UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
(Mark One)
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | ||
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019
OR
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | ||
For the transition period from to
Commission file number 1-13908
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) | ||||
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) | (Zip Code) | ||||
Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (404) 892-0896
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known, seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☑
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☑ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):
☑ | Accelerated filer | ☐ | Non-accelerated filer | ☐ | Smaller reporting company | ||
Emerging growth company | |||||||
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.) Yes ☐ No ☑
At June 30, 2019, the aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates was $9.5 billion, based on the closing price of the registrant's Common Shares, par value U.S. $0.20 per share, on the New York Stock Exchange. At January 31, 2020, the most recent practicable date, the number of Common Shares outstanding was 453,404,987 .
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
The registrant will incorporate by reference information required in response to Part III, Items 10-14 in its definitive Proxy Statement for its annual meeting of shareholders, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after December 31, 2019.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
We include cross references to captions elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which we refer to as this “Report,” where you can find related additional information. The following table of contents tells you where to find these captions.
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SPECIAL CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Report, other public filings and oral and written statements by us and our management, may include statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the United States securities laws. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of our management and on information available to us at the time such statements are made. Forward-looking statements include information concerning future results of our operations, expenses, earnings, liquidity, cash flows and capital expenditures, industry or market conditions, assets under management, acquisitions and divestitures, debt and our ability to obtain additional financing or make payments, regulatory developments, demand for and pricing of our products, the prospects for certain legal contingencies, and other aspects of our business or general economic conditions. In addition, when used in this Report or such other documents or statements, words such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” “projects,” “forecasts,” and future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “may,” “could,” “should,” and “would,” and any other statement that necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees and they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although we make such statements based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from our expectations. In most cases, such assumptions will not be expressly stated. We caution investors not to rely unduly on any forward-looking statements.
The following important factors, and other factors described elsewhere in this Report or contained in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among others, could cause our results to differ materially from any results described in any forward-looking statements:
• | significant fluctuations in the performance of capital and credit markets worldwide; |
• | adverse changes in the global economy; |
• | the performance of our investment products; |
• | significant changes in net asset flows into or out of the accounts we manage or declines in market value of the assets in, or redemptions or other withdrawals from, those accounts; |
• | competitive pressures in the investment management business, including consolidation, which may force us to reduce fees we earn; |
• | any inability to adjust our expenses quickly enough to match significant deterioration in markets; |
• | the effect of fluctuations in interest rates, liquidity and credit markets in the U.S. or globally, including regulatory reform of benchmarks, such as LIBOR; |
• | our ability to acquire and integrate other companies into our operations successfully and the extent to which we can realize anticipated product sales, cost savings or synergies from such acquisitions; |
• | the occurrence of breaches and errors in the conduct of our business, including any failure to properly safeguard confidential and sensitive information, cyber-attacks or acts of fraud; |
• | our ability to attract and retain key personnel, including investment management professionals; |
• | limitations or restrictions on access to distribution channels for our products; |
• | our ability to develop, introduce and support new investment products and services; |
• | our ability to comply with client contractual requirements and/or investment guidelines despite preventative compliance procedures and controls; |
• | variations in demand for our investment products or services, including termination or non-renewal of our investment management agreements; |
• | harm to our reputation; |
• | our ability to maintain our credit ratings and access the capital markets in a timely manner; |
• | our debt and the limitations imposed by our credit facility; |
• | exchange rate fluctuations, especially as against the U.S. Dollar; |
• | the effect of political, economic or social instability in or involving countries in which we invest or do business (including the effect of terrorist attacks, war and other hostilities); |
• | the effect of failures or delays in support systems or customer service functions, and other interruptions of our operations; |
• | the effect of non-performance by our counterparties, third party service providers and other key vendors to fulfill their obligations; |
• | impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets; |
• | pandemics or other widespread health crises and governmental responses to the same; |
• | adverse results in litigation and any other regulatory or other proceedings, governmental investigations, and enforcement actions; and |
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• | enactment of adverse federal, state or foreign legislation or changes in government policy or regulation (including accounting standards) affecting our operations, our capital requirements or the way in which our profits are taxed. |
Other factors and assumptions not identified above were also involved in the derivation of these forward-looking statements, and the failure of such other assumptions to be realized may also cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. For more discussion of the risks affecting us, please refer to Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
You should consider the areas of risk described above in connection with any forward-looking statements that may be made by us and our businesses generally. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update any of the information in this or any other public report if any forward-looking statement later turns out to be inaccurate, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For all forward-looking statements, we claim the “safe harbor” provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
PART I
Item 1. Business
Introduction
Invesco Ltd. (Invesco or the company) is an independent investment management firm dedicated to delivering an investment experience that helps people get more out of life. Our comprehensive range of active, passive and alternative investment capabilities has been constructed over many years to help clients achieve their investment objectives. We draw on this comprehensive range of capabilities to provide customized solutions designed to deliver key outcomes aligned to client needs.
With more than 8,000 employees and an on-the-ground presence in 26 countries, Invesco is well positioned to meet the needs of investors across the globe. We have specialized investment teams managing investments across a broad range of asset classes, investment styles and geographies. For decades, individuals and institutions have viewed our organization as a trusted partner for a broad range of investment needs. We have a significant presence in the retail and institutional markets within the investment management industry in North America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia-Pacific, serving clients in more than 120 countries. As of December 31, 2019, the firm managed approximately $1.2 trillion in assets for investors around the world.
The key drivers of success for Invesco are long-term investment performance, competitive pricing which we achieve through scaling our business, high-quality client service and effective distribution relationships, delivered across a diverse spectrum of investment management capabilities, distribution channels, geographic areas and market exposures. By achieving success in these areas, we seek to deliver better outcomes for clients and generate competitive investment results, positive net flows, increased assets under management (AUM) and associated revenues. We are affected significantly by market movements, which are beyond our control; however, we endeavor to mitigate the impact of market movements by maintaining broad diversification across asset classes, investment vehicles, client domiciles and geographies. We've also taken a number of steps to increase our efficiency and effectiveness, which enable us to provide a high level of value to clients. We measure relative investment performance by comparing our investment capabilities to competitors' products, industry benchmarks and client investment objectives. Generally, distributors, investment advisors and consultants take into consideration longer-term investment performance (e.g., three-year and five-year performance) in their selection of investment products and manager recommendations to their clients, although shorter-term performance may also be an important consideration. Third-party ratings may also influence client investment decisions. We monitor quality of client service in a variety of ways, including periodic client satisfaction surveys, analysis of response times and redemption rates, competitive benchmarking of services and feedback from investment consultants.
Invesco Ltd. is organized under the laws of Bermuda. Our common shares are listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “IVZ.” We maintain a website at www.invesco.com. (Information contained on our website shall not be deemed to be part of, or be incorporated into, this document).
Strategy
The company focuses on four key long-term strategic objectives that are designed to sharpen our focus on client needs, further strengthen our business over time and help ensure our long-term success:
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• | Achieve strong, long-term investment performance across distinct investment capabilities with clearly articulated investment philosophies and processes, aligned with client needs; |
• | Be instrumental to our clients' success by delivering our distinctive investment capabilities worldwide to meet their needs; |
• | Harness the power of our global platform by continuously improving execution effectiveness to enhance quality and productivity, and allocating our resources to the opportunities that will best benefit clients and our business; and |
• | Perpetuate a high-performance organization by driving greater transparency, accountability, diversity of thought, fact-based decision making and execution at all levels. |
As an integrated global investment manager, we are keenly focused on meeting clients' needs and operating effectively and efficiently. We take a unified approach to our business and present our financial statements and other disclosures under the single operating segment “investment management.”
We believe one of Invesco's greatest strengths is our separate, distinct investment teams in multiple markets across the globe. A key focus of our business is fostering a strong investment culture and providing the support that enables our investment teams to maintain well-performing investment capabilities. We believe the ability to leverage the capabilities of our investment teams to help clients across the globe achieve their investment objectives is a significant differentiator for our firm.
Environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) responsibility
ESG investment stewardship
Invesco’s differentiated approach to ESG investment stewardship is guided by our purpose - to deliver an investment experience that helps people get more out of life. We define ESG investment stewardship as the inclusion of ESG issues in investment analysis and decisions, as well as the use of our rights and positions of ownership to seek to influence the activities or behaviors of companies we invest in on behalf of our clients.
Invesco has been implementing ESG investment strategies for over 30 years and today we deliver these strategies through certain equities, fixed income, multi-asset, alternatives, real estate, ETFs and bespoke investment solutions mandates. We aim for such mandates to continuously develop and deliver ESG investment solutions, which take into consideration ESG research, analysis, and risk assessments. We believe that material ESG risks inherent in or taken by a company in which we invest or seek to invest on behalf of our clients may adversely impact the fundamentals of that company and negatively impact achieving the investment objective of such mandates.
Our commitment to ESG investment stewardship is also evidenced, in part; by
• | being a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (“PRI”); |
• | receiving an annual assessment of “A+” for strategy and governance from PRI for three consecutive years; and |
• | being a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code and Japan Stewardship. |
In addition, Invesco believes the voting of proxies of companies in which we invest should be managed with the same care as all other elements of the investment process. Our proxy voting process is driven by investment professionals and focuses on maximizing long-term value for our clients, which, in part, is driven by appropriate ESG practices. Our ESG practices seek, where appropriate, to promote sustainable social and environmental targets, in line with investor organizations like PRI, the stewardship codes discussed above and initiatives like the Task Force on Climate Related Disclosure.
For more information regarding Invesco's ESG investment stewardship, please see our most recent Investment Stewardship and Proxy Voting Report on the company's website.
Corporate Stewardship
At Invesco, corporate stewardship efforts are motivated by the belief that doing what is right for the environment, our people and the communities in which we have a presence helps us deliver positive outcomes for our shareholders. We actively partner with non-profits, start-ups and other organizations to improve financial education, protect the environment, promote environmental sustainability, champion diversity and inclusion in our industry and our company, and support and collaborate with our local civic and community organizations to improve life in our cities.
Operating environmentally responsibly is fundamental to our corporate stewardship. Invesco seeks to help protect our natural environment by implementing and maintaining environmental management processes - for example, at Invesco offices we aim to reduce utility consumption and carbon emissions, promote energy efficiency and utilize appropriate waste management practices. Some of our recent achievements include:
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• | For 2018, Invesco offset 13,877 tons of carbon dioxide emissions through our partnership with ClimateCare, representing all of our air and rail travel purchased through our third party travel agency, which represents the majority of our air and rail travel for 2018. We anticipate conducting a similar offset program in respect to 2019; |
• | Invesco has ISO 14001 environmental management certification to effectively manage our environmental responsibilities on locations representing 80% of our employee population; and |
• | We are certified by Carbon Trust in the UK regarding multiple standards, including carbon, waste and water reduction. |
2019 Developments
Throughout 2019, global markets were strong, despite periods of volatility throughout the year. Uncertainty in the economic environment and weaker industry production metrics at times in the year led the US Fed and many other central banks to aggressively lower interest rates to support global growth. Despite this uncertainty, the global economy grew at a modest pace.
The most significant undertaking for Invesco in 2019 was the completion of our acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, and the integration of our two firms. We view the combination as a multi-year growth story that deepened our relationships with clients in the US, expanded the capabilities we can offer globally and further scaled our business for the benefit of clients and shareholders. The firm is highly focused on delivering the additional capabilities achieved through the combination to the institutional and ex-US markets, which we expect will help move our net flows in a positive direction. As a result of the acquisition, we are also better positioned to deliver strong outcomes for clients, since overall performance rankings for US mutual funds are consistently stronger for the combined firm than for either firm independently.
During 2019, we further expanded and enhanced our ability to help certain of our intermediary distributors engage with their clients and improve their investment experience through the expansion of our digital wealth platform. We launched several new products and further invested in key parts of our business that we believe will benefit our clients and enhance our competitiveness over the long term.
We continued to invest in capabilities where we see strong client demand or future opportunities by making key acquisitions, hiring world-class talent, further upgrading our technology platform, launching new products and providing additional resources where necessary. We believe the ability to leverage the capabilities developed by our investment teams to meet client demand across the globe is a significant differentiator for our firm, and we will continue to bring the best of Invesco to different parts of our business where it makes sense for our clients. Some highlights of 2019 are as follows:
• | Invesco won the Deal of the Year honor at the 26th annual Mutual Fund Industry Awards for its $5.6bn acquisition of MassMutual subsidiary OppenheimerFunds. The Deal Of the Year is awarded to the M&A deal that has most changed the landscape of the fund or retirement industry. |
• | Invesco QQQ celebrated 20 years of curating innovation. Since its inception in 1999, Invesco QQQ has grown to become one of the largest, most-traded and highest-performing ETFs in the history of the industry. |
• | Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a world leading proponent of responsible investment, rated Invesco with an A+ rating for the 3rd consecutive year. |
• | Invesco ranked #5 in market penetration among ETF providers according to a 2019 Advisors Brandscape study. |
• | We further strengthened our market-leading solutions capability, leveraging one of the industry’s strongest, most experienced solutions teams to enable customized outcomes for clients; |
• | Invesco announced the launch of a new suite of defined maturity BulletShares® ETFs with exposure to municipal debt issued by state and local government. |
• | Invesco received the top prize of Asset Manager of the Year at AsianInvestor's Asset Management Awards 2019 in Hong Kong. We received the marquee award in recognition of our strong performance and AUM growth at a time when many fund houses were losing assets. |
• | Invesco China JV (IGW) won more than 50 awards in the asset management industry with a key highlight being China Securities Journal’s Annual Golden Bull Fund Company Award for 2019. |
• | Invesco High Yield Equity Dividend was named one of the Top 5 dividend funds in the U.S. for the past five years by Barron’s. |
• | Invesco Japanese Equity Advantage Fund managed by Tadao Minaguchi was awarded the best Japan fund by Investment Week UK at their 2019 Funds Manager of the Year awards. |
• | Amalgamated Bank entered into an agreement with Invesco to become a sub-adviser for their investment management business. As a sub-adviser, Invesco will provide investment management services for Amalgamated Bank across asset classes. |
• | Jemstep, Invesco's digital advisor, acquired a key client, Infinex Financial Group, which has a network of greater than 650 advisors and 220 banks and credit unions. |
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• | As announced in January 2020, Invesco's Jemstep digital wealth platform has been chosen to power Citi's investment service, Citi Wealth Builder, because of its goal-based client experience and the ability to configure its platform to meet Citi's requirements. |
• | Invesco launched a Blockchain ETF on the London Stock Exchange, providing an innovative way for investors to |
participate in this technology.
• | Invesco launched Gilt ETFs, giving investors access to UK government bonds across the full maturity spectrum. |
• | Invesco's North America Marketing team and the Global Thought Leadership team won in a number of categories at the recent Gramercy Institution Financial Content Marketing Awards. These awards recognize excellence in financial marketing. |
• | Invesco's Active Multi-Sector Credit Fund and Europlus Fund won the Lipper Fund Awards from Revinitiv. |
Taken together, this work further expanded the broad range of capabilities Invesco uses to create solutions that deliver the outcomes clients are seeking, all wrapped in a robust, value-added client experience. These initiatives also further strengthened the firm’s effectiveness and efficiency, providing greater economies of scale that we believe will enable us to provide a higher level of value to clients and further improve our competitive position.
Industry Trends
Trends around the world continue to transform the investment management industry and underscore the need to be well diversified with broad capabilities globally and across asset classes:
• | Clients are demanding more from investment managers. While investment performance remains paramount, competitive pricing, client engagement and value-added services (including portfolio analytics and providing consultative solutions) increasingly differentiate managers. Invesco is working to enhance the client's user experience through digital marketing (web, mobile, social) and improved service. The building out of Invesco Solutions to respond to this trend is among the firm's top priorities. |
• | Investors are continuing to shift to alternative, passive, and smart beta strategies. As a consequence, Invesco and the industry are seeing client demand for core equities and fixed income portfolios decline as a share of global flows. Invesco is the #2 provider of smart beta AUM in the US and has 72 ETFs with greater than $500 million in assets. Invesco also has a strong lineup of alternative and multi-asset strategies supported by ongoing product development. |
• | We are seeing increased pressure on pricing within the asset management industry, arising from increased use of low fee passive products and further concentration within our channel distribution partners (which increases their ability to negotiate pricing) and additional regulatory scrutiny on industry fees. |
• | Distribution partners are becoming more selective and are moving towards developing fewer relationships and partners, reducing the number of investment managers with whom they work. |
• | Regulatory activity remains at increased levels and is influencing competitive dynamics. Increased regulatory scrutiny of managers has focused on many areas including transparency/unbundling of fees, inducements, conflicts of interest, capital, liquidity, solvency, leverage, operational risk management, controls and compensation. Invesco continues to work proactively with regulators around the world. Efforts to further modernize and strengthen our global platform will enhance our ability to compete effectively across markets while complying with the variety of applicable regulatory regimes. |
• | Although the developed markets in the U.S. and Europe are currently the two largest markets for financial assets by a wide margin, other key emerging markets in the world, such as China and India, are positioned for future growth over the long term despite near-term headwinds. As these population-heavy markets mature, we believe investment managers that are truly global will be in the best position to capture this growth. Additionally, population age differences between emerging and developed markets will result in differing investment needs and horizons among countries. Asset allocation and retirement savings schemes also differ substantially among countries. We believe firms such as Invesco, with diversified investment capabilities and product types, are best positioned to meet clients' needs in this global competitive landscape. Invesco has a meaningful market presence in many of the world's most attractive regions, including North America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. We believe our strong and growing presence in established and emerging markets provides significant long-term growth potential for our business. |
• | Technology advances are impacting core elements of the investment management industry which lags other industries in its use of technology. Clients increasingly seek to interact digitally with their investment portfolios. This is leading to established managers investing in and/or acquiring "robo" and other technology platforms. As the investment management business becomes more complex, automation will become increasingly important to serve clients effectively and efficiently. Invesco is leveraging technology across its business and exploring opportunities to work with third-party technology firms to enhance our clients' investment experience. Over the past few years, we have made strategic acquisitions to strengthen our overall digital wealth platform, including Jemstep and Intelliflo, our advisor-focused digital platforms. These acquisitions and others have strengthened our ability to offer competitive digital wealth capabilities and position us ahead of the evolving client needs. |
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As a result of the trends discussed above, clients are seeking to work with a smaller number of asset managers who can meet a comprehensive set of needs. They want money managers who can provide a robust set of capabilities and create investment solutions that deliver key outcomes aligned to their investment objectives. They also want greater value for their money, which means competitive pricing, investor education, thought leadership, digital platforms and other value added services that create an enhanced client experience. These dynamics are driving fundamental changes within our industry and that we believe will drive increasing consolidation. We believe the steps we have taken over the past decade and throughout 2019 strengthened our ability to meet client needs and will help ensure Invesco is well-positioned to compete and win within our industry.
Other External Factors Impacting Invesco
Invesco has a larger global presence in key markets than most of our peers. As one of the leading investment managers in the UK and Europe, we were more impacted by continuing uncertainties surrounding Brexit. Additionally, our strong position in Asia Pacific meant that Invesco was more affected than others by market uncertainties over the trade issues between China and the U.S.
Although negotiations between the UK and EU resulted in the UK leaving the EU under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement on January 31, 2020, the longer term relationship between the UK and the EU is still uncertain. This may affect the levels and composition of our AUM and also negatively influence investor sentiment, which could result in reduced or negative flows. In addition, because the UK Pound Sterling is the functional currency for certain of our subsidiaries, any weakening of the UK Pound Sterling relative to the U.S. Dollar could negatively impact our reported financial results.
Invesco is a global business and has been committed for many years to meeting clients’ needs across Europe in both EU and non-EU countries. Invesco has local teams of experts focused on servicing local clients and fund ranges in different countries to meet a variety of local, country and regional client needs. We currently have a presence in 12 member states across the EU (excluding the UK), employing over 440 staff; our staff will be able to continue to reside and work across the relevant regions. The change in the UK's status from an EU to a non-EU country will not change Invesco’s focus or commitment to serve its clients across Europe. We have plans in place which will enable us to respond to a variety of different potential scenarios and we believe we are fully prepared to continue to operate and deliver for our clients with minimal disruption.
The manner in which interest rates are calculated could also impact our client portfolios. In July 2017, the Chief Executive of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), which regulates LIBOR, announced that the FCA will no longer persuade or compel banks to submit rates for the calculation of the LIBOR benchmark after 2021. This announcement indicates that the continuation of LIBOR on the current basis cannot and will not be guaranteed after 2021, and it appears likely that LIBOR will be phased out or the methodology for determining LIBOR will be modified by 2021. Changes in the method pursuant to which LIBOR is determined or the discontinuance of LIBOR may adversely affect the amount of interest payable or interest receivable on certain portfolio investments. These changes may also impact the market liquidity and market value of these portfolio investments. Invesco is finalizing its global assessment of exposure in relation to funds utilizing LIBOR based instruments and benchmarks and is prioritizing the mitigation of risks associated with the forecast changes to financial instruments and performance benchmarks referencing existing LIBOR rates, and concurrently any impact on Invesco portfolios and investment strategies.
The spread of a new strain of the coronavirus may also impact Invesco, our operations and our employees. The virus has spread internationally and global stock markets have reacted negatively and with increased volatility. The market reaction may deepen further if the virus continues to spread, but if and when the coronavirus is successfully contained, the situation should normalize and financial markets will likely stabilize. Should the coronavirus spread without containment, however, the overall impact on the stock market may become more pronounced and may result in investors withdrawing from or delaying further investments in equity markets. Invesco's significant presence in Asia Pacific may make Invesco more vulnerable to the uncertainties surrounding the spread of the coronavirus and the corresponding economic disruption in this region.
Investment Management Capabilities
We believe that the proven strength of our distinct and globally located investment teams and their well-defined investment disciplines and risk management approach provide us with a robust competitive advantage. There are few independent investment managers with teams as globally diverse as Invesco's and with the same breadth and depth of investment capabilities and vehicles. We offer multiple investment objectives within the various asset classes and products that we manage. Our asset classes, broadly defined, include money market, balanced, equity, fixed income and alternatives.
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The following sets forth our managed investment objectives by asset class:
Money Market | Balanced | Equity | Fixed Income | Alternatives |
●Cash Plus | ●Balanced Risk | ●Custom Solutions | ●Convertibles | ●Absolute Return |
●Custom Solutions | ●Custom Solutions | ●Emerging Markets | ●Core/Core Plus | ●Commodities |
●Environmental, Social and Governance | ●Environmental, Social and Governance | ●International/Global | ●Custom Solutions | ●Currencies |
●Government/Treasury | ●Global/Regional | ●Large Cap Core | ●Emerging Markets | ●Custom Solutions |
●Prime | ● Single Country | ●Large Cap Growth | ●Enhanced Cash | ●Environmental, Social and Governance |
●Taxable | ●Target Date | ●Large Cap Value | ●Environmental, Social and Governance | ●Financial Structures |
●Tax-Free | ●Target Risk | ●Environmental, Social and Governance | ●Government Bonds | ●Global Macro |
●Traditional Balanced | ●Low Volatility/Defensive | ●High-Yield Bonds | ●Infrastructure and MLPs | |
●Mid Cap Core | ●International/Global | ●Long/Short Equity | ||
●Mid Cap Growth | ●Investment Grade Credit | ●Managed Futures | ||
●Mid Cap Value | ●Multi-Sector | ●Multi-Alternatives | ||
●Passive/Enhanced | ●Municipal Bonds | ●Private and Distressed Debt | ||
●Regional/Single Country | ●Passive/Enhanced | ●Private Real Estate | ||
●Sector Funds | ●Short Duration | ●Public Real Estate Securities | ||
●Small Cap Core | ●Stable Value | ●Senior Secured Loans | ||
●Small Cap Growth | ●Structured Securities | |||
●Small Cap Value | ●Smart Beta/Factor-based | |||
●Smart Beta/Factor-based | ||||
Distribution Channels
Retail AUM originates from clients investing into funds available to the public in the form of shares or units. Institutional AUM originates from entities such as individual corporate clients, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, government authorities, universities or charities. AUM disclosure by distribution channel represents consolidated AUM distributed by type of sales team (the company's internal distribution channels). AUM amounts disclosed as retail channel AUM represents AUM distributed by the company's retail sales team; whereas AUM amounts disclosed as institutional channel AUM represents AUM distributed by the company's institutional sales team.
The company operates as an integrated global investment manager, presenting itself as a single firm to clients around the world. Dedicated sales forces deliver our investment strategies through a variety of vehicles that meet the needs of retail and institutional clients. Note that not all products sold in the disclosed retail distribution channel are in "retail" vehicles, and not all products sold in the disclosed institutional channel are in "institutional" vehicles, as described in the table below. This aggregation, however, is viewed as a proxy for presenting AUM in the retail and institutional markets in which we operate.
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The following lists our primary investment vehicles by distribution channel:
Retail | Institutional | ||
● Closed-end Mutual Funds | ● Collective Trust Funds | ||
● Exchange-traded Funds (ETF) | ● Exchange-traded Funds (ETF) | ||
● Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) | ● Institutional Separate Accounts | ||
● Investment Companies with Variable Capital (ICVC) | ● Open-end Mutual Funds | ||
● Investment Trusts | ● Private Capital Funds | ||
● Open-end Mutual Funds | |||
● Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) | |||
● Société d'investissement à Capital Variable (SICAV) | |||
● Unit Investment Trusts (UIT) | |||
● Variable Insurance Funds | |||
Retail
Retail AUM were $878.2 billion at December 31, 2019. We offer retail products within all of the major asset classes. Our retail products are primarily distributed through third-party financial intermediaries, including major wire houses, fund supermarkets, regional broker-dealers, insurance companies, banks and financial planners in North America, and independent brokers and financial advisors, banks and supermarket platforms in Europe and Asia.
The Americas, UK and EMEA ex-UK retail operations rank among the largest by AUM in their respective markets. As of December 31, 2019, Invesco holds a leading position amongst retail fund providers in the UK; Invesco's U.S. retail business, including our ETF franchise, is a top 10 asset manager in the U.S. by long-term assets and Invesco in EMEA ex-UK was among the largest non-proprietary investment managers in the retail channel. Invesco Great Wall was one of the largest Sino-foreign managers of equity products in China, with total AUM of approximately $41.3 billion as of December 31, 2019. We provide our retail clients with one of the industry's most robust and comprehensive product lines.
Institutional
Institutional AUM were $348.0 billion in AUM as of December 31, 2019. We offer a broad suite of domestic and global strategies, including traditional and quantitative equities, fixed income (including money market funds for institutional clients), real estate, financial structures and absolute return strategies. Regional sales forces distribute our products and provide services to clients and intermediaries around the world. We have a diversified client base that includes major public entities, corporations, unions, non-profit organizations, endowments, foundations, pension funds, financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds. Invesco's institutional money market funds serve some of the largest financial institutions, government entities and corporations in the world.
AUM Diversification
One of Invesco's greatest competitive strengths is the diversification in its AUM by client domicile, distribution channel and asset class. Our distribution network has attracted assets of 72% retail and 28% institutional as of December 31, 2019. By client domicile, 28% of client AUM are outside the U.S., and we serve clients in more than 120 countries. The following tables present a breakdown of AUM by client domicile, distribution channel and asset class as of December 31, 2019. Additionally, the fourth table below illustrates the split of our AUM as Passive and Active. Passive AUM include index-based ETFs, unit investment trusts (UITs), non-management fee earning AUM and other passive mandates. Active AUM is total AUM less Passive AUM. See the company's disclosures regarding the changes in AUM years ended December 31, 2019 in Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Assets Under Management” section for additional information regarding the changes in AUM.
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By Client Domicile |  | |||||
($ in billions) | Total | 1-Yr Change | ||||
c Americas | 879.5 | 51.2 | % | |||
c UK | 74.4 | (2.9 | )% | |||
c EMEA Ex UK | 143.7 | 14.5 | % | |||
c Asia | 128.6 | 23.1 | % | |||
Total | 1,226.2 | |||||
 | ||||||
By Distribution Channel | ||||||
($ in billions) | Total | 1-Yr Change | ||||
c Retail | 878.2 | 55.0 | % | |||
c Institutional | 348.0 | 8.2 | % | |||
Total | 1,226.2 | |||||
By Asset Class |  | |||||
($ in billions) | Total | 1-Yr Change | ||||
c Equity | 598.8 | 62.2 | % | |||
c Fixed Income | 283.5 | 35.9 | % | |||
c Balanced | 67.3 | 21.5 | % | |||
c Money Market | 91.4 | 1.7 | % | |||
c Alternatives | 185.2 | 12.1 | % | |||
Total | 1,226.2 | |||||
Active vs. Passive |  | |||||
($ in billions) | Total | 1-Yr Change | ||||
c Active | 929.2 | 39.3 | % | |||
c Passive | 297.0 | 34.4 | % | |||
Total | 1,226.2 | |||||
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Employees
As of December 31, 2019, the company had 8,821 employees across the globe (December 31, 2018: 7,459). Increases in 2019 relate primarily to the acquisition of OppenheimerFunds. None of our employees are covered under collective bargaining agreements.
Competition
The investment management business is highly competitive, with points of differentiation including investment performance, the level of fees, the range of products offered, brand recognition, business reputation, financial strength, the depth and continuity of relationships and quality of service. We compete with a large number of investment management firms, commercial banks, investment banks, broker dealers, hedge funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions. We believe that the quality and diversity of our investment capabilities, product types and channels of distribution enable us to compete effectively in the investment management business. We also believe being an independent investment manager is a competitive advantage, as our business model avoids conflicts that are inherent within institutions that both manage and distribute and/or service those products. Lastly, we believe continued execution against our strategic objectives will further strengthen our long-term competitive position.
Management Contracts
We derive substantially all of our revenues from investment management contracts with funds and other clients. Fees vary with the type of assets being managed, with higher fees earned on actively managed equity and balanced accounts, along with real estate and other alternative asset products, and lower fees earned on fixed income, money market and stable value accounts, as well as certain ETFs. Investment management contracts are generally terminable upon thirty or fewer days' notice. Typically, retail investors may withdraw their funds at any time without prior notice. Institutional clients typically may elect to terminate their relationship with us or reduce the aggregate amount of assets under management with very short notice periods.
Risk Management
Invesco is committed to continually strengthening and refining our risk management approach and process. We believe a key factor in our ability to manage through all market cycles is our integrated approach to risk management. Risk management is embedded in our daily operating activities, our day-to-day decision making as well as our strategic planning process. Our risk management framework provides the basis for consistent and meaningful risk dialogue up, down and across the company. Broadly, our approach includes two governance structures: (i) our Global Performance and Risk Committee assesses core investment risks; and (ii) our Corporate Risk Management Committee assesses strategic, operational and all other business risks. A network of business unit, geographic and specific risk management committees, under the auspices of the Corporate Risk Management Committee, maintains an ongoing risk assessment, management and monitoring process that provides a bottom-up perspective on the specific risks existing and emerging in the various domains of our business.
Available Information
The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers with the SEC, at www.sec.gov. We make available free of charge on our website, www.invesco.com, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
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Item 1A. Risk Factors
Volatility and disruption in world capital and credit markets, as well as adverse changes in the global economy, can negatively affect Invesco's revenues, operations, financial condition and liquidity.
In recent years, capital and credit markets have experienced substantial volatility. In this regard:
• | In the event of extreme circumstances, including economic, political, or business crises, such as a widespread systemic failure or disruptions in the global financial system or failures of firms that have significant obligations as counterparties on financial instruments, we may suffer significant declines in AUM and severe liquidity or valuation problems in managed investment products in which client and company assets are invested, all of which would adversely affect our operating results, financial condition, liquidity, credit ratings, ability to access capital markets, and ability to retain and attract key employees. Additionally, these factors could impact our ability to realize the carrying value of our goodwill and other intangible assets. |
• | Illiquidity and/or volatility of the global fixed income and/or equity markets could negatively affect our ability to manage client inflows and outflows or to timely meet client redemption requests. |
• | Uncertainties regarding geopolitical developments can produce volatility in global financial markets. As an example, although negotiations between the UK and EU resulted in the UK leaving the EU under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement on January 31, 2020, the longer term relationship between the UK and the EU is still uncertain. This may impact the levels and composition of our AUM and also negatively impact investor sentiment, which could result in reduced or negative flows. In addition, because the UK Pound Sterling is the functional currency for certain of our subsidiaries, any weakening of the UK Pound Sterling relative to the U.S. Dollar could negatively impact our reported financial results. |
• | Changes to United States tax, tariff and import/export regulations may have a negative effect on global economic conditions, financial markets and our business. Currently, there is significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and other countries, including China and the EU, with respect to trade policies, treaties, taxes, government regulations and tariffs. It is unclear what changes may be considered or implemented and what the response will be to any such changes by other governments of such affected countries. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global trade and, in particular, trade between these nations and the United States. Given our strong position in Asia Pacific and EMEA, we could be more adversely affected than others by such market uncertainties. |
• | In the U.S., regulations requiring a variable (“floating”) net asset value (NAV) for institutional prime and tax-free money market funds became effective in October 2016. Those same regulations also provide for the potential imposition of the assessment of fees in connection with redemptions and/or gates that postpone the time in which redemptions must be processed in the event those funds’ weekly liquid assets fall below certain specified thresholds. Our government money market funds and retail prime and tax-free money market funds continue to offer a stable NAV of $1.00 per common share and are not required to impose fees and gates; however, we do not guarantee such NAV level. Market conditions could lead to severe liquidity issues in money market products, which could lead to the imposition of fees or gates with respect to institutional prime and tax-free money market funds and an effect on the NAVs of government and retail prime and tax-free money market funds. If our institutional prime or tax-free money market funds were to impose redemption fees or gates delaying the payment of redemption proceeds, or the NAV of one of our government or retail prime or tax-free money market funds were to decline below $1.00 per common share, such funds could experience significant redemptions in AUM, loss of shareholder confidence and reputational harm. |
Our revenues and profitability would be adversely affected by any reduction in AUM as a result of either a decline in market value of such assets or net outflows, which would reduce the investment management fees we earn.
We derive substantially all our revenues from investment management contracts with clients. Under these contracts, the investment management fees paid to us are typically based on the market value of AUM. AUM may decline for various reasons. For any period in which revenues decline, our income and operating margin likely would decline by a greater proportion because a majority of our expenses remain fixed. Factors that could decrease AUM (and therefore revenues) include the following:
Declines in the market value of AUM in client portfolios. These could be caused by price declines in the securities markets generally or by price declines in the market segments in which our AUM are concentrated. Our AUM as of January 31, 2020 were $1,218.7 billion. We cannot predict whether volatility in the markets will result in substantial or
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sustained declines in the securities markets generally or result in price declines in market segments in which our AUM are concentrated. Any of the foregoing could negatively impact our revenues, income and operating margin.
Redemptions and other withdrawals from, or shifting among, client portfolios. These could be caused by investors (in response to adverse market conditions or pursuit of other investment opportunities) reducing their investments in client portfolios in general or in the market segments in which Invesco focuses; investors taking profits from their investments; poor investment performance (relative or absolute) of the client portfolios managed by Invesco; and portfolio risk characteristics, which could cause investors to move assets to other investment managers. Poor performance relative to other investment management firms tends to result in decreased sales and increased redemptions with corresponding decreases in our revenues. Failure of our client portfolios to perform well could, therefore, have a material adverse effect on us. Furthermore, the fees we earn vary with the types of assets being managed, with higher fees earned on actively managed equity and balanced accounts, along with real estate and other alternative asset products, and lower fees earned on fixed income, stable return accounts, and certain ETFs. Our revenues may decline if clients continue to shift their investments to lower fee accounts. In addition, the loss of key personnel or significant investment management professionals could reduce the attractiveness of our products to current and potential clients and adversely affect our revenues and profitability.
Investments in international markets. Investment products that we manage may have significant investments in international markets that are subject to significant risks of loss from political, economic, diplomatic developments, currency fluctuations, social instability, changes in governmental policies, expropriation, nationalization and asset confiscation. International trading markets, particularly emerging markets, are often smaller, less liquid, less regulated and significantly more volatile than those in the developed world.
Poor investment performance of our products could reduce the level of our AUM or affect our sales, and negatively impact our revenues and income.
Our investment performance, along with achieving and maintaining appropriate levels of distribution and client service, is critical to the success of our business. Strong investment performance often stimulates sales of our products. Poor investment performance as compared to third-party benchmarks or competitive products has in the past led, and could in the future lead, to a decrease in sales of our products and stimulate redemptions from existing products, generally lowering the overall level of AUM and reducing the management fees we earn. There is no assurance that past or present investment performance in our products will be indicative of future performance. If we fail, or appear to fail, to address successfully and promptly the underlying causes of any poor investment performance, we may be unsuccessful in reversing such under performance and our future business prospects would likely be negatively affected.
Competitive pressures may force us to reduce the fees we charge to clients, which could reduce our profitability.
The investment management business is highly competitive, and we compete based on a variety of factors, including investment performance, the range of products offered, brand recognition, business reputation, financial strength, stability and continuity of client and financial intermediary relationships, quality of service, level of fees charged for services and the level of compensation paid and distribution support offered to financial intermediaries. We continue to face market pressures regarding fee levels in many products. Investors remain attracted to lower fee passive products, which have gained and may continue to gain share at the expense of active products.
We face strong competition in every market in which we operate. Our competitors include a large number of investment management firms, commercial banks, investment banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions. Some of these institutions have greater capital and other resources, and offer more comprehensive lines of products and services, than we do. Our competitors seek to expand their market share in many of the products and services we offer. If these competitors are successful, our revenues and profitability could be adversely affected. In addition, there are relatively few barriers to entry by new investment management firms, and the successful efforts of new entrants around the world have also resulted in increased competition.
In recent years there have been several instances of industry consolidation, both in the area of distributors and manufacturers of investment products. Further consolidation may occur in these areas in the future. The increasing size and market influence of certain distributors of our products and of certain direct competitors may have a negative impact on our ability to compete at the same levels of profitability in the future.
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We may not adjust our expenses quickly enough to match significant declines in our revenues.
If we are unable to effect appropriate expense reductions in a timely manner in response to declines in our revenues, or if we are otherwise unable to adapt to rapid changes in the global marketplace or our AUM and revenues, our profitability, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.
Our revenues and profitability from money market and other fixed income assets may be harmed by interest rate, liquidity and credit volatility.
Certain institutional investors using money market products and other short-term duration fixed income products for cash management purposes may shift these investments to direct investments in comparable instruments in order to realize higher yields than those available in money market and other fund products holding lower yielding instruments. These redemptions would reduce managed assets, thereby reducing our revenues. In addition, rising interest rates will tend to reduce the market value of fixed income investments and fixed income derivatives held in various investment portfolios and other products. Thus, increases in interest rates could have an adverse effect on our revenues from certain fixed income products. If securities within a money market portfolio default or investor redemptions force the portfolio to realize losses, there could be negative pressure on its NAV. Although money market investments are not guaranteed instruments, the company might decide, under such a scenario, that it is in its best interest to provide support in the form of a support agreement, capital infusion, or other methods to help stabilize a declining NAV. Some of these methods could have an adverse impact on our profitability. Additionally, we have investments in fixed income assets, including collateralized loan obligations and seed money in fixed income funds, the valuation of which could change with changes in interest and default rates.
The manner in which interest rates are calculated could also impact our client portfolios. For example, LIBOR, as well as other interest rate, equity, foreign exchange rate and other types of indices which are deemed to be "benchmarks," are the subject of ongoing international, national and other regulatory guidance and proposals for reform. Some of these reforms are already effective while others are still to be implemented. The U.S. Federal Reserve, based on the recommendations of the New York Federal Reserve's Alternative Reference Rate Committee (consisting of major derivative market participants and their regulators), has begun publishing a Secured Overnight Funding Rate (SOFR) which is intended to replace U.S. dollar LIBOR, and SOFR-based investment products have been issued in the U.S. Proposals for alternative reference rates for other currencies have also been announced or have already begun publication. Markets are slowly developing in response to these new rates and questions around liquidity in these rates and how to appropriately adjust these rates to eliminate any economic value transfer at the time of transition remain a significant concern for us and others in the marketplace. It is difficult to predict the full impact of the transition away from LIBOR on certain derivatives and floating rate securities we hold and any other assets or liabilities (as well as contractual rights and obligations) whose value is tied to LIBOR. The value or profitability of these products and instruments, and our costs of operations, may be adversely affected until new reference rates and fallbacks for both legacy and new products, instruments and contracts are commercially accepted.
We may engage in strategic transactions that could create risks.
We regularly review, and from time-to-time have discussions with and engage in, potential strategic transactions, including potential acquisitions, dispositions, consolidations, joint ventures or similar transactions, some of which may be material. There can be no assurance that we will find suitable candidates for strategic transactions at acceptable prices, have sufficient capital resources to pursue such transactions, be successful in negotiating the required agreements, or successfully close transactions after signing such agreements.
Acquisitions also pose the risk that any business we acquire may lose customers or employees or could underperform relative to expectations. We could also experience financial or other setbacks if pending transactions encounter unanticipated problems, including problems related to closing or integration. Following the completion of an acquisition, we may have to rely on the seller to provide administrative and other support, including financial reporting and internal controls, to the acquired business for a period of time. There can be no assurance that such sellers will do so in a manner that is acceptable to us.
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We have incurred and will continue to incur transaction and integration costs in connection with the acquisition of OppenheimerFunds and the anticipated benefits of the acquisition may not offset these costs.
We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant, non-recurring costs in connection with the acquisition and integration of OppenheimerFunds. There can be no assurances that the expected benefits and efficiencies related to the integration of the business will be realized to offset these transaction and integration costs over time. As part of the integration activities for the OppenheimerFunds business, the company has identified a matter that involves a possible loss contingency related to the operations of the acquired business. See Part II, See Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data - Note 19, "Commitments and Contingencies" for additional information.
In connection with the acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, we issued perpetual preferred stock having a value of approximately $4 billion, which could adversely affect our ability to raise additional capital and may limit our ability to fund other priorities.
In connection with the acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, Invesco issued approximately $4 billion of 5.9% fixed rate perpetual preferred stock to certain of OppenheimerFunds' former shareholders. This issuance may limit our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, debt service requirements, acquisitions and general corporate or other purposes; may restrict our ability to pay dividends to holders of common shares in certain circumstances; may increase our vulnerability to general economic and industry conditions; and will require a significant portion of cash flow from operations to make required dividend payments to preferred shareholders.
In connection with the acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, we issued approximately 81.9 million common shares, which could adversely impact our trading price upon resale of those common shares.
We issued approximately 81.9 million common shares in connection with the acquisition, most of which are held by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). The common shares held by MassMutual are subject to an agreement not to sell those common shares for a period of two years following completion of the acquisition, subject to early termination, as well as to certain limitations on resales. However, MassMutual may in the future sell these common shares in the open market or through secondary offerings. If MassMutual were to sell its equity stake in Invesco, or express an intention to sell the stake, that action could have a significant impact on our common share trading price.
MassMutual has the ability to significantly influence our business and MassMutual’s interest in our business may be different from that of other shareholders.
MassMutual is entitled to designate an individual to serve on our board so long as it beneficially owns at least (i) 10% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock or (ii) (x) 5% of our issued and outstanding shares of common stock and (y) $2.0 billion in aggregate liquidation preference of our Series A preferred shares. Additionally, we are not permitted to take certain actions without the prior written approval of MassMutual, including making certain changes in our capital structure or our organizational documents, adopting a shareholder rights plan or effectuating certain business combination transactions. MassMutual’s level of ownership and influence may make some transactions (such as those involving mergers, material share issuances or changes in control) more difficult or impossible without the support of MassMutual, which in turn could adversely affect the market price of our shares of common stock or prevent our shareholders from realizing a premium over the market price for their shares of our common stock. The interests of MassMutual may conflict with the interests of other shareholders.
We depend on information technology, and any failures of or damage to, attack on or unauthorized access to our information technology systems or facilities, or those of third parties with which we do business, including as a result of cyber-attacks, could result in significant limits on our ability to conduct our operations and activities, costs and reputational damage.
We are highly dependent upon the use of various proprietary and third-party information and security technology, software applications and other technology systems to operate our business. We are also dependent on the effectiveness of our information and cyber security infrastructure, policies, procedures and capabilities to protect our computer and telecommunications systems and the data that reside on or are transmitted through them. We use our technology to, among other things, manage and trade portfolio investments, support our other operations, obtain securities pricing information, process client transactions, protect the privacy of clients', employees' and business partners' data and provide reports and other customer services to the clients of the funds we manage. Any inaccuracies, delays, systems failures or security breaches in these and other processes could disrupt our business operations, subject us to client, employee or business
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partner dissatisfaction and losses, subject us to litigation or regulatory enforcement actions and/or subject us to reputational harm.
Our computer, communications, data processing, networks, backup, business continuity or other operating, information or technology systems and facilities, including those that we outsource to other providers, may fail to operate properly or become disabled, overloaded or damaged as a result of a number of factors, including events that are wholly or partially beyond our control. Further, third-party service providers may have limited indemnification obligations to us regarding cyber-incidents.
In recent years, several financial services firms suffered cyber-attacks launched both domestically and from abroad, resulting in the disruption of services to clients, loss or misappropriation of confidential data, litigation and regulatory enforcement actions and reputational harm. Cyber-security incidents and cyber-attacks have been occurring globally at a more frequent and severe level. Our status as a global financial institution and the nature of our client base may enhance the risk that we are targeted by such cyber-threats. Although we seek to take protective measures, including measures to effectively secure information through system security technology, and seek to continually monitor and develop our systems to protect our technology infrastructure and data from misappropriation or corruption, our technology systems may still be vulnerable to unauthorized access, computer viruses or other events that have a security impact, such as an external hacker attack by one or more cyber criminals or an authorized employee or vendor causing us to release confidential information inadvertently or through malfeasance, or lose temporarily or permanently data or applications or systems, which could materially harm our operations and reputation. The third parties with which we do business or which facilitate our business activities, including financial intermediaries and technology infrastructure and service providers, are also susceptible to the foregoing risks (including regarding the third parties with which they are similarly interconnected or on which they otherwise rely), and our or their business operations and activities may therefore be adversely affected, perhaps materially, by failures, terminations, errors or malfeasance by, or attacks or constraints on, one or more financial, technology or infrastructure institutions or intermediaries with whom we or they are interconnected or conduct business.
Breach of our technology systems could damage our reputation and could result in the unauthorized disclosure or modification or loss of sensitive or confidential information (including client data); unauthorized disclosure, modification or loss of proprietary information relating to our business; inability to process client or company transactions and processes; breach and termination of client contracts; liability for stolen assets, information or identity; remediation costs to repair damage caused by the breach, including damage to systems and recovery of lost data; additional security costs to mitigate against future incidents; regulatory actions (including fines and penalties, which could be material) and litigation costs resulting from the incident. Such consequences could result in material financial loss and have a negative effect on our revenues and profitability.
Our investment management professionals and other key employees are a vital part of our ability to attract and retain clients, and the loss of key individuals or a significant portion of those professionals could result in a reduction of our revenues and profitability.
Retaining highly skilled investment management personnel is important to our ability to attract and retain our clients. The market for skilled investment management professionals is highly competitive. The market for investment professionals and other key personnel is at times characterized by the movement of these professionals among different firms. Our policy has been to provide our investment management professionals and other key personnel with a supportive professional working environment and compensation and benefits (including equity and other forms of deferred compensation) that we believe are competitive with other leading investment management firms. However, we may not be successful in retaining our key personnel, and the loss of significant investment professionals or other key personnel could reduce the attractiveness of our products to potential and current clients and could, therefore, adversely affect our revenues and profitability.
Changes in the distribution channels on which we depend could reduce our net revenues and hinder our growth.
We sell substantially all of our retail investment products through a variety of third party financial intermediaries, including major wire houses, fund supermarkets, regional broker-dealers, insurance companies, banks and financial planners in North America, and independent brokers and financial advisors, banks and supermarket platforms in Europe and Asia. No single one of these intermediaries is material to our business. Increasing competition for these distribution channels could nevertheless cause our distribution costs to rise, which would lower our net revenues. Following the financial crisis, there has been consolidation of banks and broker-dealers, particularly in the U.S., and a limited amount of migration of brokers and financial advisors away from major banks to independent firms focused largely on providing
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advice. If these changes continue, our distribution costs could increase as a percentage of our revenues generated. Additionally, particularly outside of the U.S., certain of the third party intermediaries upon whom we rely to distribute our investment products also sell their own competing proprietary funds and investment products, which could limit the distribution of our products. Investors, particularly in the institutional market, rely on external consultants and other third parties for advice on the choice of investment manager. These consultants and third parties tend to exert a significant degree of influence over their clients' choices, and they may favor a competitor of Invesco as better meeting their particular clients' needs. There is no assurance that our investment products will be among their recommended choices in the future. Similarly, particularly in the United States, certain distributors have substantially reduced the number of investment funds they make available to their customers. If a material portion of our distributors were to substantially narrow their product offerings, it could have a significant adverse effect on our revenues and profitability. More broadly, in both retail and institutional channels, intermediaries (distribution firms and consultants) are seeking to reduce the number of investment management firms they do business with. While this offers opportunities to the company to have broader and deeper relationships with firms that continue to do business with us, it also poses risks of additional lost business if a particular entity chooses to stop or significantly reduce its business relationship with the company. Any failure to maintain strong business relationships with these distribution sources and the consultant community do to any of the above-described factors would impair our ability to sell our products, which in turn could have a negative effect on our revenues and profitability.
We may be unable to develop new products and services and the development of new products and services may expose us to additional costs or operational risk.
Our financial performance depends, in part, on the company's ability to develop, market and manage new investment products and services. The development and introduction of new products and services requires continued innovative efforts on our part and may require significant time and resources as well as ongoing support and investment. Substantial risk and uncertainties are associated with the introduction of new products and services, including the implementation of new and appropriate operational controls and procedures, shifting client and market preferences, the introduction of competing products or services and compliance with regulatory requirements. New products often must be in the market place for three or more years in order to generate track records required to attract significant AUM inflows. Increasingly clients and intermediaries are looking to investment mangers to be able to deliver investment outcomes tailored to particular circumstances and needs, and to augment traditional investment management products and services with additional value-added services. The company has sought to make investment designed to enable it to meet these evolving expectation, which the company believes it will need to meet in in order to maintain and grow its business. A failure to continue to innovate to introduce successful new products and services or to manage effectively the risks associated with such products and services may impact our market share relevance and may cause our AUM, revenue and earnings to decline.
Our financial condition and liquidity would be adversely affected by losses on our seed capital and co-investments.
The company has investments in managed investment products that invest in a variety of asset classes, including, but not limited to equities, fixed income products, commodities, derivatives, and similar financial instruments, private equity and real estate. Investments in these products are generally made to establish a track record, meet purchase size requirements for trading blocks, or demonstrate economic alignment with other investors in our funds. Adverse market conditions may result in the need to write down the value of these seed capital and co-investments. A reduction in the value of these investments may adversely affect our results of operations or liquidity. As of December 31, 2019, the company had approximately $1,074.4 million in seed capital and co-investments, including direct investments in consolidated investment products (CIP).
Failure to comply with client contractual requirements and/or investment guidelines could result in costs or correction, damage awards or regulatory fines and penalties against us and loss of revenues due to client terminations.
Many of the investment management agreements under which we manage assets or provide products or services specify investment guidelines or requirements, such as adherence to investment restrictions or limits, that we are required to observe in the provision of our services. Laws and regulations impose similar requirements for certain client portfolios (such as registered funds). A failure to comply with these guidelines or requirements could result in damage to our reputation or in our clients seeking to recover losses, withdrawing their assets or terminating their contracts. Regulators likewise may commence enforcement actions for violations of such requirements, which could lead to fines and penalties against the company. Any such effects could cause our revenues and profitability to decline. We maintain various compliance procedures and other controls to seek to prevent, detect and correct such errors. When an error is detected, a
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payment will typically be made into the applicable client account to correct it. Significant errors for which we are responsible could impact our reputation, results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
Our investment advisory agreements are subject to termination or non-renewal, and our fund and other investors may withdraw their assets at any time.
Substantially all our revenues are derived from investment management agreements. Investment management agreements are generally terminable upon 30 or fewer days' notice. Agreements with U.S. registered funds may be terminated with notice, or terminated in the event of an “assignment” (as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended), and must be renewed annually by the disinterested members of each fund's Board of Trustees or Directors, as required by law. In addition, the Boards of Trustees or Directors of certain other fund accounts generally may terminate these investment management agreements upon written notice for any reason. Open-end registered fund and unit trust investors may generally withdraw their funds at any time without prior notice. Institutional clients may elect to terminate their relationships with us or reduce the aggregate amount of AUM, generally on short notice. Any termination of or failure to renew a significant number of these agreements, or any other loss of a significant number of our clients or AUM, would adversely affect our revenues and profitability.
If our reputation is harmed, we could suffer losses in our business, revenues and net income.
Our business depends on earning and maintaining the trust and confidence of clients, regulators and other market participants, and our good reputation is critical to our business. Our reputation is vulnerable to many threats that can be difficult or impossible to control, and costly or impossible to remediate. Regulatory inquiries, investigations or findings of wrongdoing, intentional or unintentional misrepresentation of our products and services in advertising materials, public relations information, social media or other external communications, operational failures (including cyber breaches), employee dishonesty or other misconduct and rumors, among other things, can substantially damage our reputation, even if they are baseless or eventually satisfactorily addressed.
Our business also requires us to continuously manage actual and potential conflicts of interest, including situations where our services to a particular client conflict, or are perceived to conflict, with the interests of other clients or those of Invesco. The willingness of clients to enter into transactions in which such a conflict might arise may be affected if we fail - or appear to fail - to deal appropriately with conflicts of interest. In addition, potential or perceived conflicts could give rise to litigation or regulatory enforcement actions.
We have procedures and controls that are designed to address and manage these risks, but this task can be complex and difficult, and if our procedures and controls fail, our reputation could be damaged. Any damage to our reputation could impede our ability to attract and retain clients and key personnel, and lead to a reduction in the amount of our AUM, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
The failure or negative performance of products offered by competitors may have a negative impact on similar Invesco products irrespective of our performance.
Many competitors offer similar products to those offered by us and the failure or negative performance of competitors’ products could lead to a loss of confidence in similar Invesco products, irrespective of the performance of our products. Any loss of confidence in a product type could lead to withdrawals, redemptions and liquidity issues in such products, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
The soundness of other financial institutions could adversely affect us or the client portfolios we manage.
Financial services institutions are interrelated as a result of trading, clearing, counterparty, or other relationships. We, and the client portfolios that we manage, have exposure to many different industries and counterparties, and routinely execute transactions with counterparties in the financial services industry, including brokers and dealers, commercial banks, investment banks, clearing organizations, hedge funds and other institutions. Many of these transactions expose us or such client portfolios to credit risk in the event of default of its counterparty. While we regularly conduct assessments of such risk posed by counterparties, the risk of non-performance by such parties is subject to sudden swings in the financial and credit markets. Such non-performance could produce a financial loss for the company or the client portfolios we manage.
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Our ability to maintain our credit ratings and to access the capital markets in a timely manner should we seek to do so depends on a number of factors.
Our access to the capital markets depends significantly on our credit ratings. We have received credit ratings of A2/Stable, BBB+/Stable and A-/Positive from Moody's Investor Services ("Moody's"), Standard & Poor's Ratings Service ("S&P"), and Fitch Ratings ("Fitch"), respectively, as of the date hereof. We believe that rating agency concerns include but are not limited to the fact that our revenues are exposed to equity market volatility and the potential impact from regulatory changes to the industry. Additionally, the rating agencies could decide to downgrade the entire investment management industry, based on their perspective of future growth and solvency. Material deterioration of these factors, and others defined by each rating agency, could result in downgrades to our credit ratings, thereby limiting our ability to access additional financing. Management believes that solid investment grade ratings are an important factor in winning and maintaining institutional business and strives to manage the company to maintain such ratings.
Our credit facility borrowing rates are tied to our credit ratings. A reduction in our long-term credit ratings could increase our borrowing costs, could limit our access to the capital markets and may result in outflows thereby reducing AUM and revenues. Volatility in global finance markets may also affect our ability to access the capital markets should we seek to do so. If we are unable to access capital markets in a timely manner, our business could be adversely affected.
Our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial position or results of operations.
As of December 31, 2019, we had outstanding total debt of $2,080.3 million, excluding debt of CIP, and total equity attributable to Invesco Ltd. of $13,862.5 million. The amount of indebtedness we carry could limit our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, debt service requirements or other purposes, increase our vulnerability to adverse economic and industry conditions, limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business or industry and place us at a disadvantage in relation to our competitors. Any or all of the above factors could materially adversely affect our financial position or results of operations.
Our credit facility imposes restrictions on our ability to conduct business and, if amounts borrowed under it were subject to accelerated repayment, we might not have sufficient assets or liquidity to repay such amounts in full.
Our credit facility requires us to maintain specified financial ratios, including maximum debt-to-earnings and minimum interest coverage ratios. The credit facility also contains customary affirmative operating covenants and negative covenants that, among other things, restrict certain of our subsidiaries' ability to incur debt and restrict our ability to transfer assets, merge, make loans and other investments and create liens. The breach of any covenant would result in a default under the credit facility. In the event of any such default, lenders that are party to the credit facility could refuse to make further extensions of credit to us and require all amounts borrowed under the credit facility, together with accrued interest and other fees, to be immediately due and payable. If any indebtedness under the credit facility were subject to accelerated repayment and if we had at that time a significant amount of outstanding debt under the credit facility, we might not have sufficient liquid assets to repay such indebtedness in full.
Performance fees may increase revenue and earnings volatility.
A portion of the company’s revenues is derived from performance fees on investment advisory agreements. Performance fees represented $102.2 million, or 1.7%, of total operating revenues for the year ended December 31, 2019. In most cases, performance fees are based on relative or absolute investment returns, although in some cases they are based on achieving specific service standards. Generally, the company is entitled to performance fees only if the returns on the related portfolios exceed agreed-upon periodic or cumulative return targets. If these targets are not exceeded, performance fees for that period will not be earned and, if targets are based on cumulative returns, the company may not earn performance fees in future periods. Performance fees will vary from period to period in relation to volatility in investment returns and the timing of revenue recognition, causing our earnings to be more volatile.
Distribution of earnings of our subsidiaries may be subject to limitations, including net capital requirements.
Substantially all our operations are conducted through our subsidiaries. As a result, our cash flow and our ability to fund operations are dependent upon the earnings of our subsidiaries and the distribution of earnings, intercompany loans or other payments by our subsidiaries to us. Any payments to us by our subsidiaries could be subject to statutory or contractual restrictions and are contingent upon our subsidiaries’ earnings and business considerations. For example, certain of our subsidiaries are required under applicable laws and regulations to maintain appropriate levels of capital. Such requirements may change from time-to-time as additional guidance is released based on a variety of factors,
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including balance sheet composition, assessment of risk exposures and governance and review from regulators. These and other similar provisions of applicable laws and regulations may have the effect of limiting withdrawals of capital, repayment of intercompany loans and payment of dividends by such entities. All of our regulated EU and UK subsidiaries are subject to consolidated capital requirements under applicable EU and UK requirements, including those arising from the EU's Capital Requirements Directive and the UK's Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP), and capital is maintained within this European sub-group to satisfy these regulations. We meet these requirements in part by holding cash and cash equivalents. This retained cash can be used for general business purposes in the European sub-group in the countries where it is located. Due to the capital restrictions, the ability to transfer cash between certain jurisdictions may be limited. In addition, transfers of cash between international jurisdictions may have adverse tax consequences. As of December 31, 2019, the company's minimum regulatory capital requirement was $753.6 million. Complying with our regulatory commitments may result in an increase in the capital requirements applicable to the European sub-group. As a result of corporate restructuring and regulatory requirements, certain of these subsidiaries may be required to limit their dividends to the ultimate parent company, Invesco Ltd. Our financial condition or liquidity could be adversely affected if certain of our subsidiaries are unable to distribute funds to us.
We are exposed to a number of risks arising from our international operations.
We operate in a number of jurisdictions outside of the United States. We have offices in numerous countries and sponsor many cross border and local proprietary funds that are domiciled outside the United States and may face difficulties in managing, operating and marketing our international operations. Our international operations expose us to the political and economic consequences of operating in foreign jurisdictions and subject us to expropriation risks, expatriation controls and potential adverse tax consequences.
Since many of our subsidiary operations are located outside of the United States and have functional currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, changes in the exchange rates to the U.S. Dollar affect our reported financial results from one period to the next.
The largest component of our net assets, revenues and expenses, as well as our AUM, is presently denominated in U.S. Dollars. However, we have a large number of subsidiaries outside of the United States whose functional currencies are not the U.S. Dollar. As a result, fluctuations in the exchange rates to the U.S. Dollar affect our reported financial results from one period to the next. Consequently, significant strengthening of the U.S. Dollar relative to the UK Pound Sterling, Euro, or Japanese Yen, among other currencies, could have a material negative impact on our reported financial results.
Terrorist activity and the continued threat of terrorism, increased geopolitical unrest, natural or man-made disasters could adversely affect the global economy or specific international, regional and domestic markets, which may cause our AUM, revenue and earnings to decline.
Terrorist activity and the continued threat of terrorism, acts of civil or international unrest or hostility, natural disasters, pandemic disease and man-made disasters, within the United States and abroad, as well as ongoing military and other actions and heightened security measures in response to these types of threats, may cause significant volatility and declines in the global markets and reduced economic activity. (For example, the spread of a new strain of coronavirus at the end of 2019 may impact global markets in Asia. The market reaction may deepen further if the virus spreads.) Any of these events that adversely affect the global economy, capital markets or specific international, regional or domestic markets may cause our AUM, revenue and earnings to decline and may have a materially negative impact on our financial results.
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If we are unable to successfully recover from a disaster or other business continuity problem, we could suffer material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm or legal liability.
If we were to experience a local or regional disaster or other business continuity problem, such as a pandemic or other natural or man-made disaster, our continued success will depend, in part, on the availability of our personnel, our office facilities and the proper functioning of our computer, telecommunication and other related systems and operations. In such an event, we believe our operational size, the multiple locations from which we operate, and our existing back-up systems should mitigate adverse impacts. Nevertheless, we could still experience near-term operational problems with regard to particular areas of our operations. Further, as we strive to achieve cost savings by shifting certain business processes to lower-cost geographic locations such as India, the potential for particular types of natural or man-made disasters, political, economic or infrastructure instabilities, or other country- or region-specific business continuity risks increases. Although we seek to assess regularly and improve our existing business continuity plans, a major disaster, or one that affected certain important operating areas, or our inability to recover successfully should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem, could materially interrupt our business operations and cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm or legal liability.
Failure to establish adequate controls and risk management policies, the circumvention of controls and policies or fraud could have an adverse effect on our reputation and financial position.
Although we seek to foster a positive workplace culture, have adopted a comprehensive risk management process and continue to enhance various controls, procedures, policies and systems to monitor and manage risks, we cannot ensure that our workplace culture or such controls, procedures, policies and systems will successfully identify and manage internal and external risks to our business. We are subject to the risk that our employees, contractors or other third parties may deliberately or recklessly seek to circumvent established controls to commit fraud (including through cyber breaches) or act in ways that are inconsistent with our controls, policies and procedures. Persistent or repeated attempts involving conflicts of interests, circumvention of policies and controls or fraud could have a materially adverse impact on our reputation, could lead to costly regulatory inquiries, fines and/or sanctions and may cause our AUM, revenue and earning to decline.
Our business is vulnerable to deficiencies and failures in support systems and customer service functions that could lead to breaches and errors or reputational harm, resulting in loss of customers or claims against us or our subsidiaries.
In addition to investment management, our services include fund administration, sales, distribution, marketing, shareholder servicing and trust, custody and other fiduciary services. In order to be competitive and comply with our agreements, we must properly perform our fund and portfolio administration and related responsibilities, including portfolio recordkeeping and accounting, security pricing, corporate actions, investment restrictions compliance, daily net asset value computations, account reconciliations and required distributions to fund shareholders. The ability to consistently and reliably obtain accurate securities pricing information, process client portfolio and fund shareholder transactions and provide reports and other customer service to fund shareholders and clients in accounts managed by us is essential to our continuing success. Certain types of securities may experience liquidity constraints that would require increased use of fair value pricing, which is dependent on certain subjective judgments that have the potential to be challenged. Any delays or inaccuracies in obtaining pricing information, processing such transactions or such reports or other breaches and errors and any inadequacies in other customer service, could result in reimbursement obligations or other liabilities, or alienate clients or distributors and potentially give rise to claims against us. Our customer service capability, as well as our ability to obtain prompt and accurate securities pricing information and to process transactions and reports, is highly dependent on communications and information systems and on third-party service providers. Certain of these processes involve a degree of manual input, and thus problems could occur from time-to-time due to human error. Our failure to properly perform and monitor our operations or our otherwise suffering deficiencies and failures in these systems or service functions could result in material financial loss or costs, regulatory actions, breach of client contracts, reputational harm or legal claims and liability, which in turn could have a negative effect on our revenues and profitability.
The failure of one of our third party service providers or other key vendors to fulfill its obligations could have a material adverse effect on our reputation or business, which may cause our AUM, revenue and earnings to decline.
We depend on third party service providers and other key vendors for various fund administration, accounting, custody, risk analytics, market data, market indices and transfer agent roles, and other distribution and operational needs. If our
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third party service providers or other key vendors fail to fulfill their obligations to us, it could lead to operational and regulatory problems, including with respect to certain of our products, which could result in losses, enforcement actions, or reputational harm and may cause our AUM, revenue and earnings to decline.
The carrying value of goodwill and other intangible assets on our balance sheet could become impaired, which would adversely affect our results of operations.
We have goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets on our balance sheet that are subject to annual impairment reviews. We also have definite-lived intangible assets on our balance sheet that are subject to impairment testing if indicators of impairment are identified. Goodwill and intangible assets totaled $8,509.4 million and $7,358.3 million, respectively, at December 31, 2019. We may not realize the value of such assets. We perform impairment reviews of the book values of these assets on an annual basis or more frequently if impairment indicators are present. A variety of factors could cause such book values to become impaired. Should valuations be deemed to be impaired, a write-down of the related assets would occur, adversely affecting our results of operations for the period. See Item 7, “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Critical Accounting Policies - Goodwill” and “- Intangibles,” for additional details of our impairment analysis process.
We operate in an industry that is highly regulated in many countries, and any enforcement action or adverse changes in the laws or regulations governing our business could decrease our revenues and profitability.
As with all investment management companies, our activities are highly regulated in almost all countries in which we conduct business. Laws and regulations applied at the national, state or provincial and local level generally grant governmental agencies and industry self-regulatory authorities broad administrative discretion over our activities, including the power to require registration or licenses, limit or restrict our business activities, conduct examinations, risk assessments, investigations and capital adequacy reviews and impose remedial programs to address perceived deficiencies. As a result of regulatory oversight, we could face requirements which negatively impact the way in which we conduct business, increase compliance costs and/or impose additional capital requirements. Our regulators likewise have the authority to commence enforcement actions which could lead to sanctions up to and including the revocation of licenses to operate certain businesses, the suspension or expulsion from a particular jurisdiction or market of any of our business organizations or their key personnel or the imposition of fines and censures on us or our employees. Further, regulators across borders could coordinate actions against us as issues arise resulting in impacts on our business in multiple jurisdictions. Judgments or findings of wrongdoing by regulatory or governmental authorities, or in private litigation against us, could affect our reputation, increase our costs of doing business and/or negatively impact our revenues. Any of the effects discussed above could have a material negative impact on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
A substantial portion of the products and services we offer are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), the National Futures Association (NFA) and the Texas Department of Banking in the United States and by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) in the United Kingdom. Subsidiaries operating in the European Union (EU) are subject to various EU Directives, which generally are implemented by member state national legislation and by EU Regulations. Our operations elsewhere in the world are regulated by similar regulatory organizations.
The regulatory environment in which we operate frequently changes and has seen a significant increase in regulation in recent years. Various changes in laws and regulations have been enacted or otherwise implemented in multiple jurisdictions globally in response to the crisis in the financial markets that began in 2007. Various other proposals remain under consideration by legislators, regulators, other government officials and other public policy commentators. Certain enacted provisions and certain other proposals are potentially far reaching and, depending upon their implementation, could have a material impact on our business. While certain of these provisions appear to address perceived problems in the banking sector, some will or may be applied more broadly and affect other financial services companies, including investment managers. While Invesco does not believe that the these post-crisis developments have or will fundamentally change the investment management industry or cause Invesco to reconsider its basic strategy, certain provisions have required, and other provisions will or may require, us to change or impose new limitations on the manner in which we conduct business; they also have increased regulatory burdens and related compliance costs, and will or may continue to do so. More broadly, we may be adversely affected as a result of new or revised legislation or regulations or by changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and regulations. To the extent that existing regulations are interpreted or amended or future regulations are adopted in a manner that reduces the sale, or increases the redemptions, of our products and services, or that negatively affects the investment performance of our products or impacts our product mix, our
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aggregate AUM and our revenues could be adversely affected. In addition, regulatory changes have imposed and may continue to impose additional costs or capital requirements, which could negatively impact our profitability or return on equity.
The EU has promulgated or is considering various new or revised directives pertaining to financial services, including investment managers. Such directives are progressing at various stages, and generally have been, are being or will or would be implemented by national legislation in member states. Ongoing changes in the EU’s regulatory framework applicable to our business, including changes related to Brexit and any other changes in the composition of the EU’s member states, may add further complexity to our global risks and operations.
Developments under regulatory changes will or may include, without limitation:
• | New or increased capital requirements and related regulation. |
• | Limitations on holdings of certain commodities under proposed regulations of the CFTC which could result in capacity constraints for our products that employ commodities as part of their investment strategy. |
• | Potential limitations on the ability of our U.S. registered funds to enter into derivatives transactions under regulations of the SEC. |
• | Regulations impacting the standard of care a financial adviser owes to its clients including the SEC’s best interests standard. |
• | Other changes to the distribution of investment funds and other investment products. |
• | In 2015, the FCA undertook a study of the asset management industry and released their final report in June 2017. The report highlighted a number of specific industry issues and proposed a number of remedies that will take place in a number of stages, including: changes to governance, changes to fee structures to provide clients with increased transparency, improved disclosure in client documentation, improved ability for retail clients to change share classes, changes to pension pooling and investment consultant regulations in the institutional segment and new requirements that fund sponsors evaluate the degree to which their funds provide value to fund shareholders. |
• | The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) in the EU, effective in January 2018, seeks to promote a single market for wholesale and retail transactions in financial instruments. MiFID II addresses the conduct of business rules for intermediaries providing investment services and the effective, efficient and safe operation of financial markets. Key elements of MiFID II are the extent to which retrocessions may be paid and the use of trading commissions to fund research. Beginning in January 2018, the company has absorbed external research costs incurred for MiFID II impacting funds and client accounts in Europe. While the foregoing provisions only impact the EU, client-driven competitive pressures may cause an expansion of these principles to other business regions in which we operate, including the United States. |
• | Forthcoming EU regulations pertaining to integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics may materially impact the asset management industry in member states that adopt such legislation. For example, the EU’s recent action plan on financing sustainable growth includes initiatives to integrate ESG into the financial system, including such areas as MiFID2, UCITS and AIFMD regulations. |
• | An increased focus on liquidity in funds (including fixed income funds), an example of which is the SEC’s rules with respect to liquidity and liquidity risk management applicable to certain types of registered U.S. funds that took effect in 2018. |
• | Increased requirements to provide regulators and investors more granular detail regarding our products and services, including the SEC’s reporting modernization rule applicable to certain types of registered U.S. funds that took effect in 2018. |
• | Regulations pertaining to the privacy of data with respect to clients, employees and business partners. The introduction of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 strengthened privacy rules for individuals within the EU, and greatly increased penalties for non-compliance. The GDPR has also influenced direction on privacy regulations outside of the EU, most recently the State of California adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in January 2020 granting California consumers more control over the use of their personal information by organizations doing business with them. A failure to comply can result in fines levied by the California Attorney General or private rights of action by consumers. Looking forward, various other U.S. states are seeking to establish similar laws to CCPA, and privacy laws are being updated and strengthened in various jurisdictions globally, such as Canada, India, China, and Hong Kong. |
• | Increased regulatory scrutiny on operations of private capital funds. |
• | Requirements pertaining to the trading of securities and other financial instruments, such as swaps and other derivatives, including certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act and European Market Infrastructure Regulation; these include significant reporting requirements, designated trading venues, mandated central |
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clearing arrangements, restrictions on proprietary trading by certain financial institutions, other conduct requirements and potentially new taxes or similar fees.
• | Phase out of the LIBOR benchmark, which will impact interest payables or receivables on certain portfolio investments. |
• | Heightened regulatory examinations and inspections, including enforcement reviews, and a more aggressive posture regarding commencing enforcement proceedings resulting in fines, penalties and additional remedial activities to firms and to individuals. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, regulators in the United States and the United Kingdom have taken and can be expected to continue to take a more aggressive posture on bringing enforcement proceedings. |
• | Enhanced licensing and qualification requirements for key personnel, including the United Kingdom Senior Managers and Certification Regime, which became effective in December 2019. |
• | Guidelines regarding the structure and components of fund manager compensation and other additional rules and regulations and disclosure requirements. Certain provisions impose additional disclosure burdens on public companies. Certain proposals could impose requirements for more widespread disclosures of compensation to highly-paid individuals. Depending upon the scope of any such requirements, Invesco could be disadvantaged in retaining key employees vis-à-vis private companies, including hedge fund sponsors. |
• | Strengthening standards regarding various ethical matters, including compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the UK Bribery Act and anti-money-laundering laws and regulations. |
• | Regulations promulgated to address perceptions that the asset management industry, or certain of its entities or activities, pose systematic risks to the financial system. |
• | Regulations promulgated to protect personal data and address risks of fraud, malfeasance or other adverse consequences stemming from cyber attacks. |
• | Other changes impacting the identity or the organizational structure of regulators with supervisory authority over Invesco. |
We cannot at this time predict the full impact of potential legal and regulatory changes or possible enforcement proceedings on our business. Such changes have imposed, and may continue to impose, new compliance costs and/or capital requirements or impact Invesco in other ways that could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity. Moreover, certain legal or regulatory changes could require us to modify our strategies, businesses or operations, and we may incur other new constraints or costs, including the investment of significant management time and resources in order to satisfy new regulatory requirements or to compete in a changed business environment. In recent years, certain regulatory developments have also added downward pressures regarding fee levels.
To the extent that existing or future regulations affecting the sale of our products and services or cause or contribute to reduced sales or increased redemptions of our products or services, impair the investment performance of our products or services or impact our product mix, our AUM and results of operations might be adversely affected.
Civil litigation and governmental investigations and enforcement actions could adversely affect our AUM and future financial results, and increase our costs of doing business.
Invesco and certain related entities have in recent years been subject to various legal proceedings, including civil litigation and governmental investigations and enforcement actions. These actions can arise from normal business operations and/or matters that have been the subject of previous regulatory reviews. As a global company with investment products registered in numerous countries and subject to the jurisdiction of one or more regulators in each country, at any given time, our business operations may be subject to review, investigation or disciplinary action. For example, in the United States, United Kingdom and other jurisdictions in which the company operates, governmental authorities regularly make inquiries, hold investigations and administer market conduct examinations with respect to the company's compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Lawsuits or regulatory enforcement actions arising out of these inquiries may in the future be filed against the company and related entities and individuals in the United States, United Kingdom and other jurisdictions in which the company and its affiliates operate. See Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 19 -- "Commitments and Contingencies,” for additional information. Judgments in civil litigation or findings of wrongdoing by regulatory or governmental authorities against us could affect our reputation, increase our costs of doing business and/or negatively impact our revenues, any of which could have a material negative impact on our results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
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Insurance May Not Be Available at a Reasonable Cost to Protect Us from Liability.
We face the inherent risk of liability related to claims from clients, third-party vendors or others, actions taken by regulatory agencies and costs and losses associated with operations failures (which could include cyber incidents). To help protect against these risks, we purchase insurance in amounts, and against potential liabilities, that we consider appropriate, where such insurance is available at prices we deem reasonable. There can be no assurance, however, that a claim or claims will be covered by insurance or, if covered, will not exceed coverage limits, or that an insurer will meet its obligations regarding coverage, or that coverage will continue to be available on a cost effective basis. Insurance costs are impacted by market conditions and the risk profile of the insured, and may increase significantly over relatively short periods. In addition, certain insurance coverage may not be available or may only be available at prohibitive costs. Renewals of insurance policies may expose us to additional costs through higher premiums or the assumption of higher deductibles or co-insurance liability.
Legislative and other measures that may be taken by U.S. and/or other governmental authorities could materially increase our tax burden or otherwise adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.
Under current laws, as the company is domiciled and tax resident in Bermuda, taxation in other jurisdictions is dependent upon the types and the extent of the activities of the company undertaken in those jurisdictions. There is a risk that changes in either the types of activities undertaken by the company or changes in tax rules relating to tax residency could subject the company and its shareholders to additional taxation.
The international tax environment continues to change as a result of both coordinated actions by governments and unilateral measures designed by individual countries, both intended to tackle concerns over base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and perceived international tax avoidance techniques. The recommendations of the BEPS Project led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD) from the European Union (EU) are involved in much of the coordinated activity, including:
• | In 2018, the EU introduced mandatory disclosure rules (DAC6) requiring disclosure to tax authorities of cross-border arrangements entered into by taxpayers that fall within certain, broadly defined hallmarks beginning in July 1, 2020. There also are separate transitional rules that require separate reporting for any disclosable transactions occurring after June 25, 2018. |
• | On July 1, 2018, the OECD enacted the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the Multilateral Instrument or MLI). The MLI implements several BEPS initiatives: Action 2 - hybrid mismatch arrangements; Action 6- treaty abuse; Action 7 - definition of permanent establishment; and Action 14- mutual agreement procedures (MAP) as well as arbitration. |
• | The OECD has adopted a global common reporting standard for the automatic exchange of financial information among participating countries (“CRS”), aimed at ensuring that persons with financial assets located outside of their tax residence country pay required taxes. In many cases, intergovernmental agreements between the participating countries will govern implementation of the new CRS rules. CRS is being implemented over a multi-year period and we will continue to monitor the implementing regulations and corresponding intergovernmental agreements to determine our requirements. |
• | The OECD has also undertaken BEPS 2.0 focused on “Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digitalization of the Economy.” This project may impact all multinational businesses by allocating a greater share of taxing rights to countries where consumers are located regardless of the current physical presence of a business, and by implementing a global minimum tax. There is significant uncertainty regarding such proposals, including that a few EU countries have unilaterally enacted or proposed a tax on digital services ahead of any EU wide proposal. |
• | The OECD has also launched an Analytical Database on Individual Multinationals and Affiliates (“ADIMA”), a database containing public information on the physical and digital locations of corporations (including revenue, profit, income tax and number of employees. |
• | Bermuda has recently adopted economic substance regulations to comply with the EU Code of Conduct for business taxation and tax policies which will require Invesco Ltd. to file annual declarations beginning June 2020 demonstrating economic substance within Bermuda. |
As with any global implementation process there are concerns about potential lack of consistency in the local application of these items. Some of the recommendations are complex while others contain optional routes, thereby increasing the likelihood of only partial or limited implementation. Although the timing and methods of implementation vary, several jurisdictions have enacted legislation that is aligned with, and in some cases exceeds the scope of, the OECD's recommendations. This could lead to increased uncertainty with tax positions as well as
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increase the potential for double taxation.
We continually assess the impact of various U.S. federal, state and foreign legislative proposals, and modifications to existing tax treaties between the United States and foreign countries, which could result in a material increase in our U.S. federal, state or foreign taxes. We cannot predict the outcome of any specific legislative proposals. However, if such proposals were to be enacted, or if modifications were to be made to certain existing tax treaties, the consequences could have a materially adverse impact on the company, including increasing our tax burden, increasing costs of our tax compliance or otherwise adversely affecting our future results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
On June 21, 2018, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (Wayfair), the U.S. Supreme Court overruled prior Court decisions that had precluded states from imposing a sales and use tax collection obligation on sellers unless they had a physical presence in the state. The Wayfair decision as expected, has led to increased state nexus expansion as more states turn to economic nexus threshold laws and away from physical presence nexus tests.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the 2017 Tax Act) enacted on December 22, 2017, significantly reformed the taxation of business entities and included changes to U.S. federal tax rates, significant additional limitations on the deductibility of interest, and migrating from a "worldwide" system of taxation to a territorial system. Regulations and guidance implementing the changes continue to be issued and therefore the ultimate impact of the 2017 Tax Act on our business and financial condition remains to be determined.
On October 21, 2016, the United States Treasury and the IRS published final and temporary regulations under section 385 of the Internal Revenue Code ("385 Regulations") that target the inbound financing of a foreign-parented multinational group's U.S. subsidiaries. There continues to be no immediate impacts to the company's financial position as a result of the application of the 385 Regulations, however, in the future they could limit our ability to efficiently finance or otherwise choose between debt and equity transactions with our U.S. subsidiaries.
Examinations and audits by tax authorities could result in additional tax payments for prior periods.
The company and its subsidiaries are subject to both income and non-income based taxes, in the United States and various foreign jurisdictions which are subject to current and potentially future tax audits in these jurisdictions. The calculation of our tax liabilities involves dealing with uncertainties in the application of complex tax regulations in a multitude of jurisdictions across our global operations. Tax authorities may disagree with certain positions we have taken and assess additional taxes (and, in certain cases, interest, fines or penalties). We recognize potential liabilities and record tax liabilities for anticipated tax audit issues based on our estimate of whether, and the extent to which, additional income taxes will be due. We adjust these liabilities in light of changing facts and circumstances. Due to the complexity of some of these uncertainties, however, the ultimate resolution may result in a payment that is materially different from our current estimate of the tax liabilities.
The European Commission continues to investigate certain tax rulings and beneficial regimes provided by Member States to particular taxpayers that it believes may have violated the EU restriction on State Aid. The investigation was triggered by the OECD / BEPS action plan as well as the EU's own agenda to tackle aggressive tax planning and tax avoidance. There is considerable uncertainty with the approach being taken, including retroactive application (10 year period), conflicts with OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and implications to bilateral tax treaties. While the company does not believe it has received State Aid, and is not a party to any investigation, due to the uncertainty of the process and retroactive nature of the assessments any potential future findings could have a materially adverse impact on the company, including increasing our tax burden, increasing costs of our tax compliance or otherwise adversely affecting our future results of operations, financial condition or liquidity.
Bermuda law differs from the laws in effect in the United States and may afford less protection to shareholders.
Our shareholders may have more difficulty protecting their interests than shareholders of a company incorporated in a jurisdiction of the United States. As a Bermuda company, we are governed by the Companies Act 1981 of Bermuda (Companies Act). The Companies Act differs in some material respects from laws generally applicable to United States corporations and shareholders, including provisions relating to interested directors, mergers, amalgamations and acquisitions, takeovers, shareholder lawsuits and indemnification of directors.
Under Bermuda law, the duties of directors and officers of a company are generally owed to the company only. Shareholders of Bermuda companies do not generally have rights to take action against directors or officers of the company, and may only do so in limited circumstances described in the following paragraph. However, directors and officers may owe duties to a company's creditors in cases of impending insolvency. Directors and officers of a Bermuda
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company must, in exercising their powers and performing their duties, act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best interests of the company and must exercise the care and skill that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in comparable circumstances. Directors have a duty not to put themselves in a position in which their duties to the company and their personal interests may conflict and also are under a duty to disclose any personal interest in any material contract or proposed material contract with the company or any of its subsidiaries. If a director or officer of a Bermuda company is found to have breached such director’s duties to that company, the director may be held personally liable to the company in respect of that breach of duty.
Class actions and derivative actions are generally not available to shareholders under the laws of Bermuda. However, the Bermuda courts ordinarily would be expected to follow English case law precedent, which would permit a shareholder to commence an action in a company's name against the directors and officers to remedy a wrong done to the company where the act complained of is alleged to be beyond the company's corporate power or is illegal or would result in the violation of the company's memorandum of association or Bye-Laws. Furthermore, consideration would be given by the court to acts that are alleged to constitute a fraud against the minority shareholders or where an act requires the approval of a greater percentage of shareholders than actually approved it. Under our Third Amended and Restated Bye-Laws (Bye-Laws), each of our shareholders agrees to waive any claim or right of action, both individually and on our behalf, other than those involving fraud or dishonesty, against the company or any of our officers, directors or employees. The waiver applies to any action taken by a director, officer or employee, or the failure of such person to take any action, in the performance of his or her duties, except with respect to any matter involving any fraud or dishonesty on the part of the director, officer or employee. This waiver limits the right of shareholders to assert claims against our directors, officers and employees unless the act or failure to act involves fraud or dishonesty.
Our Bye-Laws also provide for indemnification of our directors and officers in respect of any loss arising or liability attaching to them in respect of any negligence, default, breach of duty or breach of trust of which a director or officer may be guilty in relation to the company other than in respect of his or her own fraud or dishonesty, which is the maximum extent of indemnification permitted under the Companies Act.
Because we are incorporated in Bermuda, it may be difficult for shareholders to serve process or enforce judgments against us or our directors and officers.
The company is organized under the laws of Bermuda. In addition, certain of our officers and directors reside in countries outside the United States. A substantial portion of the company's assets and the assets of these officers and directors are or may be located outside the United States. Investors may have difficulty effecting service of process within the United States on our directors and officers who reside outside the United States or recovering against the company or these directors and officers on judgments of U.S. courts based on civil liabilities provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws, even though the company has appointed an agent in the United States to receive service of process.
Further, it may not be possible in Bermuda or in countries other than the United States where the company has assets to enforce court judgments obtained in the United States against the company based on the civil liability provisions of U.S. federal or state securities laws. In addition, there is some doubt as to whether the courts of Bermuda and other countries would recognize or enforce judgments of U.S. courts obtained against the company or our directors or officers based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal or state securities laws or would hear actions against the company or those persons based on those laws. We have been advised by our legal advisors in Bermuda that the United States and Bermuda do not currently have a treaty providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. Some remedies available under the laws of the United States or the states therein, including some remedies available under the U.S. federal securities laws, may not be allowed in Bermuda courts because they may be found to be contrary to Bermuda public policy. Therefore, a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by any federal or state court in the United States based on civil liability, whether or not based solely on U.S. federal or state securities laws, would not automatically be enforceable in Bermuda. Similarly, those judgments may not be enforceable in other countries other than the United States.
We have anti-takeover provisions in our Bye-Laws that may discourage a change of control.
Our Bye-Laws contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a third-party to acquire us or to obtain majority representation on our Board of Directors without the consent of our Board. As a result, shareholders may be limited in their ability to obtain a premium for their shares under such circumstances.
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Specifically, our Bye-Laws contain the following provisions that may impede or delay an unsolicited takeover of the company:
• | we are prohibited from engaging, under certain circumstances, in a business combination (as defined in our Bye-Laws) with any interested shareholder (as defined in our Bye-Laws) for three years following the date that the shareholder became an interested shareholder; |
• | our Board of Directors, without further shareholder action, is permitted by our Bye-Laws to issue preference shares, in one or more series, and determine by resolution any designations, preferences, qualifications, privileges, limitations, restrictions, or special or relative rights of an additional series. The rights of preferred shareholders may supersede the rights of common shareholders; |
• | shareholders may only remove directors for “cause” (defined in our Bye-laws to mean willful misconduct or gross negligence which is materially injurious to the company, fraud or embezzlement, or a conviction of, or a plea of “guilty” or “no contest” to, a felony); |
• | our Board of Directors is authorized to expand its size and fill vacancies; and |
• | shareholders cannot act by written consent unless the consent is unanimous. |
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None
Item 2. Properties
Our registered office is located in Hamilton, Bermuda, and our corporate headquarters is in leased office space at 1555 Peachtree Street N.E., Suite 1800, Atlanta, Georgia, 30309, U.S.A. Our principal regional centers are maintained in leased facilities, except as noted below, in the following locations:
•North America: 11 Greenway Plaza, Houston, Texas 77046; 225 Liberty St, New York City, New York 10281
•EMEA: Perpetual Park, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 1HH, United Kingdom (owned facilities)
•Asia: Champion Tower, No. 3 Garden Road, Hong Kong
We maintain a global enterprise center in Hyderabad, India in leased facilities at DivyaSree Orion in the Ranga Reddy District of Hyderabad, India. We lease office space in 26 countries.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
See Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 19 -- "Commitments and Contingencies - Legal Proceedings," for information regarding legal proceedings.
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable
PART II
Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Invesco Ltd. is organized under the laws of Bermuda, and our common shares are listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “IVZ.” At January 31, 2020, there were approximately 5,300 holders of record of our common shares.
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The following graph illustrates the cumulative total shareholder return of our common shares over the five-year period beginning from the market close on the last trading day of 2014 through and including the last trading day in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, and compares it to the cumulative total return of the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 Index and to a group of peer investment management companies. This table is not intended to forecast future performance of our common shares.
Cumulative Shareholder Returns
Note: | Asset Manager Index includes Affiliated Managers Group, AllianceBernstein, Ameriprise Financial, Bank of New York Mellon, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, Eaton Vance, Federated Hermes, Franklin Resources, Invesco Ltd., Lazard, Legg Mason, Northern Trust, Principal Financial, State Street, TD Ameritrade, and T. Rowe Price. |
Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
The equity compensation plan information required in Item 201(d) of Regulation S-K is set forth in the definitive Proxy Statement for the company's annual meeting of shareholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after the close of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and is incorporated by reference in this Report.
Repurchases of Equity Securities
The following table shows common share repurchase activity during the three months ended December 31, 2019:
Month | Total Number of Common Shares Purchased(1) | Average Price Paid Per Common Share | Total Number of Common Shares Purchased as Part of Publicly Announced Plans or Programs(2) | Approximate Dollar Value of Common Shares that May Yet Be Purchased Under the Plans or Programs(2) (millions) | |||||||||
October 1 - 31, 2019 | 75,380 | $ | 16.22 | — | $ | 743.0 | |||||||
November 1 - 30, 2019 | 33,583 | $ | 17.15 | — | $ | 743.0 | |||||||
December 1 - 31, 2019 | 680,087 | $ | 17.92 | 600,000 | $ | 732.2 | |||||||
789,050 | 600,000 | ||||||||||||
____________
(1) | An aggregate of 189,050 common shares were surrendered to us by Invesco employees to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of equity awards during the three months ended December 31, 2019. |
(2) | At December 31, 2019, a balance of $732.2 million remains available under the common share repurchase authorization approved by the Board on July 22, 2016. |
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Item 6. Selected Financial Data
The following tables present selected consolidated financial information for the company as of and for each of the five fiscal years in the period ended December 31, 2019. Except as otherwise noted below, the consolidated financial information has been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
As of and For The Years Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||
$ in millions, except per common share and other data | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | |||||||||
Operating Data: | ||||||||||||||
Operating revenues | 6,117.4 | 5,314.1 | 5,160.3 | 4,734.4 | 5,122.9 | |||||||||
Net revenues (1) | 4,415.1 | 3,818.1 | 3,754.9 | 3,393.2 | 3,643.2 | |||||||||
Operating income | 808.2 | 1,204.9 | 1,279.1 | 1,152.4 | 1,344.7 | |||||||||
Adjusted operating income (2) | 1,655.8 | 1,391.7 | 1,482.2 | 1,297.4 | 1,480.0 | |||||||||
Operating margin | 13.2 | % | 22.7 | % | 24.8 | % | 24.3 | % | 26.2 | % | ||||
Adjusted operating margin (2) | 37.5 | % | 36.5 | % | 39.5 | % | 38.2 | % | 40.6 | % | ||||
Net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. | 564.7 | 882.8 | 1,127.3 | 854.2 | 968.1 | |||||||||
Adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. (3) | 1,124.0 | 1,002.7 | 1,105.9 | 924.1 | 1,048.7 | |||||||||
Per Common Share Data: | ||||||||||||||
Earnings per common share: | ||||||||||||||
-basic | 1.29 | 2.14 | 2.75 | 2.06 | 2.26 | |||||||||
-diluted | 1.28 | 2.14 | 2.75 | 2.06 | 2.26 | |||||||||
Adjusted diluted EPS (3) | 2.55 | 2.43 | 2.70 | 2.23 | 2.44 | |||||||||
Dividends declared per common share | 1.23 | 1.19 | 1.15 | 1.11 | 1.06 | |||||||||
Balance Sheet Data: | ||||||||||||||
Total assets | 39,420.3 | 30,978.4 | 31,668.8 | 25,734.3 | 25,073.2 | |||||||||
Long-term debt | 2,080.3 | 2,408.8 | 2,075.8 | 2,102.4 | 2,072.8 | |||||||||
Debt of consolidated investment products (CIP) | 6,234.6 | 5,226.0 | 4,799.8 | 4,403.1 | 5,437.0 | |||||||||
Total equity attributable to Invesco Ltd. | 13,862.5 | 8,578.8 | 8,696.1 | 7,503.8 | 7,885.3 | |||||||||
Total permanent equity | 14,318.3 | 8,936.2 | 8,955.6 | 7,611.8 | 8,695.7 | |||||||||
Other Data: | ||||||||||||||
Ending AUM (in billions) | 1,226.2 | 888.2 | 937.6 | 812.9 | 775.6 | |||||||||
Average AUM (in billions) | 1,094.4 | 958.7 | 875.0 | 788.8 | 794.7 | |||||||||
Headcount | 8,821 | 7,459 | 7,030 | 6,790 | 6,490 | |||||||||
_________
(1) | Net revenues is a non-GAAP financial measure. See Item 7, “Summary Operating Information,” footnote 1, for the definition of this measure and the related reconciliation reference. |
(2) | Adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin are non-GAAP financial measures. See Item 7, “Summary Operating Information,” footnote 2, for the definition of these measures and the related reconciliation reference. |
(3) | Adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. and adjusted diluted EPS are non-GAAP financial measures. See Item 7, “Summary Operating Information,” footnote 3, for the definition of these measures and the related reconciliation reference. |
Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management has elected to apply the FAST Act Modernization and Simplification of Regulation S-K, which provides the option to limit the discussion to the two most recent calendar years. The discussion and analysis disclosed herein apply to material changes in the consolidated financial statements for 2019 and 2018. For the comparison of 2018 and 2017, see the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Part II, Item 7 of the company’s 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 22, 2019.
Executive Overview
The following executive overview summarizes the significant trends affecting our results of operations and financial condition for the periods presented. This overview and the remainder of this management's discussion and analysis supplements and should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements of Invesco Ltd. and its subsidiaries (collectively, the “company” or “Invesco”) and the notes thereto contained elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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Global financial markets in 2019 were strong, despite periods of volatility throughout the year. The year saw global policy uncertainty and rising trade barriers. Uncertainty in the economic environment and weaker industry production metrics at times in the year led the US Fed and many other central banks to lower interest rates to support global growth. Despite this uncertainty, the global economy grew at a modest pace. The U.S. economy grew in 2019, while the European economy slowed during the year. Japan’s economy expanded slightly; while China’s economy grew at slightly lower levels than the prior year. Global inflation fell slightly in the year.
2019 was almost entirely positive for U.S. equities, despite the uncertainty throughout the year over future Fed policy and concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The central bank cut rates three times in 2019 to counter concerns about inflation growth. The S&P 500 posted multiple all-time high closing price levels and finished the year up 28.9%.
European markets were volatile in 2019, reacting to signs of weakening growth and tense trade talks, but were similarly assisted by continued accommodative monetary policies from central banks. The Brexit debate continued within the UK weighing on UK equities; the UK election in December brought political clarity. Also boosted by eased monetary policy, the FTSE 100 ended the year up 12.1%.
Japanese equities advanced in the year despite overall sentiment of a weakening economy and a difficult global trade environment. The Bank of Japan maintained its accommodative monetary policy. The Nikkei 225 finished the period up 18.2%.
Emerging market stocks also gained during the period, overcoming uncertainties over the US-China trade negotiations, general easing of growth in China and a strong US dollar.
Investors sought the relative safety of bonds amidst global growth concerns and geopolitical uncertainties. The U.S. Aggregate Bond Index was higher by 8.7% for the year.
The table below summarizes the year ended December 31 returns based on price appreciation/(depreciation) of several major market indices for 2019 and 2018:
Year ended December 31, | |||||
Equity Index | Index expressed in currency | 2019 | 2018 | ||
S&P 500 | U.S. Dollar | 28.9% | (7.0)% | ||
FTSE 100 | British Pound | 12.1% | (12.4)% | ||
FTSE 100 | U.S. Dollar | 16.7% | (17.8)% | ||
Nikkei 225 | Japanese Yen | 18.2% | (12.1)% | ||
Nikkei 225 | U.S. Dollar | 19.9% | (10.4)% | ||
MSCI Emerging Markets | U.S. Dollar | 15.4% | (16.9)% | ||
Bond Index | |||||
Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond | U.S. Dollar | 8.7% | (0.2)% | ||
The company's financial results are impacted by the fluctuations in exchange rates against the U.S. Dollar, as discussed in the "Foreign Exchange Impact on Balance Sheet, Assets Under Management and Results of Operations" section and the "Results of Operations for the Years Ended December 31, 2019 compared to December 31, 2018" section below.
Our revenues are directly influenced by the level and composition of our AUM. Therefore, movements in global capital market levels, net new business inflows (or outflows) and changes in the mix of investment products between asset classes and geographies may materially affect our revenues from period to period. As fee rates differ across geographic locations, changes to exchange rates have an impact on the net revenue yields.
Invesco benefits from our long-term efforts to ensure a diversified base of AUM. One of Invesco's core strengths, and a key differentiator for the company within the industry, is our broad diversification across client domiciles, asset classes and distribution channels. Our geographic diversification recognizes growth opportunities in different parts of the world. This broad diversification mitigates the impact on Invesco of different market cycles and enables the company to take advantage of growth opportunities in various markets and channels.
On May 24, 2019, the company completed the acquisition of OppenheimerFunds, an investment management subsidiary of MassMutual, for $5.6 billion. The strategic acquisition brings Invesco’s total assets under management to approximately $1.2
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trillion, further enhancing the company’s ability to meet client needs through its comprehensive range of high-conviction active, passive and alternative capabilities.
The highly complementary investment and distribution capabilities of Invesco and OppenheimerFunds strengthen the combined organization’s ability to provide more relevant investment outcomes to an expanded number of institutional and retail clients in the US and around the globe. Both Invesco’s and OppenheimerFunds’ clients benefit from the acquisition, which incorporates OppenheimerFunds’ high-performing investment capabilities and its powerful U.S. third-party distribution platform with Invesco’s strong and diversified product lineup, global presence, and solutions-driven client outreach. We view this as a multi-year growth story that expands the capabilities we can offer globally while further scaling our business for the benefit of clients.
Invesco has made significant progress toward the integration of the two firms through the combination of middle- and back- office, location strategy and leveraging the scale of the global operating platform. To date, Invesco has achieved $501 million in annualized net expense synergies related to integration of the OppenheimerFunds business, which is in excess of our $475 million target and ahead of schedule. Transaction, integration, and restructuring costs related to the acquisition are expected to increase from the original projection as a result of expenses related to fund mergers that were not contemplated at close, as well as incremental severance costs related to achieving increased net expense synergies. The company also will continue to incur incremental non-cash transaction, integration, and restructuring charges related to accelerated vesting of common share-based awards for terminated employees and acceleration of depreciation for software and leasehold improvement assets, as well as $120 million related to compensation payments to certain OppenheimerFunds employees, which were funded by MassMutual under the terms of the acquisition.
During the year, the company purchased $669.8 million of its common shares. This amount reflects $500 million (25.8 common shares) through forward contracts, $110.8 million of common shares repurchased in the market at cost (5.6 million common shares) and $59.0 million (3.3 million common shares) relating to purchases of common shares from employees to satisfy tax withholding requirements at the time of common share vesting. At December 31, 2019, a balance of $732.2 million remains available under the common share repurchase authorization approved by the Board on July 22, 2016. Since announcing the $1.2 billion stock repurchase plan in October 2018, the company has repurchased $973 million of its common shares to date and is on target to repurchase the remaining $227 million by the first quarter of 2021.
Invesco continues to demonstrate its commitment to supporting financial advisors with industry leading tools and resources, such as Jemstep, our advisor-powered digital advice capability, and Intelliflo, our advisor-focused digital platform. The range of investment capabilities available through Jemstep are broad across the firm's active, alternative and ETF offerings. Additionally, Jemstep offers open architecture to help advisors provide customized solutions for clients. As a market-leading provider of digital solutions, Jemstep continues to expand its capabilities and market presence, and is an integral part of Invesco's growth strategy.
Presentation of Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations -- Impact of Consolidated Investment Products
The company provides investment management services to, and has transactions with, various retail mutual funds and similar entities, private equity, real estate, fund-of-funds, collateralized loan obligation products (CLOs), and other investment entities sponsored by the company for the investment of client assets in the normal course of business. The company serves as the investment manager, making day-to-day investment decisions concerning the assets of the products. The company is required to consolidate certain of these managed funds from time-to-time, as discussed more fully in Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, Note 1 -- "Accounting Policies -- Basis of Accounting and Consolidation." Investment products that are consolidated are referred to in this Form 10-K (Report) as consolidated investments products (CIP). The company's economic risk with respect to each investment in CIP is limited to its equity ownership and any uncollected management and performance fees.
The majority of the company's CIP balances are CLO-related. The collateral assets of the CLOs are held solely to satisfy the obligations of the CLOs. The company has no right to the benefits from, nor does it bear the risks associated with, the collateral assets held by the CLOs, beyond the company's direct investments in, and management and performance fees generated from, the CLOs. If the company were to liquidate, the collateral assets would not be available to the general creditors of the company, and as a result, the company does not consider them to be company assets. Likewise, the investors in the CLOs have no recourse to the general credit of the company for the notes issued by the CLOs. The company therefore does not consider this debt to be a company liability.
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The impact of CIP is so significant to the presentation of the company’s Consolidated Financial Statements that the company has elected to deconsolidate these products in its non-GAAP disclosures. The following discussion therefore combines the results presented under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (U.S. GAAP) with the company’s non-GAAP presentation. This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations contains four distinct sections, which follow after the Assets Under Management discussion:
• | Results of Operations (year ended December 31, 2019 compared to December 31, 2018); |
• | Schedule of Non-GAAP Information; |
• | Balance Sheet Discussion; and |
• | Liquidity and Capital Resources. |
To assess the impact of CIP on the company's Results of Operations and Balance Sheet Discussion, refer to Part II, Item 8, Financial Statements, Note 20, "Consolidated Investment Products." The impact on the company's results of operations is illustrated by a column which shows the dollar-value change in the consolidated figures, as caused by the consolidation of CIP. For example, the impact of CIP on operating revenues for the year ended December 31, 2019 was a reduction of $33.5 million. This indicates that their consolidation reduced consolidated revenues by this amount, reflecting the elimination upon their consolidation of the operating revenues earned by Invesco for managing these investment products.
Wherever a non-GAAP measure is referenced, a disclosure will follow in the narrative or in the note referring the reader to the Schedule of Non-GAAP Information, where additional details regarding the use of the non-GAAP measure by the company are disclosed, along with reconciliations of the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measures to the non-GAAP measures. To further enhance the readability of the Results of Operations section, separate tables for each of the revenue, expense, and other income and expenses (non-operating income/expense) sections of the income statement introduce the narrative that follows, providing a section-by-section review of the company’s income statements for the periods presented.
Summary Operating Information
Summary operating information for 2019, 2018 and 2017 is presented in the table below.
$ in millions, other than per common share amounts, operating margins and AUM | Year ended December 31, | |||||||
U.S. GAAP Financial Measures Summary | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |||||
Operating revenues | 6,117.4 | 5,314.1 | 5,160.3 | |||||
Operating income | 808.2 | 1,204.9 | 1,279.1 | |||||
Operating margin | 13.2 | % | 22.7 | % | 24.8 | % | ||
Net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. | 564.7 | 882.8 | 1,127.3 | |||||
Diluted EPS | 1.28 | 2.14 | 2.75 | |||||
Non-GAAP Financial Measures Summary | ||||||||
Net revenues (1) | 4,415.1 | 3,818.1 | 3,754.9 | |||||
Adjusted operating income (2) | 1,655.8 | 1,391.7 | 1,482.2 | |||||
Adjusted operating margin (2) | 37.5 | % | 36.5 | % | 39.5 | % | ||
Adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. (3) | 1,124.0 | 1,002.7 | 1,105.9 | |||||
Adjusted diluted EPS (3) | 2.55 | 2.43 | 2.70 | |||||
Assets Under Management | ||||||||
Ending AUM (billions) | 1,226.2 | 888.2 | 937.6 | |||||
Average AUM (billions) | 1,094.4 | 958.7 | 875.0 | |||||
_________
(1) | Net revenues is a non-GAAP financial measure. Net revenues are operating revenues plus the net revenues of our Great Wall joint venture; less pass-through revenue adjustments to investment management fees, service and distribution fees and other; plus management and performance fees earned from CIP. See "Schedule of Non-GAAP Information" for the reconciliation of operating revenues to net revenues. |
(2) | Adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin are non-GAAP financial measures. Adjusted operating margin is adjusted operating income divided by net revenues. Adjusted operating income includes operating income plus the net |
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operating income of our joint venture investments, the operating income impact of the consolidation of investment products, transaction, integration and restructuring adjustments, compensation expense related to market valuation changes in deferred compensation plans and other reconciling items. See "Schedule of Non-GAAP Information," for the reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income.
(3) | Adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. and adjusted diluted EPS are non-GAAP financial measures. Adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. is net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. adjusted to exclude the net income of CIP, transaction, integration and restructuring adjustments, the net income impact of deferred compensation plans and other reconciling items. Adjustments made to net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. are tax-affected in arriving at adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. By calculation, adjusted diluted EPS is adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. divided by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding (for diluted EPS). See "Schedule of Non-GAAP Information," for the reconciliation of net income attributable to Invesco Ltd. to adjusted net income attributable to Invesco Ltd.. |
Investment Capabilities Performance Overview
Invesco's first strategic objective is to achieve strong investment performance over the long-term for our clients. As of December 31, 2019, 64%, 53%, 54%, and 82% of measured ranked actively managed assets performed in the top half of peer groups on a one-, three-, five- and ten-year basis, respectively. The table below presents the one-, three-, five- and ten-year performance of our measured ranked actively managed investment products measured by the percentage of AUM ahead of benchmark and AUM in the top half of peer group. (1)
Benchmark Comparison | Peer Group Comparison | ||||||||||||||||
% of AUM Ahead of Benchmark | % of AUM In Top Half of Peer Group | ||||||||||||||||
1yr | 3yr | 5yr | 10yr | 1yr | 3yr | 5yr | 10yr | ||||||||||
Equities (2) | |||||||||||||||||
U.S. Core (4%) | 67 | % | 9 | % | 10 | % | 10 | % | 67 | % | 19 | % | 15 | % | 58 | % | |
U.S. Growth (5%) | 82 | % | 43 | % | 43 | % | 36 | % | 80 | % | 26 | % | 24 | % | 41 | % | |
U.S. Value (8%) | 8 | % | 34 | % | 82 | % | 32 | % | 8 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % | 69 | % | |
Sector (1%) | 74 | % | 93 | % | 65 | % | 88 | % | 73 | % | 43 | % | 44 | % | 43 | % | |
UK (2%) | 13 | % | 16 | % | 16 | % | 100 | % | 11 | % | 15 | % | 11 | % | 21 | % | |
Canadian (0%) | 57 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % | 32 | % | 57 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % | 31 | % | |
Asian (3%) | 70 | % | 93 | % | 89 | % | 88 | % | 16 | % | 91 | % | 85 | % | 85 | % | |
Continental European (3%) | 2 | % | 2 | % | 51 | % | 99 | % | 11 | % | 2 | % | 28 | % | 98 | % | |
Global (7%) | 74 | % | 74 | % | 78 | % | 86 | % | 80 | % | 26 | % | 34 | % | 90 | % | |
Global Ex U.S. and Emerging Markets (14%) | 98 | % | 87 | % | 87 | % | 100 | % | 98 | % | 66 | % | 65 | % | 97 | % | |
Fixed Income (2) | |||||||||||||||||
Money Market (13%) | 97 | % | 98 | % | 99 | % | 99 | % | 80 | % | 80 | % | 80 | % | 98 | % | |
U.S. Fixed Income (12%) | 87 | % | 94 | % | 95 | % | 96 | % | 79 | % | 84 | % | 83 | % | 87 | % | |
Global Fixed Income (5%) | 72 | % | 74 | % | 68 | % | 80 | % | 78 | % | 78 | % | 58 | % | 60 | % | |
Stable Value (5%) | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % | |
Other (2) | |||||||||||||||||