维德思投资 2025年度报告

Message to Shareholders To Our FellowShareholders: Key Accomplishments We focused on initiatives that enhanced product quality, broadeneddiversification, and responded to evolving client demand. These effortsexpanded our growth opportunities and positioned the Company for improvedoutcomes during more favorable market conditions. During 2025, weexecuted our long-termstrategy in a marketenvironment thatremained challengingfor active investmentmanagers, and we wereparticularly impactedgiven the relative sizeof our quality-orientedequity strategies. Ourresults for the yearwere mixed and belowour expectations. Weremained focusedexecuting effectivelyon our key strategicpriorities of productquality, distributiongrowth, operatingoptimization, talentengagement, andfinancial and riskmanagement, withspecific initiatives. Weexpanded our investmentofferings through newproduct developmentand our investmentcapabilities throughinorganic transactions.We achieved meaningfulgrowth in our ETFbusiness and increasedorganizational efficiencywhile continuing todeliver meaningfulshareholder value. • We expanded our investment capabilities into private markets through twotransactions, acquiring a minority interest in Crescent Cove Advisors, aprivate credit firm focused on providing capital solutions to the high-growthtechnology sector, and entering into an agreement to acquire a majorityinterest in Keystone National Group, an investment manager specializingin asset-centric private credit. These transactions expand our investmentofferings in an area of growing client interest with managers that havedelivered strong performance and positive net flows. • Our ETF assets under management (“AUM”) grew significantly, from $3.1billion at December 31, 2024, to $5.2 billion at December 31, 2025,and sales increased 69%. This growth reflected the execution of severalinitiatives, including expanding our lineup, enhancing access through retailintermediaries, and increasing dedicated sales resources and support. • We continued to execute a series of actions to increase operationaleffectiveness, efficiency, and cost management. Additional investmentmanagers were migrated onto our shared operational support service model.In addition, we introduced numerous policy revisions to increase consistencyacross the company and implemented enhanced vendor and procurementprocedures. Total Shareholder Return1 January 1, 2009– December 31, 2025 Capital Management Financial and Operational Results Our approach to capital management reflected a balanced,disciplined, long-standing philosophy focused on long-termvalue creation and financial flexibility. We deployed capitalby investing in growth opportunities where appropriate,maintaining a strong balance sheet, and returning capital toshareholders in a sustainable and thoughtful manner. Theseactions reflect our confidence in the long-term sustainabilityof our earnings, cash flow generation, and business model. Financial and operational results reflected the impactof lower average assets under management compared tothe prior year, driven primarily by net outflows in certainquality-oriented equity strategies. While these pressuresaffected revenues, margins, and profitability, they occurredwithin a broader market environment in which quality-focused investment styles remained out of favor acrossmarket capitalizations and regions. • We increased capital returned to shareholders, by 14%to $133.5 million, compared to $117.4 million in 2024.We increased the quarterly cash dividend by 7% to $2.40during the year, the eighth consecutive annual increase ofthe dividend, and repurchased $60.0 million of commonshares, which represented 5% of the prior year’s sharesoutstanding on December 31, 2024. Despite these headwinds, our disciplined expensemanagement, diversification across asset classes andproducts, and strength of our balance sheet allowed usto continue investing in initiatives that are critical tosustaining the business through market cycles. We have the flexibility, agility, andresponsiveness of a boutique assetmanagement firm with the productbreadth, distribution reach, andresources of larger firms. •The Company refinanced its credit arrangements withimproved pricing and ended 2025 with significantliquidity, including $386.5 million in cash and equivalentsand an undrawn $250.0 million revolving credit facility,and minimal net leverage, providing flexibility to invest inthe business, pursue strategic opportunities, and returncapital to shareholders. • We ended the year with AUM of $159.5 billion, a 9%decrease from $175.0 billion at December 31, 2024, aspositive market performance across asset classes partiallyoffset total net outflows. While 2025 presented meaningful challenges, we remainconfident in our strategy and the advantages of our distinctinvestment manager model. Our diversified platform, strongbalance sheet, and experienced leadership team positionus to adapt to evolving client needs and capi