Good morning. My name is Jessica, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Fiera Capital's earnings call to discuss financial results for the third quarter of 2021. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer period. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star two key. Thank you. I will now turn the conference over to Ms. Mariem Els ayed, Director of Investor Relations. Ms. Els ayed, you may begin your conference.
Thank you, Jessica. Bonjour à tous. Good morning, everyone. [Non-English content] 2021. Welcome to the Fiera Capital conference call to discuss our financial results for the third quarter of 2021. Before we begin, I invite you to download a copy of today's presentation, which can be found in the investor relations section of our website at ir.fieracapital.com. Note that comments made on today's call, including replies to certain questions, may deal with forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from expectations. I would ask you to take a moment to read the forward-looking statements on page two of the presentation.
Turning to page three , our speakers today are Mr. Jean-Philippe Lemay, Global President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Lucas Pontillo, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Financial Officer. Slide four, I'll provide the agenda for today's call. We will begin by providing highlights of the third quarter. This will be followed by a discussion on AUM and flows, an update on our private and public markets platforms, as well as an update on distribution. We will then review our financial performance. Following our prepared remarks, we will take your questions. With that, I will now turn the call over to Jean-Philippe.
Thank you, Mariem. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm on slide five. Assets under management reached CAD 180.8 billion as of September 30th, a CAD 1.3 billion increase compared to June 30th and a CAD 1.6 billion increase over the last 12-month period. Excluding the impact of the dispositions over the last 12 months, AUM at September 30th, 2021 would have increased CAD 16.4 billion or 10% compared to CAD 164.4 billion at September 30th, 2020. During the third quarter, we continued to execute on our catalyst for growth with multiple positive developments happening on our private markets platform. On the public market side, the Fiera Atlas team continues to generate above median investment performance. Investor interest momentum is holding steady.
For the broader public markets platform, long-term investment performance remains very strong. On a three-year basis, 94% of our equity assets under management and 96% of our fixed income assets under management have outperformed. In private markets, we saw strong positive performance across all our key strategies. What's more, thanks to our experienced investment teams across our entire platform, we were able to capitalize on attractive investment opportunities in mid-market assets, converting committed capital to deployed AUM at a strong pace, allowing us to put our clients' money to work swiftly and responsibly, and thus converting these into fee-generating AUM. In terms of financial performance, we delivered great results again in Q3. We generated basic adjusted EPS of CAD 0.36 during the third quarter, unchanged from Q3 of last year.
Adjusted EBITDA was CAD 55.4 million for Q3 of 2021, representing a CAD 2 million increase compared to the same period last year. This despite the sales of two private wealth businesses and the rights to manage the Fiera Emerging Markets Fund. Excluding these dispositions, comparable year-over-year adjusted EBITDA would have been up by CAD 12.4 million or 29%. The margin corresponding to the CAD 55.4 million is 31.6%, a 30 basis point increase compared to Q3 of last year. I will now cover AUM on slide six. While we experienced net flows of CAD 1.6 billion in public markets, we generated positive net flows, including net new subscriptions of CAD 1 billion in private markets.
Notwithstanding the unfavorable flows of CAD 0.6 billion, we still expect to generate an incremental CAD 600,000 of base management fees from these net flows. I'm now pleased to share a few of the many private markets highlights that occurred during the third quarter and start of the fourth quarter of this year. I'm on slide seven. Private markets AUM reached CAD 15 billion on September 30th, a CAD 1 billion or 7.1% increase compared to June 30. We raised CAD 750 million in new subscriptions in Q3, primarily for our real asset strategies and deployed over CAD 500 million into new portfolio investments. Our private markets business has raised CAD 2.6 billion on an LTM basis, representing estimated revenues of CAD 30.8 million upon deployment, a 23% year-over-year increase.
Our CAD 3 billion infrastructure platform continues to have an incredible year on several fronts. Clients are showing significant interest in this asset class, as evidenced by over CAD 600 million in new subscriptions raised for this platform to date this year. On the deal side, we acquired a 50% ownership in Augean, one of the U.K.'s leading specialized waste management businesses that operates in a highly regulated industry with significant barriers to entry, limited competition, and stable inflation-linked revenues. Furthermore, I'm pleased to report that GRESB, the global ESG benchmark for real assets, released its final 2021 scores on October 1, and our flagship Eagle Crest Infrastructure Fund received a score of 82 out of 100, improving on its 2020 score. The GRESB average for all funds scored in 2021 is 77, which implies that we are above industry average.
Moving on to real estate, where AUM has reached CAD 5.7 billion and keeping with the ESG theme, Halo, one of our joint office developments in the U.K., has achieved a BREEAM outstanding accreditation in two categories. BREEAM is the world's leading sustainability assessment method for master planning projects, infrastructure and buildings. Halo's combined score is the second-best score to be awarded in the U.K. to date and the first development outside of London to achieve it. In addition to this, our U.K. real estate team achieved the GRESB Green Star status on every one of its funds, and our Fiera Real Estate Opportunity Fund IV (UK) received the top score, outperforming all of its Northern European peer group.
In private debt, a CAD 4.9 billion platform, I'm very pleased to share the details of a partnership we entered into in October that we are particularly excited about, consisting of our participation in a CAD 200 million financing package for SOFIAC, a joint venture initiative helping commercial and industrial sector businesses increase competitiveness while contributing to the fight against climate change. We will lend up to CAD 60 million in this partnership, and the funds will go towards renovating and retrofitting assets which will enable an estimated annual reduction of 20,000 tons of GHG emissions, thus contributing greatly to both Quebec and Canada's transition to a low carbon future. This is a great transaction that benefits our clients and our firm, and simultaneously has a direct positive impact on society and the environment by helping firms reduce their energy consumption.
Investors in Fiera Private Debt Fund VI will participate and benefit from the financial returns of this partnership. We continue to source multiple attractive opportunities for capital deployment across our global private markets platform and are pursuing growth prospects in each vertical. We are excited about the future of our diversified platform, which by virtue of the predictability of its returns, lower correlation to equity and fixed income markets, as well as real income and capital protection, has demonstrated its resilience during the pandemic. To date, we've grown this business exceptionally well, as you'll see on slide eight. In just three years, we have taken our private markets business from CAD 7.7 billion of assets under management to CAD 15 billion today, almost doubling the platform.
The CAD 7.3 billion increase represents growth of 94.8% or a CAGR of almost 25% for the period. Not only does this line of business enable us to achieve better investment outcomes for our clients, it diversifies and grows our revenue streams. What's more, by commanding higher average fees than strategies invested in traditional equity and fixed income asset classes, our private markets platform will also act as a revenue and margin growth accelerator in the years to come as we continue to grow our platform. Turning to slide nine for review of investment performance of private market strategies, our performance remained strong across all key strategies during the third quarter and deal activity remained high.
The Canadian and the U.K. real estate strategies continued to deliver strong performance in Q3 2021 after building momentum in the back half of 2020 and through the first half of 2021, driven by their allocation to industrial and multi-res sectors. The portfolios, which span the core, value add, and opportunistic risk spectrum, continued to be well-positioned to capture the strong market tailwinds emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. With low interest rates and vast amounts of stockpiled capital seeking deployment to assets that protect against inflationary pressures, real estate is experiencing exceptional performance. Notably, the Fiera Real Estate Small Cap Industrial Fund generated 6.4% return during the quarter and 14.5% since inception. The private debt side, most of our strategies generated strong returns for the quarter.
The Fiera Private Debt Fund six has notably generated a one-year absolute return of 5.9%, in line with expected returns for this private senior loan strategy. The infrastructure strategy performed well during the third quarter, generating a 2.52% and an IRR since inception of 9%. The assets within the strategy are essential in nature, and in many instances, revenues are underpinned by long-term and fixed price contracts. Those assets with a degree of GDP-linked revenues experienced strong performance with volumes returning to or ahead of pre-COVID-19 levels. Our global ag strategy continues to deliver solid performance in the second half of the year, driven by strong performance from our Australian row cropping platforms and California specialty fruit, tree fruit business.
The investment team has closed on 3 bolt-on opportunities over the last quarter, and the pipeline of opportunities for the fund remains robust. Our global fee funds portfolio has continued to grow, generating a one-year absolute return of 32.6% and adding 2 direct investments in Q3. In early July, the fund acquired a minority interest in a U.S.-based sustainable infrastructure finance company, playing a leading role in the energy revolution in North America and Europe. We are very pleased with the work of our teams and with our third quarter results, which are a testament not only to our focus on investment performance, but also to our dedicated deal teams and commitment to growing the private markets platform even further for the benefit of our clients and our shareholders. Turning now to public markets on slide ten.
Public markets AUM reached CAD 165.8 billion as of September 30th, an increase of CAD 0.3 billion from the end of the second quarter, with both equity and fixed income markets generating value for the platform. In connection with the termination of the revenue sharing arrangement with CNR, we closed during the third quarter. There were final withdrawals totaling CAD 0.8 billion. Furthermore, as part of our continuous review process of the investment strategies on our platform in order to ensure relevance, performance, and scale for the benefit of our clients and shareholders, we made the decision of closing one of our liquid alternatives funds based out of the U.K. The closure of the subscale fund allowed us to crystallize the fund's year-to-date performance fees in Q2 and only impacted AUM by CAD 0.5 billion.
The new Fiera Atlas team has continued to perform very well during the quarter, generating alpha for clients and growing AUM steadily. AUM, as of September 30th, is approaching the billion-dollar mark, significantly higher than at time of onboarding early in the year. The strategy remains very much in favor across the globe, and as such, we are developing a second UCITS vehicle for our European and Asian investors. Finally, I'm pleased to report that the sub-advisory partnership we announced with PineStone Asset Management last quarter is progressing. Clients have reacted positively to the news, and as such, we are confident that all closing conditions will be satisfied and are targeting closing towards the end of 2021. Furthermore, we have already begun discussions with PineStone on partnering together in common future ventures.
On slide 11, I will review investment performance for select public market strategies, most of which have generated alpha during the third quarter, with all of our large cap equity strategies outperforming. The Atlas team generated 1.16% of added return in Q3, and 13.6% since inception or over four years, ranking first quartile for both periods. Our U.S. mid-growth strategy, despite generating an absolute return of -1.62%, still beat its benchmark by 1.91%. On a one-year basis, the strategy has generated an absolute return of 36.17%, adding 4.1% over the benchmark. The frontier markets strategy, like the U.S. mid, generated alpha during the third quarter, and in spite of negative absolute return.
The strategy ranks first quartile on one, three, and five-year basis and has generated an impressive 46% of value add over one year for an absolute return of 78.2%. For the three-month, one-year, and three-year periods, all our active universe fixed income strategies generated positive value added, and all of them ranked either first or second quartile within their respective peer universe over three years. Moving on to slide 12 for a review of net flows by distribution channel during the third quarter. In institutional, we won CAD 1.5 billion in new mandates, marking our fourth consecutive quarter with over CAD 1 billion in new mandates in this channel. Mandates won span the range of our asset classes with important wins in real assets.
These wins were offset by lost mandates and redemptions from existing clients totaling CAD 2.2 billion during the quarter, which stem mainly from clients rebalancing their asset mix following strong equity performance in recent quarters and reducing exposure to emerging market equities. Also, a Canadian pension plan client internalizing a portion of their fixed income assets. In financial intermediaries, we won new mandates primarily in fixed income with a few smaller but impactful wins in real estate and infrastructure. These were offset by lost mandates in fixed income and equity strategies. Having said that, we are preparing a full-scale marketing launch of assets strategy in Canada through our consultant relationships to introduce the team to investors and accelerate take up. We expect to follow suit with a similar initiative in the U.S. in Q1 of next year.
Another relationship we are excited about is the one we announced just two weeks ago with Lawyers Financial Advisory Services. This partnership highlights a key dimension of our commercial strategy. Our investment expertise and ability to offer customized investment solutions leveraging our public and private markets platforms through a wealth advisory intermediary partnership, giving us the potential for an accelerated growth opportunity in this space. In private wealth, although net organic growth remained relatively flat during the quarter, our ability to offer access to private markets assets through multi-asset mandates to our private wealth clients contributed to us winning mandates that will generate CAD 1.6 million in annualized revenues. Mandates marked lost were primarily U.S. tax efficient fixed income strategies. Note, on a year-to-date basis, the private wealth platform generated 9.8% of net organic revenue growth in Canada. Excuse me.
By developing partnerships for our strategies across public and private markets platforms and continuing to focus on rolling out our distribution capabilities globally, we are positioning ourselves to leverage untapped opportunities in worldwide markets. By maintaining our focus on these key organic growth catalysts, we will deliver on our plan and ambition of becoming a leading provider of investment services on a global scale. I will provide further color on slide 13. Because our private markets investment strategies generate multiple revenue streams, base management fees, performance fees, and in some cases, transaction and commitment fees, it's important to consider the impact of committed capital and new subscriptions on our different types of revenues. In order for our shareholders to fully appreciate the organic performance of our business, we've computed the annualized organic impact on our base management fees from our Q3 2021 year to date and last 12 months flows.
As I previously mentioned, we expect to generate approximately CAD 0.6 million in base management fees on an annualized basis from the net flows of the third quarter. Looking at this on a year to date basis, we would expect organic client flows to generate CAD 13.9 million in base management fees or 3.5%. On a last twelve-month basis, we expect organic client flows to generate CAD 16 million in base management fees or 3.1%. In both cases, this growth is on the higher end of our industry peer group. These figures exclude any transaction, commitment, or performance fee the business is likely to realize from committed undeployed capital.
Accordingly, when we looked at it in isolation, committed capital of CAD 1.8 billion on September 30th is anticipated to generate fees of CAD 24 million, not including performance fees. For these reasons, our diversified private markets platform remains a key area of focus for us, and we'll continue allocating the necessary resources to grow it further. As fundraising momentum continues and the pace of capital deployment is maintained, we will see increased recurrence in revenue items such as transaction and commitment fees. As the different platforms mature, the potential for steady harvesting of performance fees will increase. I will now turn it over to Lucas for a review of our financial performance.
Thank you, Jean-Philippe, and good morning, everyone. I'm on slide 14. I'm pleased to report that total revenues of CAD 174.9 million for Q3 2021, an increase of CAD 7.5 million or 4.5% when compared to the prior quarter. This increase was primarily driven by higher base management fees of CAD 6.4 million as a result of higher average AUM and more favorable asset class mix for the quarter. Compared to Q3 2020, revenue increased CAD 4.2 million over the same quarter last year. This includes the impact of lower revenues from the sale of two U.S. private wealth operations and the termination of the CNR revenue-sharing arrangement.
Excluding the impact of these dispositions, year-over-year revenue would have increased CAD 31 million or 22%, with normalized revenues increasing from CAD 143 million in Q3 2020 to CAD 174.5 million for this quarter. Breaking the actual results down further, base management fees were CAD 158.2 million for the quarter, down slightly when compared to CAD 159.7 million for Q3 2020. However, excluding the impact of the dispositions, base management fees would have been CAD 134.1 million in Q3 2020, leading to a year-over-year increase of CAD 23.9 million or 17.8%. We look at this by channel.
In the institutional channel, which was not affected by the dispositions, base management fees of CAD 84.1 million for the quarter increased by CAD 14 million year-over-year. Mainly as a result of more favorable asset class mix and market appreciation. In the financial intermediaries channel, base management fees were CAD 51.7 million for the quarter compared to CAD 57.4 million in Q3 2020. Excluding the impact of dispositions, revenue in this channel would have increased by CAD 5.1 million or 10.9% compared to last year. The increase was mainly a result of market appreciation, particularly with regards to our large cap equity strategies. Finally, base management fees from our private wealth channel were CAD 22.4 million during the quarter compared to CAD 32.1 million in Q3 2020.
Again, adjusting for the dispositions in this channel, base management fees would have actually increased by CAD 4.8 million or 27.3% as a result of a more favorable asset class mix, given our ability to offer our clients, private wealth clients access to our private market investment capabilities. Moving on to performance fees. We generated CAD 3 million in performance fees during the third quarter of 2021, a CAD 2 million increase compared to the same period last year. This increase was mainly due to clients profiting from higher returns on some of our funds based out of the U.K., and they thereby crystallized performance fees during the quarter by redeeming some out of these high-performing funds. We recorded CAD 2.7 million in share earnings and joint ventures in Q3 compared to CAD 2.1 million last year.
The increase stems from our realization of underlying joint venture projects undertaken by our Fiera UK real estate team. Other revenues of CAD 11 million in Q3 2021 were CAD 3 million higher compared to last year. This includes CAD 1.5 million of lower revenue during the period from the sale of the rights to manage the Fiera Capital Emerging Markets Fund, as well as from the sale of Bel Air. Excluding the impact of these dispositions, other revenue for the three months ended September 30th, 2021 would have been CAD 10.8 million compared to CAD 6.3 million, a year-over-year increase of CAD 4.5 million. The increase was primarily due to transaction and commitment fees in our private markets platforms and higher revenue from sub-advisory services provided.
On a last twelve months basis, total revenues grew by CAD 4.1 million compared to the last twelve-month period that ended September 30th, 2020. Excluding dispositions, last twelve-month revenues would have increased by CAD 76.5 million or 13% compared to the last twelve-month period ended September 30th, 2020. We are very pleased with our revenue results for the quarter. They speak to the strong demand for our competitive suite of investment strategies and the progress we continue to make in further developing our distribution capabilities on a global basis. Turning to slide 15. SG&A were CAD 132 million for Q3 2021 compared to CAD 122.6 million in Q3 2020, an increase of CAD 9.4 million or 7.7%.
The increase was primarily due to higher revenue related variable compensation costs and higher share-based compensation expense. Share-based compensation expense was CAD 12.4 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2021 compared to CAD 5.3 million in the same period last year, an increase of CAD 7.1 million. The increase was primarily due to accelerated vesting of certain share-based compensation during the quarter. When excluding share-based compensation, SG&A for the quarter was CAD 119.6 million compared to CAD 117.3 million for Q3 2020, representing an increase of only 2% relative to an increase in revenue of 2.5% for the same period.
Further excluding the impact of dispositions, SG&A less share-based compensation would have increased 18.6% year-over-year relative to a 21.6% increase in revenues for the same period. Turning to slide 16. We recorded net earnings attributable to company shareholders of CAD 2.3 million or CAD 0.02 per share during the third quarter of 2021 compared to CAD 4.7 million in Q3 of last year. Adjusted net earnings during the quarter were CAD 37.5 million compared to CAD 37.6 million a year ago period.
The difference between net earnings and adjusted net earnings is explained largely by the amortization and depreciation of CAD 16.2 million, CAD 10 million of restructuring, acquisition and other costs, mainly because of severance costs as well as costs incurred in connection with the wind down of some of our subscale funds in Europe, as well as additional optimization of middle and back office support on our private market platforms. In addition, CAD 12.4 million of share-based compensation expense for the quarter. As mentioned, this amount includes CAD 6.9 million related to the accelerated vesting of certain share-based compensation during the quarter. Now on slide 17. We generated adjusted EBITDA of CAD 55.4 million in the current quarter compared to CAD 53.4 million in Q3 of last year, an increase of CAD 2 million or 3.8%.
Excluding the impact of dispositions, adjusted EBITDA during the current period was CAD 55.3 million, an increase of CAD 12.4 million or 28.9% compared to Q3 2020. With regards to the adjusted EBITDA margin, we are very pleased with the 31.6% margin realized in Q3 of this year. It compares favorably not only to the 31.3% margin in Q3 of 2020, but also more favorably to the 29.9% margin when we factor in the impact of dispositions over that same period. On the last twelve months basis, we achieved a margin of 30.8% or CAD 216.5 million of adjusted EBITDA and to continue to trend positively in that regard. On to slide 18.
I am pleased to mention that our financial leverage ratios trended down once again this quarter. Having lowered net debt by CAD 17.2 million over the course of Q3, we lowered all associated leverage metrics accordingly. Net debt, which includes our convertible and hybrid instruments and excludes cash, now sits at CAD 563.3 million as of September 30th, which is down CAD 50.3 million or 8.2% over the last five quarters. Likewise, our funded debt, as computed by our funded debt to EBITDA ratio as per our credit facility, is at its lowest level in the last three years at 2.29x for the quarter. Testament to our prudent allocation of capital over that time. This is the third consecutive quarter where this ratio has remained below the 2.5 mark.
2.29x, this is even lower than it was prior to completing six acquisitions over the course of 2018 and 2019, and despite the setbacks from the pandemic in 2020. Visibly, the consistency with which we have been reducing our debt levels and simultaneously improving our operating results has allowed us to lower our financial leverage. On to slide 19. In addition to reducing our financial leverage, delivering value to shareholders through optimized capital allocation remains an ongoing priority for Fiera Capital.
Following the renewal of our NCIB in August of this year, we purchased and canceled close to 590,000 Class A shares during the third quarter for total consideration of CAD 6.2 million, bringing total Class A shares purchased and canceled during the first nine months of the year to 1.2 million shares for total consideration of CAD 13.4 million. Moving on to our dividend. Our shareholders continue to benefit from a high dividend yield. As of market close on November 9, Fiera shares were yielding a dividend of 7.8%. Accordingly, we paid out CAD 65.4 million to shareholders in the form of dividends in the first nine months of the year. Between the NCIB and the dividend, this brings the total value paid to shareholders to CAD 78.7 million through September 30th.
On that note, I'm also pleased to announce that after holding our dividend constant through all of 2019 and all of 2020, the board has approved a dividend increase of CAD 0.005 or 2.4%. As such, our next dividend payable in December 2021 will be a dividend of CAD 0.215 per share, up from CAD 0.21 per share previously. Finally, our dividend reinvestment remains in place. This program is entirely for the benefit of shareholders, offering them convenient way to reinvest cash dividends into Class A shares. Given the NCIB in place, we are currently buying our shares on the market to satisfy this program and are not issuing them from treasury. I will now turn the call back to Jean-Philippe for closing remarks.
Thank you, Lucas. Turning to slide 20. The last 18 months have been characterized by multiple successes at Fiera. We introduced and implemented a global operating model to strengthen strategic alignment and affect operating leverage. We continued to enhance our public markets investment platform, notably by onboarding the Fiera Atlas team, adding investment capabilities to our global equity offering. In private markets, we continued growing the platform by adding high-quality assets to our funds and making ESG a top priority. We increased our capability specialist headcount and established new partnerships to further enhance our reach with clients and focus our firm on organic growth. We navigated the uncertain times brought on by the pandemic, unwavering in our responsibility of managing capital prudently while returning value to shareholders. Most recently, we announced an agreement to establish a sub-advisory partnership with PineStone.
Each of these achievements directly contributes to the company's future growth and our shareholder value proposition. We remain focused on growing our private markets investment platform, a diversified platform extremely relevant to achieve our client investment outcomes. 2021 has been a stellar year for this business. Notably, we expect that by the end of 2021, the infrastructure platform will have deployed CAD 1.2 billion during the twelve-month period into high-quality assets across the globe, the majority of which offer a high degree of inflation protection. Our private debt platforms are expanding geographically, adding to capabilities across European corporate debt, Asian corporate and real estate debt, as well as North American corporate, real estate, and infrastructure debt. Moving forward, investment performance will remain a core and top priority for our business.
Distribution, which you've heard us talk about for over a year now, will persist as an area of importance for Fiera for the delivery of our growth ambitions and the continuation of the privileged relationship we have with our clients. ESG, which we look at from the responsible investing perspective and the CSR perspective, will be an ongoing commitment. Finally, our dedication to returning value to shareholders will not change and remain a key priority.
As we near the beginning of 2022, the executive team is finalizing the blueprint of our strategic direction for the next three years. We have a high degree of conviction in our future growth, and we look forward to sharing highlights from this updated plan with you in Q1 of 2022. In closing, I want to thank our dedicated teams across the organization. Their energy, their passion, their resiliency, and their client-first mindset keep driving our organization forward. This concludes our prepared remarks. I will now turn the call back to the operator.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request, and your questions will be pooled in the order they are received. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from Rasib Bhanji with TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Morning. Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Yes? Okay, perfect. Just wanted to start off with the share-based comp disclosure. I understood that this was related to accelerated vesting. Just wanted to confirm if this is related to the agreement with Nadim Rizk and the PineStone partnership.
Yes.
Yes. Okay. I guess once the transaction closes towards the end of 2021, what would the run rate for share-based comp look like heading into 2022?
We're, you know, if you look on a quarterly basis, we're probably running at about sort of high CAD 5 million, call it CAD 5.7 million, CAD 5.8 million. That would be a normal run rate going forward into 2022 on a quarterly basis, as you say. We do have an extra quarter of acceleration to get through in 2021.
Okay. Understood. Just to remind, could you remind us what the expected margin impact you're expecting from the transition to the sub-advisory relationship?
In terms of that impact of the share-based compensation, it has no impact, as we say, on sort of the overall economics and net income, just 'cause the share-based compensation was below the line. At this point, you know, it's forward-looking guidance that you're asking for in terms of what that would've looked like on a 2022 revenue-generating basis. I prefer to wait till the end of Q4. You could see at that point sort of how much we've accelerated for this year, based on the AUM that the team is generating. That should give you a better indication going into 2022 about what the impact could be.
Okay. Understood. The effective shift to your leverage ratio, so the funded debt-to-EBITDA now at 2.33x . Is this level within your target range or comfort level?
It is very much in our comfort level. I think at this point we've struck the right balance between, you know, getting our leverage ratio down to a level that we're comfortable with, and at the same time redeploying some capital on our share buybacks. As I think I've alluded to how much we've deployed already on a year-to-date basis. You know, from our perspective, it's an important trade to make from the notion that we're actually buying back, you know, very expensive equity instruments at this point. In that way, that's, we think, it's a good divestiture of capital in terms of how we're managing that between managing our leverage and buying back our shares.
Okay. Understood. Just my last question also on your capital deployment priorities. Could you talk more about the thought process behind increasing the dividend versus other forms of capital deployment, for example, increasing the pace of share buybacks?
Sure. We took all of that into consideration. I guess one of the considerations for us is that we are fortunate enough to be part of the Dividend Aristocrats Index. We had a grace period of two years where we did not have to increase the dividend at all, which we did not do. However, you know, the index does require that over a five-year period, we do need to be increasing the dividend. We're coming to the end of 2021, and this would've been a decision point for us as to deciding whether or not we wanted to stay in that index. There's very good company in that index and very good constituents and peers, so we'd like to keep maintaining our presence in that index.
As such, we felt that, you know, rewarding shareholders with a slight increase in the dividend that reflects, again, the prudent capital management that we've exercised over the last two years, but at the same time enabling us to stay in the index going forward.
Okay. That makes sense. Yep, that's everything for me. Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Jaeme Gloyn with National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Just, as it relates to the dividend, can you just refresh us on what you're thinking in terms of like payout ratios on earnings or cash flows? Yeah, I take it that this seems to be just more of a technical dividend increase to stay in the index, but is there anything else going forward that you can guide us to around that?
Thanks for the question, James. Yeah, in terms of the ratios, you know, in the past we've been running anywhere above 70% in terms of percentage of cash flow from operations. Consistently, we've been able by holding the dividend constant for the last several years, by growing our cash flow over that time period, we're now comfortably in a position where that payout is at 58%. You'll recall a while back, we had given ourselves a target of trying to keep that ratio below 65%. Currently being at 58% on a year-to-date basis, that's quite a comfortable place for us to be relative to that target we gave a few years back.
Even this modest increase that we propose will keep us below the 60% ratio as a percentage of cash flow from ops.
Okay, great. That's some good guardrails. In terms of the share-based compensation, you guided just to the last line of questioning to maybe the high fives as a normal run rate. My understanding was that that was the normal run rate, but then because of the Nadim Rizk considerations that share-based comp would likely fall as a result of him being no longer as like a you know an employee. Is there something that shifted in the share-based comp guidance that has caused that to sort of tick up versus what we were previously looking for?
Let me just break it down in terms of time periods. Coming back to, in terms of Q3 and Q4 this year, you will continue to see some acceleration as a result of that PineStone arrangement. To your point, going into 2022, that compensation will no longer be part of share-based compensation. But that CAD 5 million range is still good as a quarterly range, James, just because we have had other grants over the course of the year. We feel comfortable with that level of expense going forward in share-based compensation.
Okay. Got it. On restructuring costs that came in just under CAD 10 million, I was under the impression that we would see restructuring and other costs tail off quite considerably. You know, what's the latest update in terms of where those costs are headed into the upcoming quarters and maybe a little bit more color as to specifically what that was tied to.
I'll answer the latter part of your question first. It literally was tied to one of the investment teams we had for liquid alternative funds in the U.K., and the associated distribution team with that. We no longer maintain that strategy. It was a subscale strategy. We decided to exit that. The bulk of what you're seeing there is related to that. There were some additional charges that went through during the quarter. We continue to optimize our private market platforms in terms of their back and middle office support. There was some consolidation there and some outsourcing. We took some charges in the quarter there. That speaks to sort of what that charge represents for the quarter.
You know, in terms of guidance going forward, again, we're always looking at, you know, optimizing our platform and looking for ways for us to be more efficient. If there is anything that comes in the future, that will be what it will be related to.
Okay, great. Last one for me, just in terms of the net flow performance. You know, it's been a pretty robust market for most asset managers on the net flow side. You know, just looking at the Q3 performance came in a little bit maybe lighter than what we would have expected prior to your AUM release a couple weeks ago. You know, what can you tell us around the dynamics as to what clients are talking about to you in terms of how they're thinking about upcoming flows, net contributions, things of that nature? Is there anything early into Q4 that you can hint at on a net flow basis?
Sure. I'll take that one, Jaeme. Describing what happened in the third quarter, really the main theme of the negative portion of the flow is really related to outstanding equity performance across the board, large cap and also emerging markets with clients just basically reallocating to target asset allocation weights, especially on the institutional front. That's really the story there, which is sort of a good problem to have in a way, but that's mainly the main reason why we've experienced that in the past quarter. In terms of forward-looking guidance, in terms of flows it's always hard to give specific color.
The only thing I will say though is that our recent organic growth performance on the private markets side. We're seeing continued interest on that front. The fundraising momentum is still very strong and we're also pretty dedicated as well and pretty rigorous in terms of our ability to deploy at the proper pace as well to match that momentum in fundraising. You know, we expect this to continue in the quarters to come from a demand standpoint and market dynamic standpoint.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one. Your next question comes from Gary Ho with Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Thanks, good morning. Maybe just following on, you know, the questions on the share-based comp. I just wanna make sure I have this correct. We should see an accelerated amount in Q4 as well, and then that drops below the line starting in 2022. I think previously you've guided to around CAD 7 million. Can you remind me, is that on a quarterly or on an annual run rate?
Sure. Thanks for the question, Gary. A couple of things. In terms of it actually goes the other way. It's gonna fall back above the line going into 2022, because basically it was an expense that was share-based comp outside of our margin. You can expect to see that baked into the margin going forward. In terms of the run rate, that CAD 7 million I provided last quarter was effectively sort of the average or midpoint of where we were in the aging of the three-year vesting program.
To your point in terms of what, you know, what the overall impact would be, I'd say once we have the number, the accelerated number out of Q4, that should give you a good indication in terms of what was accelerated between Q3 of this quarter and Q4, as to what the overall annual impact will be next year. I think once we get through the acceleration of Q4, and we'll be able to highlight what that amount is, that should give you a good idea as to what 2022 should look like in terms of the amounts that should be going back above the line at that point.
Sorry, when you say above the line, it's gonna reduce adjusted EBITDA?
Correct. Correct.
Okay, just on the other question, just on the private alt strategy. Just curious, you know, good flows in this quarter. Kind of what drove that? Is that your initiatives and distributions? I want a little bit more color. I think you mentioned a little bit in that JP on the pipeline, but maybe you can elaborate how it looks into 2022, and specifically which mandates would you expect to see higher flows?
Sure. Thank you, Gary. Let's start maybe with the latter part of your of your question. At this point, and it ties back to the first part of your question, infrastructure, for instance, is really in the perfect zone right now in terms of investor demand, quality of offering, and macro fit as well when we look into the future. Infrastructure is definitely an important piece of this growth and expected to continue to be in the near future. The initiatives that we've implemented in distribution that will continue to also accelerate in the next year is definitely a factor contributing to that. And a testament to that is that our fundraising is actually well diversified worldwide.
I mean, we look at the sources of funds and where they come from. It could be in Asia, could be in Europe, we also have it in the U.S. and in Canada. It's really across the board. Our focus really to maximize the opportunity that we have, and the capability of deployment in these asset classes is really what we're trying to achieve. I think it's been a good year towards that. Overall, I mean, you can continue to expect. I mean, we've highlighted in the deck that over the past three years we sort of doubled the AUM of the private markets platform.
Looking at it from a forward-looking standpoint, I mean, that pace is definitely an aspiration that makes sense as well looking into the future. Yeah, that's how I would couch it.
Okay. Just my last question, I know you won't give us numbers on the performance fees for Q4. Any context you can give us, because that number's a little bit hard to model year-over-year. Yeah, any color you can provide in terms of performance fees for the upcoming quarter?
Sure. Look, you know, the extent the color I can give you is, I think as JP highlighted in the performance section, it's we're going into Q4 with a very strong performance tailwind at our back. I think that should be a data point to take into consideration. I would say also, if you look at our year to date performance fees in terms of how they've been earned, compared to last year. Last year we were at about this time, sitting just over CAD 6 million in performance fees. This year we're sitting at closer to CAD 8 million, closer to CAD 10 million at CAD 9.8 million.
We have no reason to believe if, as long as performance holds as it's currently standing, that trend or that ratio that you're looking at in terms of, you know, the CAD 9.8 million versus the CAD 6 million last year, that that doesn't kind of translate into, sort of the trending for our Q4 results. That is entirely predicated on being able to maintain performance right up until December 31st.
Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks. Thanks for the color. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Gary.
Thank you, Gary.
There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed.
Thank you, Jessica. That concludes today's call. Thank you for joining us today.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your line.