Organization and Description of the Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Organization and Description of the Business

Organization and Description of the Business

Acadian Asset Management Inc. (“Acadian”, “AAMI” or the “Company”), is a holding company that operates a systematic investment management business through its majority owned subsidiary, Acadian Asset Management LLC (“Acadian LLC”). Acadian LLC offers institutional investors across the globe access to a diversified array of systematic investment strategies designed to meet a range of risk and return objectives. Acadian LLC is a leading systematic investment manager of active equity products, including global, emerging market, international, and small cap equities, as well as credit and alternative strategies. Acadian LLC comprises the Company’s Quant & Solutions reportable segment:

•Quant & Solutions—comprised of strategies that leverage cutting-edge technology to gather and analyze data to identify mispriced assets to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns for investors; portfolios include developed and developing markets for equity, credit and alternative strategies.

Acadian LLC is organized as a limited liability company. Fees for services are largely asset-based and, as a result, revenues fluctuate based on the performance of financial markets and investors’ asset flows in and out of Acadian LLC’s products. The Company utilizes a profit-sharing model in structuring its compensation and ownership arrangements with Acadian LLC. Variable compensation is based on the firm’s profitability. The Company and Acadian LLC key employees share in profits after variable compensation according to their respective ownership interests. The profit-sharing model results in the alignment of the Company and Acadian LLC key employee economic interests, which is critical to the Company’s talent management strategy and long-term growth of the business.

The corporate holding company (“Hold Co”) is included within the Unallocated Corporate expenses category.

Prior to 2014, the Company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Old Mutual plc (“OM plc”), an international long-term savings, protection, and investment group, listed on the London Stock Exchange. On October 15, 2014, the Company completed the initial public offering (the “Offering”) by OM plc pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. As of December 31, 2024, Paulson & Co. Inc. (“Paulson”) and related parties thereof held approximately 23.9% of the common stock of the Company.

In December 2023, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a $100 million share repurchase program. For the year ended December 31, 2024, the Company repurchased 4,445,534 shares of common stock at an average price of $21.32 per share, or approximately $94.9 million in total, including commissions. In connection with these repurchases, a reduction to additional paid-in capital in the amount of $0.4 million was recorded until it was depleted, with the remaining $94.5 million of share repurchases recorded to retained earnings.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company repurchased 268,800 shares of common stock at an average price of $19.03 per share, or approximately $5.1 million in total, including commissions. In connection with these repurchases, a reduction to additional paid-in capital in the amount of $0.3 million was recorded until it was depleted, with the remaining $4.8 million of repurchases recorded to retained earnings.

For the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company repurchased 4,147,450 shares of common stock at an average price of $24.09 per share, or approximately $100 million in total, including commissions. A reduction to retained deficit was recorded for the full amount of these share repurchases.

All shares of common stock repurchased by the Company were retired.