Man Group Plc New (MNGPF) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm Robin Grew, the CEO of Man Group, and I'm joined by our CFO, Antoine Fortier. As usual, I'll start with some highlights and then Antoine will take you through the numbers. After that, I'll provide an update on the progress we made last year against our strategic priorities. It's now been five years since COVID first spread around the world, and it seems that every year since has been one of surprises. 2024 was no different, as US exceptionalism dominated the global narrative. Equities continue to rally, driven by optimism around a potential soft landing for the US economy, the sustained momentum of the AI boom and Trump's pro-business agenda. Fixed income and currencies, however, experienced a more volatile and at times turbulent year. Although the Fed cut interest rates three times, persistent inflation and oscillating expectations of monetary policy easing, that is, kept markets under pressure. Meanwhile, commodity markets were shaped by geopolitical disruptions and evolving supply-demand dynamics. Energy markets in particular saw considerable fluctuations driven by periods of escalation and hopes of de-escalation in the Middle Eastern Europe, unstable supply chains, and the health of the Chinese economy. Elections across more than 60 countries added to market uncertainty throughout. Against this backdrop, I'm proud to report strong financial results for 2024. These results really highlight the strides we have made in diversifying our business, our commitment to collaborating with sophisticated investors to address their most complex challenges, and the outstanding quality of our talent, technology and institutional resources. We delivered positive investment performance across all product categories w...