00:00An interesting time for you to take over, a unit that I think is probably much more in focus than maybe you even would realize back in December when you took over.
00:07A lot has changed, of course, over the last few months with policies coming out of Washington and more importantly, investors looking for, I guess, something different.
00:17What are they looking for?
00:18Correct. First of all, I did come in at the helm at a very unique time.
00:24You're correct. It was December when I got appointed.
00:28Being a first generation American, moving over to the United States at the age of 15 with a bag of dreams, I'm extremely humbled and grateful to be at the helm of this organization.
00:43Look, it's an exciting time to be at DWS.
00:47Over the past six months, and I'm not sure if it had anything to do with me, but I think we hit very, very important milestones for our franchise.
00:55In December, as you mentioned, we hit a trillion dollar mark in terms of assets under management, which also marked a 10 percent increase in terms of net flows in 2024.
01:10Very remarkable result compared to the others.
01:12In February, our share price actually went up to 50 euro mark, which is, again, something that we are incredibly proud of.
01:22Our market cap now expanding to 10 billions.
01:26And then certainly in March, we've been listed in MDOX.
01:30We are amongst the 50 German companies, mid companies.
01:34And I think the most interesting thing in terms of the volatility is exactly what you mentioned, Romain.
01:41That is gateway to Europe.
01:43Well, that's what I want to talk about.
01:44I mean, you are helming the America's business.
01:47This is a business that is also taking U.S. money, U.S. investors, I should say, who are looking for opportunities over in Europe.
01:55What exactly do they want?
01:57We are a very diversified asset manager.
02:01I think when you look at our offerings, we provide across active, passive and alternatives.
02:08In the United States, we are a deep roots in alternatives, especially in U.S. real estates, liquid real assets and infrastructure.
02:15We actually just had our conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, where we celebrated our 50 year of private real estate platform rooting back to the reef brand.
02:27And interesting enough, that conference brought over our clients, prospects and investors and certainly our investment personnel.
02:36And what we are hearing about, they want to hear perspective, different perspective than our America's competitors.
02:43And I think that's the advantage that we have.
02:46That's a value add that you bring.
02:48And as you position DWS as a gateway for U.S. investors to Europe, I'm curious what the conversations about regional diversification sound like right now.
02:56We know conversations have been taking place for a while this year because there's so much volatility.
03:00But what does follow through look like and how much does it correlate with the volatility or lack of volatility in the past couple of weeks?
03:08Thank you for the questions, Carla.
03:10It's certainly an interesting time because when we think about a few months ago, global investors did not have that much demand for Europe.
03:18Actually, they were looking at Europe with a lot of skepticism, right, because they did not see the growth prospect.
03:28But I think the geopolitical pressures really changed that, forcing Europe to take action.
03:32And what I'm talking about, the reforms and the investments, particularly in defense and infrastructure.
03:38And indeed, that's what we are hearing from the clients.
03:42Being a leading global diversified asset manager that is European-based and undisputedly being the number one asset manager in Germany,
03:51they really want us to connect the dots in terms of regional perspective and asset diversification.
03:57And let's maybe focus back on the alternatives.
04:00Certainly, the interest rates have not really been kind to the asset class over the past few years.
04:07But with the interest rates changing, we are seeing a lot of interest back into, particularly in liquid real assets, U.S. real estate and infrastructure.
04:18So those returns, those potential returns, actually, are going to be competitive with what we see in public markets?
04:23We really think so.
04:25And we have a deep-rooted franchise that has the expertise to be able to deliver that.
04:31I think our thoughtful leadership is very important for our investors.
04:36And that's why they turn to us in terms of positioning their portfolios as they see the opportunities.
04:41But there's a lot of competition in alt space right now.
04:43I mean, this isn't like the niche, you know, pocket of the financial markets that it used to be.
04:49Agreed.
04:50And especially the expansion of alternatives.
04:51As a lot of our competitors go into the democratization of alternatives, I think it's a very interesting and attractive time to be at alt, right?
05:01When we think about our franchise, we're also looking at expanding.
05:06We have expanded our capabilities in private debt.
05:09And as the markets know, we have announced our partnership with Deutsche Bank in terms of the private credit.
05:17This is going to provide investors and us with unique opportunities that will be originated by Deutsche Bank.
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