A publicly traded multiboutique fund firm's chief is still on the hunt for acquisitions, especially on the alternative side of the asset management space.

George Robert Aylward Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. President, CEO

"In terms of M&A ... we continue to be very active in terms of considering opportunities," George Aylward, president and CEO of Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. [profile] (VRTS), told analysts last Friday on Virtus' second quarter 2024 earnings call. Aylward was answering a question from Bradley Hays, an analyst at TD Cowen.

Aylward noted that, while Virtus already has "very strong representation across the traditional long-only capabilities," their "two most recent acquisitions have been in the liquid alternative space."

"We continue to think that there will be opportunities in more of the private markets and those other capabilities," Aylward said. "So we continue to evaluate opportunities and we've been quite active in terms of doing that."

"We do think that really for investors to ultimately achieve their long-term financial objectives, they do need to have a portion of their portfolio allocated to those less liquid investments," Aylward added:

Within the verticals of that, again, you've seen a lot of strength on the private credit side, and I think that's going to be highly — remain in high interest given people's demand for income and yield. But our view is that really does need to be kind of balanced out with the private equity side and as well as the real asset side, which we think for the diversification of our portfolio really needs to be part of that conversation. And we always get some concerns when people kind of start overweighting one vertical versus another. So we think they all have a place and those are all areas that we'd be interested in.

Earlier that day, the Virtus team released their Q2 2024 earnings report, revealing that the firm brought in $6.53 in adjusted earnings per diluted share in Q2 2024, up by 21 percent quarter-over-quarter and up by 20 percent year-over-year. Virtus brought in $203 million in Q2 2024 adjusted revenue (up one percent Q/Q and up seven percent Y/Y) and and had $137 million in Q2 2024 adjusted operating expenses (down five percent Q/Q but up six percent Y/Y).

On June 30, Virtus had $173.6 billion in AUM, down three percent Q/Q but up three percent Y/Y. The fund firm suffered $2.6 billion in net Q2 2024 outflows (up 117 percent Q/Q). Aylward noted that traditional U.S. mutual funds and institutional accounts drove those outflows, which were partially offset by continued inflows into ETFs, global funds, and retail SMAs. 

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