera. What gives you confidence, right now, I know it's still early in the year, that you'll hit that 202 million full year guidance?
A couple things. One is it's early in the year. Two, obviously, the two big drivers that we can't control obviously are investment performance, which if it remains strong and continues to accelerate, that will have a variable. It could have a variable the other way if it softens a bit too. At the same time, you know, we are running.
Probably the industry-leading sales right now. If that continues to pace, while we budgeted for it, if it comes in higher than that will have a potential. Those are the two we can't control. I would say the rest of it right now looks to be tracking. That's why I say we're okay with the guidance that we're at. Jenny, you have anything to add?
No, just to say in the quarter, in the Q1 too, there was some seasonality. You can't take that CAD 202 and just divide it by 4, which I know you're aware of, Gary. You know, we saw about CAD 2 million of that higher increase in Q1 related to those, you know, the CPP and EI payments that we make in the Q1.
Okay. Got it. Just maybe just last one, I'm not sure if Judy's on the line, but, you know, are you able to quantify the net flow so far in March? As well, maybe for Kevin, just in terms of the retail side, pro sales, where are you seeing clients, funneling cash into? Given the noise over the past few weeks, have you seen clients kind of sit on the sidelines a little bit more?
Yeah. Thanks, Gary. I mean, I'm gonna take this opportunity to emphasize we did hit our 10th consecutive quarter of net positive sales. As you pointed out in your report, net sales of CAD 221 for the quarter, you know, that is really one of a handful of firms on a net positive basis for the quarter. We're really, as Kevin said, really proud of the team and how they're performing in that regard. When we look as well, I think it's also notable when you look at the RSP season, you know, January was really soft. February came back, obviously. The industry just for the season was down about 90%, and we were down about 35%. Again, we continue to outperform, which is something that we're proud of, but we're very much tracking.
Month to date for the month of March, we remain in positive flows of about CAD 45 million, and we're seeing that across all positive flows across all client segments as well. Again, pretty strong right now. We're feeling fairly optimistic. I mean, you can talk about the markets, Kevin.
Yeah. Gary, I'd echo what Judy said. I mean, it's a tough environment out there. I think we've continued to manage through it really well. The fact that all of our channels are in positive flow tells you it's not one area that we're seeing it. It's everywhere, which is the health of the business, if you will. In terms of investor sentiment, I was out. I saw probably a large number of advisors on multiple meetings out west last week. There is some nervousness about the market right now. Having said that, there's also a lot of cash that's come out, sitting on the side that's waiting to go back.
I think to the extent that last week's event around the banking sector in the U.S., maybe has pulled forward the idea of a recession, and that means this market can move forward sooner, I think that sets up well for a return to some of those flows later in the year. Obviously, if we were to be in a contracted period, which we don't see, some type of greater financial contagion where the banking sector, weakened much further and was sustained that way, that would change the view, but that's not what we're seeing today.
Okay.
In terms of products, Gary, I think did you ask product as well, where is this coming from? It's pretty broad-based. It's not one thing. It's really a pretty good breadth of things.
Okay. Got it. No, those are my question. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Hi. Good morning. Maybe just to expand on Gary's question on the SG&A side. As you mentioned, obviously, share price, performance, and sales are a bit out of control and can influence your guidance. Maybe ask it a different way. If the share price would have stayed where it had closed yesterday, performance that you saw in Q1 stays, you know, the same through the rest of the year. The net sales when you adjust for the seasonality you have in Q1, but it, you know, when you adjust for that, but you kind of maintain the momentum through the end of the year, presumably that would have the SG&A be higher than the CAD 202. Is that fair way to look at it?
If so, do you have, you know, even a ballpark of how much that would move things up?
Yeah. Let me, I'll take that, Jeff, to going backwards on the share price first. We've hedged a large chunk of that exposure. There's probably 20% of our shares or our share-based compensation, which is not hedged, which we're gonna try to cover off some point this year. That won't have a lot more variability from here. It was the sharp jump on that unhedged piece from what we ended last quarter of something in the sixes to the nine, right? That was a big material impact. You know, that's, I think, is something you should not see repeated. In terms of the investment performance, if it continues to accelerate, there could be some variability there. The same with the sales.
If they're tracking to what we just saw, then I think we're okay. Again, it's too soon to tell. You're thinking about it the right way. If they're pacing right where they are, we should be roughly where we think it is on the 202. If they accelerate, obviously that would be a variable that goes against that. Too soon to make that call today. It's a good news problem, unfortunately, but it's one that we have to, you know, we can't control.
Okay. on the institutional side, just wondering if there's kind of any update on how the pipeline and the outlook for RFPs and whatnot look like today?
Thanks. I'll take that one, Jeff. You know, we are seeing some very strong RFP activity, particularly internationally in the Asian communities and countries as well as in the Middle East. We'll remain to see how those pan out. We do have some great activity in the U.S. in terms of getting onto a number of SMA and TAMP platforms. We've mentioned in the past, we're on SMArtX and Envestnet, Vestmark. We're looking to get on a few more. As those continue to grow. With a couple of key partner relationships as well, we do expect to see a real pickup in terms of activity and momentum in the U.S. We're very optimistic around that business, and we just continue to, you know, push hard, particularly in the U.S.
Yeah. One of the things, Jeff, I would add to what Judy said is, even our U.S. business, which, you know, despite what you read in the, in, how tough that environment's been on flows too, our U.S. business has actually been pretty strong in terms of flows. You know, again, it's not just the broader global institutional, but our U.S. business which when you look at the headlines about, some of the market issues, we haven't seen it impact our flows at this point.
Okay. Just last was more of a housekeeping thing. When you historically reported your retail net, so as you kind of had The total number and then the number backing out some of the larger institutional numbers, was that not a factor in this quarter? In other words, the reported number was also the number when you adjust for those larger institutional transactions that can sometimes come into the retail numbers?
Yeah. Our reported number of 221 is actually adjusted for CAD 6 million, one small redemption from an institutional client. Unadjusted I guess is 227.
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks. The trailing 12-month investment performance continues to improve. When you do the attribution analysis on it, what are the biggest drivers of that performance when you break it down between asset allocation and security selection? Like, do you have a bias towards defensive positioning or is there anything that really stands out driving investment performance here?
Yeah. If we obviously look at each strat, it's very different, right? When we report that number, that's the entire complex. Think of something of 40 plus, or close to 40 strategies in there. All different flavor styles, you know, whether it be more value tilted, more growth tilted. It's hard to answer from an attribution and security selection because you're lumping in 40 things. I would say, when we look at it has been on our balance suite driven by the fact that we last year were defensive. Sitting on more cash using some more liquid alternative hedges in there, using a real assets product in there, using ways to think about the bond market differently. Some products have private credit in there.
Obviously on the balance suite it was a defensive positioning but also a mix of things. Individual strategies, obviously, we had a pretty good conscious on risk last year. Across the board, our discussion was about this aggressive rate hiking cycle. Some of our managers were able to manage the cyclicality and the shift from a way more growthy things to more cyclical things. I think it's broad-based, as I said, and it's not one particular strategy. It's really hard to answer the attribution and security selection across 40 things. I'd say it was probably positioning around being more defensive broadly across the suite of things.
Yeah. No, fair enough. Your AUM mix does skew towards U.S. and global equity strategies. Just in that context, are you able to describe and, I'm cognizant of the fact that you have a variety of different strategies and different mandates, but are you able to describe how you would be positioned relative to, you know, U.S. regional banks specifically? Like, is there anything notable there that may impact, you know, investment performance subsequent to quarter end?
Yeah. Let me give you a quick update. We have no exposure to regional banks in any of our portfolios. We've had no exposure to CS or Credit Suisse in any of our portfolios. None of the tier one AT1 bonds that went to zero or are in any of the European, we own none of those bonds across any of our global fixed income mandates. Whatever we just saw over the last couple of weeks, will not impact any of the portfolios.
Okay. Very good. I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Question just with respect to private markets. Kevin, you certainly talk favorably of them. Wondering how we should be looking at the CAD 5 billion alternatives target that you have, what the pipeline's like for that, and where we would be seeing seed capital go from the current CAD 224 if you were to build out to that CAD 5 billion. How do you look at balancing the increased volatility that could perhaps come with increasing that investment? I'll stop there. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Tom. A lot in that. Let me start with the CAD 5 billion. Yeah, we're still on pace for it. As I said a couple of quarters ago, the market environment was gonna impact timing, but we still feel pretty comfortable that it's a 2023 achievable. Market conditions have not gotten better in terms of, again, you know, there is just a log jam of people. Again, buyers, like us are looking at better valuations. I would argue the environment's better as a buyer. Sellers are looking at the past valuations. They'll obviously meet in the middle. Our pipeline of things that we're looking at is very, very strong. I'd say, you know, to execute the strategy is probably in a better place than it's ever been.
In terms of the marks, I think you have to look at the private markets, like individual assets. If you were in late stage growth equity, type stuff that has gone through its third or fourth round, you'd be questioning whether that's been marked appropriately given they're about to go public. We don't have any exposure in that kind of asset class or if you're in the buyout world and, again, thinking about leveraging up here to do something, again, not where we're playing. Think about where our current mix of assets is in infrastructure assets, which tend to have some type of correlation to inflation. Whether it be port increases, surcharges related to inflation. Core infrastructure actually holds up pretty well.
Think about private credit, also where we have been a long-term player with a great partner there, who has done great with underwriting. It's never been a better time for private credit, so I don't worry about the marks there. Think about the fact that the banks are pulling back from lending, especially from what we just saw. You will see underwriters have the ability to create great terms. Probably the borrowers who are borrowers that would have gone to the banks, the credits that we're gonna be underwriting are probably gonna be better as an industry. Those are where we're playing today. I don't worry about the mark issues as much as I would for some others who are playing in different asset classes right now.
As we build it out, obviously, we're gonna be opportunistic. You know, again, the long-term view that Ash has, and he's only been in the seat a year, is really to build out a platform of things that over time are appealing to advisors and our institutional clients. But from an exposure standpoint today, I'm not concerned about the current mark-to-market situation.
In terms of where the C would go, where would the C capital? Would that double?
Yeah.
as you built this out?
Yeah. No. Yeah, we've talked about this a lot with you guys over the last couple of years. You know, as we build that platform out, there'll be some things we'll be ceding. I think it's still a number that is probably CAD 250 million-CAD 275 million over the next few years. Things we're gonna monetize and come back, so that number is probably even that feels on the high side, as a couple of our funds are toward the later parts of their lives. You'll see monetizations and cash flows coming back. The faster we build it out, we may get to that in a temporary basis. I, you know, that's how you have to think. It won't certainly be double, Tom, on that front.
Okay. Thanks very much.