Welcome to the Q3 2021 AGF Management Limited earnings conference call. My name is Richard, and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. During the question-and-answer session, if you have a question, please press star then one on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Adrian Basaraba. Mr. Basaraba, you may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I'm Adrian Basaraba, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AGF Management Limited. Today, we will be discussing the financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2021. 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 analysts following the presentation, Judy Goldring, President and Head of Global Distribution, will also be available to address questions. Turning to slide four, I'll provide an agenda for today's call. We'll discuss highlights of Q3 2021, 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 2021.
After the prepared remarks, we'll be happy to take questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Kevin.
Thank you, Adrian, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. During Q3 2021, we continued to execute against our strategy and stated goals. I'll begin with some highlights. Our strong business momentum from the previous quarters carried into Q3. AUM and fee earning assets reached CAD 43.4 billion at the end of Q3, an increase of CAD 2.6 billion compared to the second quarter. Our mutual fund business continued its sales momentum, reporting net sales of CAD 288 million, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of mutual fund net sales. As a tenured leader in sustainable investing, we are proud to announce that AGF International Advisors Company Limited has been successfully named as a signatory to the U.K. Stewardship Code.
U.K. Stewardship Code 2020, recognized globally as a best practice benchmark in investment stewardship, sets high stewardship standards for those investing money on behalf of U.K. savers and pensioners and those that support them. Diversity and inclusion have been a longstanding pillar of our social responsibility commitment. In early September, we entered a multi-year partnership to create a scholarship program with Indspire, a national Indigenous organization that invests in the education of Indigenous people. This partnership is part of our multi-year plan to accelerate our diversity and inclusion initiatives. Over the past few months, we have made significant progress in diversifying and expanding our private alternatives business. In early July, we launched the AGF SAF Private Credit Limited Partnership and Trust. The LP targets Canadian institutional investors, while the Trust offers increased liquidity that is more appealing for Canadian retail investors.
Subsequent to the launch, we refined our long-term partnership with SAF. Furthermore, we strategically expanded our private alternatives business into the private equity and venture capital space by partnering with First Ascent Ventures, a firm that focuses on investing in emerging technology companies. The strong business momentum has translated into a strong financial result for the quarter. We reported an adjusted diluted EPS of CAD 0.21, up 163% from the CAD 0.08 in Q3 2020, excluding Smith & Williamson. We have achieved these results partly by holding core expenses flat, which we will continue to do going forward. We have been able to realize efficiencies and unlock some capacity during COVID by relying on our digital strategy and doing larger virtual meetings. When you look at our process prior to COVID, there was a lot more travel and administration necessary in our sales process.
We believe that going forward, our investment management business can grow with the existing resource base. Having said that, incremental operating expense and capital will be required for corporate development as we accelerate the redeployment of our excess capital. Finally, the board confirmed a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.09 per share for the third quarter. This level was increased last quarter from CAD 0.08 per share. Starting on slide 6, 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 by 24%. I'll provide more color on our mutual fund business in a moment. Institutional sub-advisory and ETF AUM increased by 11%.
We continued to receive allocations from our existing institutional clients, including $100 million into our global sustainable growth strategy during the quarter. After successfully onboarding a large institution who selected three of our global and U.S. equity strategies on their SMA platforms in Q2, in August, we onboarded another large institution who chose one of our global equity strategies on their SMA platform. While AUM growth on these SMA platforms will occur gradually over time, we are optimistic based on flows for the initial few months. Building on the success of these wins, we target entering into similar relationships with other SMA platforms in the U.S. During the quarter, we received a redemption notice from one of our institutional clients for CAD 900 million.
The redemption was a result of an asset allocation shift, which resulted in a large reduction of their public equity exposure overall in favor of alternatives. This highlights the importance of alternatives and also the SMA business, which tends to be less lumpy and will create some consistency in AUM levels. Looking forward, RFP and RFI activities have remained strong. We continue to see interest from institutional investors in a number of our strategies, which bodes well for future sales. Our private client business continues to demonstrate consistent, steady growth, with AUM increasing 23% year-over-year. Our private alternatives AUM and fee-earning assets were CAD 2.2 billion, and we maintain our goal of reaching CAD 5 billion in AUM and fee-earning assets by the end of 2022.
During the quarter, we refined our partnership with SAF, where we have entered into a definitive agreement along with a distribution arrangement as an alternative to AGF exercising its option to acquire management contracts of select SAF funds. We will be the exclusive provider of their investment capabilities in the Canadian retail marketplace. This arrangement allows both firms to capitalize on the expected growth in the private credit space. Our strategic partnership with First Ascent Ventures helps to broaden our alternatives platform into an area that gives investors an opportunity to invest in top-tier emerging technology companies. AGF committed CAD 30 million to First Ascent's second fund and is a member of the Limited Partner Advisory Committee.
These initiatives, along with our robust pipeline of opportunities in the alternative space, will help AGF achieve our goal of reaching CAD 5 billion in AUM and fee-earning assets by the end of 2022. [audio distortion] three months ending August 31st. Excluding net flows from institutional clients invested in our mutual funds, net sales were CAD 288 million compared to net redemptions of CAD 4 million in Q3 of last year. Across all channels, IIROC, MFDA, and strategic partnerships, and strong flows into multiple categories, including global and U.S. equities, fixed income, and ESG or sustainable opportunities. The momentum in our retail mutual fund business has continued into September. Excluding net flows from institutional clients, we have net sales of approximately CAD 80 million up to September 24th.
Before I return the call back to Adrian, I want to give a quick update on 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 one year and 40% over the three-year period. At the end of Q3, average percentile rankings were 53% over the past one year and 49% over the past three years. [audio distortion]
[audio distortion] Reflects a summary of our financial results for the third quarter with sequential quarter and year-over-year comparisons. Excluding Smith & Williamson from our prior period [audio distortion] series of comparisons, we've shown EBITDA before private alternatives contributions separately. Excluding the private alternatives business, we reported EBIT before commissions of CAD 29.2 million in the quarter. This is CAD 1 million favorable compared to Q2 2021 and CAD 9.1 million favorable compared to prior year, driven by an increase in AUM. SG&A was CAD 50 million, an increase of CAD 3 million from Q2 2021 and CAD 4 million from Q3 2020. This was driven by higher mutual fund sales and strong investment performance. SG&A in the quarter was also impacted by increased corporate development activity and associated expenses of CAD 1.3 million. As we work to deploy capital, these costs may temporarily increase the SG&A.
Core SG&A, which excludes variable compensation and corporate development costs, were relatively consistent with last year. EBITDA from our private alternatives business was higher [audio distortion] than the phenomenon we saw last quarter when the U.S. dollar weakened, which suppressed LP earnings. As noted, as a subsequent event in our financial statements and on our previous call, one of our long-term private alternative investments managed by SAF fully monetized in June 2021. As part of the transaction, AGF recorded carry interest revenue of CAD 2.2 million this quarter. As we continue to grow and diversify our private alternatives platform, management fee profits and earnings from our LP investments will become more consistent and predictable.
Diluted EPS was CAD 0.21 in the quarter. That's CAD 0.14 higher than Q2 2021 and [audio distortion] CAD 13.1 million this quarter compared to CAD 17.7 million last quarter, [audio distortion] being the upper end of that range. We're currently in the middle of our annual strategic planning and budgeting process. As Kevin mentioned, expense control is a key objective. Turning to slide 9, I'll walk you through the yield. Note that AUM and related results from Smith & Williamson, the private alts business, one-time items and other income are excluded. Q3 revenue yield is 112 basis points. That's 1 basis point lower compared to the trailing 12 months. Q3 SG&A, as a percentage of AUM, was 50 basis points. That's 1 basis point lower compared to the trailing 12 months.
That resulted in an EBIT yield of 27 basis points, which is flat to the trailing 12 months. Let's turn to slide 10. I'll 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 percentage of free cash flow. [audio distortion] CAD 3 million in short and long-term investments and no debt. [audio distortion] reflects the CAD 30 million cornerstone investment to First Ascent's second fund, which was announced in August. Not included [audio distortion]. 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 include [audio distortion] redeploying our excess capital to generate recurring earnings is a key strategic priority. Over the past few months, we've made significant progress to begin deploying our capital and have generated a robust pipeline of corporate development opportunities. Executing on this priority will be a catalyst for [EBITDA] growth and value creation. Last quarter, in recognition of our strong results, robust financial position, and confidence in our business, AGF's Board of Directors increased the quarterly dividend by 12.5%. This is just one example of how we are directly returning capital to our shareholders. Turning to slide 11. I'll turn it over to Kevin to wrap up today's call.
Thanks, Adrian. Q3 was a solid quarter. Our AUM and fee-earning assets continue to climb. We recorded another quarter of positive mutual fund net flows, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of net sales. We continue to deploy our capital and invest in key growth areas such as the private alternative business. We launched the new AGF SAF Private Credit product in July, refined our partnership with SAF, and partnered with First Ascent Ventures. Our strong business momentum translated into strong financial results. Excluding Smith & Williamson from the prior period results, EBITDA before commissions was CAD 37.5 million, or 76% higher than Q3 of last year. Our margin also expanded by 860 basis points year-over-year. Adjusted EPS for the quarter was CAD 0.21, 163% higher than last year, excluding Smith & Williamson.
We are focused on building on the momentum from the past few quarters and creating value for our shareholders over the long term. In the past 12 months, we have returned almost CAD 70 million to our shareholders through share buyback and increased dividend payments, which started last quarter. We will continue to strategically invest and accelerate the deployment of our capital to key growth areas, creating value for shareholders. Along those lines, I'd like to reiterate our strategic priorities, which are to deliver consistent and repeatable investment performance, drive the organization to sustainable net inflows, redeploy our excess capital to generate recurring earnings, and position the firm to reach CAD 5 billion in alternative assets by 2022, while we continue to be diligent in controlling costs to ensure increased revenue translates to expanded profits and margins to take advantage of the operating leverage in our business.
I want to thank everyone on the AGF team for all of their hard work, and we will now take your questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press the pound sign or the hash key. If you're using a speaker phone, you may need to pickup the handset first before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one on your touchtone phone. We're standing by for questions. Our first question online comes from Mr. Gary Ho from Desjardins Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. In your MD&A, there were several mentions of this capital deployment plan, and you also spent, I think, a couple million on the corp dev costs. I think both Kevin and Adrian, you mentioned it in your prepared remarks. Kevin, can you just refresh us on the key pillars of that plan? It sounds like a lot of effort is bulking up your private alts platform. Is that where we should see growth come from the next two to three years? How much would you look to deploy in that silo in particular?
Yeah. Hey, Gary. Thanks. A couple thoughts on that. Capital is always something that we try to balance out between growth, doing some buybacks, as well as we'll continue to think now about the dividend as well. Over the last year, as we've said, I think we put back CAD 65 million to our shareholders in two of those buckets, right? Now with the fact that a year on, we've got the S&W transaction behind us, we really are going to amp up getting the capital back to work and accelerate that. With that will come some deal costs which are kind of one-time things. As part of that, obviously, as we look at the landscape around us, the alternative space continues to get bigger and bigger. Asset allocations are continuing to grow across the spectrum, from large institutions, family offices, even retail brokers.
We know the core public markets are going to shrink. The alternative asset areas are going to grow pretty significantly over the next decade or so. For us, strategically, it makes sense for us to start to rapidly accelerate the deployment of that capital. Part of that is we're bringing on a new head of alternatives. We are in the late stages of a search process for a significant hire there. We are down to several very good candidates there. Hopefully we'll have somebody on board here into the early part of next year where we can then really ramp that up. The sooner we get that capital back to work, as you all know, the sooner we can drive those earnings through.
We're on pace to, I think as we've said a year ago at this time, we said it would take up to 18- 24 months. You're now starting to see the beginnings of that. In terms of the quantum, we have a lot of dry powder, right? If you think about the current cash on the balance sheet, CAD 70 million. If you think in a world post DSC, our cash flow is probably going to ramp to north of CAD 100 million. We think conservatively about relevering the company up to 1.5x our EBITDA. You can kind of think of that over a multi-year period about how you can get that to scale into earnings.
Perfect. Okay, great. Next question, just maybe related to some of Kevin's comments there. Just on the free cash flow. Adrian, just on the quarter, CAD 21 million. I think there's some kind of one-time private alts carry or distribution in there. LTM is around CAD 52 million. When you look at the run rate, what's their free cash flow profile look like for the company? Is that CAD 50 million sustainable? I'm looking at it excluding the DSC benefit that's coming next year. Can you maybe walk us through how you think about that?
Thanks for the question, Gary. I think that the CAD 50 million is sustainable based on where our AUM is today. I would not call the free cash flow contribution from the alternatives platform as one-time. I might categorize it as lumpy. As we build out the platform and diversify it, as Kevin mentioned, what you're going to see is that the cash, if we want to talk about cash, the cash we're getting from management fee profits, from carry, and also from treasury investments in our LPs is going to become more consistent and sustainable.
If you factor in the DSC, I think Kevin's comment is probably closer to CAD 100 million. Is that what you guys are thinking there?
Yeah, I mean, rough math there. We spend about CAD 60 million a year in DSC now. That goes away mid-2022. There's a temporary benefit there, but for a couple of years, it's going to be in the CAD 60 million range in terms of a tailwind on our cash flow. Then, as we've talked about, we're cognizant of the fact that financial benefit reverses over time. Yeah, for the first two or three years, it's a significant increase in our free cash flow.
Gary, that's probably why you want to see us accelerate this a little bit, right? We could take advantage of that in those beginning years.
Yeah, makes sense. Great, last question for me, maybe for Judy. Can we get an update on how you plan to distribute some of these private alts products to accounts outside of institutional? I think it was mentioned the kind of high net worth customers and whatnot. Do you need to significantly invest on the distribution side of things?
Thanks, Gary. We are looking at the alts platform across a spectrum of offerings. Starting really with the mutual fund and real assets. ETF vehicles for liquid alternative strategies have been quite strong as well, whether it be the market neutral or long-short strategies. With our private credit offering, it is available to retail as well as family offices and institutional. On the distribution side, whether it be in our Canadian institutional team, our U.S. institutional team, or across the retail channel and our team there, we have capacity. We've got the capabilities to distribute all of these products to the investors as they are demanding them. We don't anticipate significant additional expenses or headcount there.
Gary, one of the things that when we strategically thought about this, we do have that end-to-end distribution there and where others have to acquire pieces of it. For us, I think it is natural to go the other way, which is to provide product to that spectrum.
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, those are my questions. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Gary.
Thank you. Our next question online comes from Geoffrey Kwan from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. On the SG&A, I think the guidance is CAD 185 million- CAD 190 million for the year. At the high end would imply the Q4 number would have to be around CAD 45 million meaningfully lower in Q4 to hit your guidance range.
Thanks, Geoffrey. It's Adrian. Basically, the short answer is that we're 3/4 of the way through the year now, we have a little bit of a better read on where the performance-type compensation is going to land. Again, I do want to reiterate that when you look at the SG&A increase in the quarter, again, it related to corporate development, which we're going to incur these expenses to generate future incremental profits, and also performance compensation. The performance compensation relates to the pretty impressive sales. CAD 2.9 billion in gross sales of mutual funds year -to -date versus CAD 2.2 billion in the full year last year. Some of the increases in the first three quarters really relate to the fact that we didn't anticipate the performance to be as strong as it has been for the year.
We have a pretty good read on now on where the full year 2021 is going to land.
Yeah. That's what I'm trying to get.
Geoffrey, it's Kevin. The other thing I'd reiterate is that we've tried to X out the, what I call sales-based and investment performance comp and just bonus comp based on the success. The core SG&A is running basically flat from where it was a year ago.
Right. Obviously, the net sales, and we see it in the numbers as you've reported, right? The AUM has been reported. I'm just trying to get a sense as, okay, if we see the momentum sustain itself into Q4 to still hit with all the factors in terms of performance-based comp and the corporate development, are you still comfortable that you can hit it within that range? Or as a result of the growth you've had and the performance you've had, it's going to come in higher? Just to make sure there's a matching in terms of trying to forecast out what the margins look like for the last quarter of the year.
Geoff, it's Kevin again. I would say lean us toward the high end there, right. That can get you back to where it is. We do try to true up each quarter, so we don't have this effect. Clearly, if we have another blowout quarter in sales, we may have to push that a little higher. I think you guys would look at that and say, that's a pretty good short-term trade-off. Remember, some of these things will reset, right. The bonus numbers all start to reset as we go into a new year. The targets get higher, et cetera. These are essentially the impacts of probably too great a success on some of these metrics vis-a-vis where we had planned, right. Some of these will reset as we move into 2022. We haven't done that work yet.
We're just starting in our planning process right now. Lean Q4 toward the high end of the range right now.
Okay. Sorry, just to not belabor the point, if you have the same momentum through the first three quarters as you get into Q4, are you comfortable that you'll still be within the target range?
I think we've said a number of times on the prepared remarks and during the answers that we're upper end of the range, which is CAD 190 million. We can't give you too much transparency into some of the minutiae around how we do the forecast. At this point, that's what we're anticipating. We're certainly not going to change that today.
Okay. Just on your alternatives business, can you help us understand how much have your clients invested into the various alternative strategies? What is that kind of mix between the different indices in terms of institutional versus retail versus type of client, that sort of segmentation?
Yeah. I think, Geoff, the way you want to look at that between our current, which is roughly CAD 2.2 billion of private alternative assets, right? We've got CAD 150 million-ish in our money in that. Again, there's some other commitments that will follow on to that. You can think of the rest of that as third-party client money that stretches from institutions and family offices. We've just started on the side on the really rolling out this retail product that will be available to high-end brokers. You'll see that come on last. I would say of the CAD 2.2 billion-ish, most of that is institutional family office type money across a spectrum of products.
Okay. One last question. To your point, Kevin, in terms of if alternatives is where it's at and where clients are going, shifting capital. Does it make sense to build an in-house specialization and in-house team as opposed to partnering with some third parties as you've done so far?
Yeah. We spent a lot of time on this, right? With our alternatives advisory committee and the team here. I come from this as a PM and an analyst is in my DNA, right? If we went out and just started ramping up OpEx to build it out, you wouldn't see the return on that for six to seven years, right? I think if we can partner, take majority stakes, work with folks on GP structures where we're joined together in it, that's a way to rent to own it model, which I think you drive the earnings first. Bring what I call that knowledge equity in-house over time. That's, to us, a better way to reward our shareholders, is get the earnings flowing quicker, be in the space, test out some partners, and think of it as a portfolio of products and managers that we'll acquire over time.
You should think of it, though, that should lead you to, hopefully over time, bring that expertise in-house, but not through an organic body by body expensive growth.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question online comes from Mr. Tom MacKinnon from BMO Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks very much. Morning. Just on the CAD 5 billion private alt goal. You've been sitting at CAD 2.2 billion now for about a year. Certainly talking as if you would be putting more capital to work into this. If you want that goal, that CAD 5 billion goal by the end of 2022, that's more than doubling within one year or about five quarters, I guess. Can you give us any kind of path as to how we should be thinking about this? Would that be another commitment of CAD 100 million of your capital? Just if I look at the CAD 150 million you put in the CAD 2.2 billion you have so far. Just two parts to that question, the path to get to CAD 5 billion and what are some of the cash flow demands of that?
Yeah, Tom, thanks. It's Kevin. I think we're still pretty comfortable with that CAD 5 billion number over the next horizon for sure. In that it implies a couple of new initiatives we may be putting on the board over the next year to get us there. There may be a little slippage, but I think we're comfortable with line of sight to that. In terms of what our capital would be, we've already disclosed we're going to put CAD 50 million into support fund 3 on Instar when that rolls out. Obviously a couple of the other ventures we'll probably have some seed capital to work with there. Not sure if we've circled a number yet. You can know that CAD 50 million is clearly committed on that.
It could be in that range, it could be higher, but it's not going to be significantly in the first year. In other words, I wouldn't see us out of that band. Again, it's stuff that we're comfortable with right now.
You mentioned over the next horizon. Is that by the end of 2022?
Yeah, I think that's what we said, and I think we're still looking at the end of 2022. I said if there's slippage, it may be a quarter or two, but it feels like it's tracking to that at this point.
Well, if it feels like it's tracking, it's been flat over the last year. What are you reading in terms of making it feel like it's tracking to get to that?
Yeah. We've had some monetizations that have been bringing things down. We haven't had a lot of new initiatives, as I said on the early part of the call. We have just rolled out a new product with SAF, which we have high expectations for, but there'll be a ramp time there. At the same time, we've made an investment in our first early-stage venture fund. That hasn't been called yet. While we've got some things that we have started to ink, it'll take a little bit of time to get in that call. There are things that we're working on that are in the pipeline that will also play into that. I'm not fussed by the flattish given the fact that we've had some monetizations in carry that came through. I mean, Adrian, you may have some other thoughts on that.
Okay, thanks.
Sorry. I think that covers it. Anything else on that, Tom?
No, that's good. Thanks, Adrian.
Thank you. Our next question online comes from Nik Priebe from CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Just to build on the conversation surrounding excess capital deployment and the recent cash build. In the past few quarters you've alluded to some of the commitments that you've made to various funds on the private alt side. I was wondering if you might just be able to give us a sense of what your total unfunded commitments might amount to. I'm just trying to keep track of that to better understand how excess capital might be at least partly earmarked.
Yeah, thanks for the question. It's Adrian. There's about CAD 77 million of unfunded commitments that we have with the funds that are up and running now. One of the things you have to keep in mind is that when we look back over the years, a lot of these new commitments get funded through recycled capital, number one. That would be monetizations from investments within the funds that we've invested in, but also cash earnings that are coming out of the GPs in the form of a recurring management fee and other income as well as carried interest. You sort of have to look at a net number which would be much lower than that.
Understood. Okay. Then just one high-level question on the net flows outlook. Demand for retail investment products at the industry level has clearly been very strong this year. Presumably a consequence of improving household balance sheets and higher savings rates, among other factors. Just interested to canvas your views on the sustainability and the trajectory of that trend. As we see spending patterns begin to normalize, how quickly we might see demand for retail investment products normalize accordingly. I wouldn't expect you to have a crystal ball, just thought I'd ask for your read on some of those macro dynamics.
Yeah. Hey Nik, it's Kevin. I'll start and I'll pass it to Judy for some of the micro parts of our business on that. Yeah, I think clearly what's been a big benefit has been the higher savings rate. We think that that savings rate probably stays up a little bit elevated with the hybrid work world. Think about the fact that if folks only work downtown two or three days a week, they're saving commuting costs, et cetera, gas, things like that. There'll be some offsets with higher inflated prices for things. If you put that in the mix, there should be some extra disposable income in that. We've seen that go into some parts of the savings world in the market. How sustainable is that?
I think it will wane out over time as we normalize hybrid and the downtown starts to come back. I'd say probably second most important thing, and maybe even more important, is the market itself. If the market stays in this range, even if it's range-bound to choppy, range-bound to an upward trend, flows will be fine. I think where you get into trouble in our industry, as you've seen, is when you have market declines of 20%- 30%, the retail investor stays market does over in the near term. Having said that, I think we're not calling for, like many others, probably some choppiness in here, maybe some minor pullbacks. We're not seeing a scenario where we think things are coming off a cliff at this point. Those are the two big [audio distortion].
[audio distortion] is just the breadth and scope of our product offering. Out of the top 10 selling funds, six are top quartile performing funds. We would be very optimistic that we could continue that outpacing of industry going forward.
Yeah. I'd add to that, Nik, that there are also things that are probably the highest demanding. It's not only strong performance, but also in key categories that we focus the shelf to things that advisors really can't do themselves. Things that are harder to do, more global, et cetera, and that's where we're having the outperformance. There's some linkage to that sustainability there, I would suspect as well.
Okay. That's good color. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll pass the line.
Thank you. Once again, for any questions or follow-ups, hit star then one on your touchtone phone. Our next question on line comes from Mr. Graham Ryding from TD Securities.
Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me?
We can, Graham. Good morning.
Okay, great. The investment into First Ascent, I just want to make sure I've got that correct. It sounds like it's a CAD 30 million commitment on your end. Is that incremental to the CAD 77 million, Adrian, that you pledged partnership as something that you're hoping will grow into a fund and a sort of a fee-earning AUM opportunity for you?
Yeah. It's a good question. This is an investment fund. It's really a partnership and a structure where we'll have multiple points of revenue, if you think about it, right? Not just as an LPC, but also through the structure itself and some carry. It really sets us up to do more with them in the future, what we think is one of the better early-stage technology venture firms out there. Think of it really as the first part of a multi-pronged approach to this.
Okay. Understood. My second question, not related, just the regulatory changes around Client Focused Reforms. We've seen recently that some of the banks have announced that they're moving to a more proprietary model within their branch channels. Any expectation that that would have an impact on your flows at all or the independent asset managers largely?
This is Judy. This has been a trend that has been developing over a number of years. For ourselves, and I would argue with most of the independent asset managers, it will have a minimal impact, as we really have not seen a significant sales flow through the bank branch in many years. We're not concerned about it. It's an interesting development. It'd be interesting to see what the regulator says to it. At this point, we're not concerned.
Okay. Thanks, Judy. Maybe just to follow on that. Your mutual fund sales momentum is strong. Can you give us some indication of how that is currently split across the different channels, IIROC, MFDA, and then your strategic partnerships?
Yeah. The growth sales across, well, we're seeing about a 50% increase across IIROC and MFDA both, just in terms of the sales, in terms of the trajectory of where they're going. In terms of the split, we're seeing about 25%, I believe, is through IIROC and the rest. Is that where is it?
That's correct.
I think that's correct. Yep. Sorry. I can get that number and firm it up for you.
If it's directionally correct, then that's fine. Thank you.
We have no further questions at this time. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. AGF's next earnings call will take place on January 26th, 2022. You may now disconnect.