"We aim to be the consolidator of choice."

David C. Brown Victory Capital Holdings, Inc. Chairman, CEO

So said Victory Capital [profile] chairman and CEO Dave Brown yesterday morning on the Cleveland-based (for now), publicly traded firm's Q4 2018 earnings call with analysts, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha. Also on the call, outgoing Victory chief financial officer Terry Sullivan reiterated that "M&A is a core driver" of Victory's business.

"Our M&A pipeline remains strong and we continue to have focused conversations with investment managers that fit our platform," Brown said in his introductory remarks on the call, "and we are very excited about the prospects for our M&A activity in the coming quarters and years."

Brown confirmed that Victory's impending Harvest and USAA deals are on track and expected to close in Q2. And later in the call, in response to a question from William Blair equity research analyst Chris Shutler (who covers asset managers and fintech), Brown added that he and his team "are still having a lot conversations" with potential M&A targets.

Yesterday morning, before the earnings call, the Victory team reported Q4 2018 adjusted net income (with tax benefit) of $0.38 per diluted share, missing expectations by $0.02, and Q4 2018 revenue of $95.97 million, beating expectations by $290,000. AUM fell 17 percent in the quarter and 15 percent year-over-year to $52.763 billion as of December 31, 2018. 

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