GWLIF - Great-West Lifeco Inc. (GWLIF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

2024-02-15 19:21:03 ET

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (GWLIF)

Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call

February 15, 2024 03:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Paul Mahon - President & Chief Executive Officer

David Harney - President & Chief Operating Officer, Europe

Ed Murphy - President & Chief Executive Officer, Empower

Garry MacNicholas - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Jeff Macoun - President & Chief Operating Officer, Canada

Arshil Jamal - President & Group Head, Strategy, Investments, Reinsurance & Corporate Development

Raman Srivastava - Executive Vice President & Global Chief Investment Officer

Conference Call Participants

Gabriel Dechaine - National Bank Financial

Doug Young - Desjardins Capital Markets

Meny Grauman - Scotiabank

Tom MacKinnon - BMO Capital

Nigel D'Souza - Veritas Investment Research

Paul Holden - CIBC

Presentation

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Great-West Lifeco Fourth Quarter 2023 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analyst to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paul Mahon, President and CEO of Great-West Lifeco. Please go ahead.

Paul Mahon

Thanks Ariel. Good afternoon and welcome to Great-West Lifeco's fourth quarter and year-end 2023 conference call. Joining me on today’s call is Garry MacNicholas, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and also joining us on the call and available to answer your questions are Jeff Macoun, President and COO Canada; Arshil Jamal, President and Group Head, Strategy, Investments, Reinsurance and Corporate Development; Raman Srivastava, Executive Vice President and Global Chief Investment Officer; David Harney, President and COO Europe; and Ed Murphy, President and CEO of Empower I've asked David Harney and Ed Murphy to deliver part of our formal presentation to highlight significant milestones in their segments.

I'll now draw your attention to our cautionary notes regarding forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures and ratios on slide 2. These cautionary notes apply to the information we will discuss during the call today.

Please turn to slide 4. Building on our strong earnings trajectory through 2023, we delivered excellent results this quarter. We're thrilled to close the year with record base earnings in the fourth quarter and back-to-back quarters with record base EPS. Our focused strategy supported by disciplined execution and trusted brands continues to deliver strong performance against our value creation agenda including our medium-term financial objectives.

We have strong momentum across our value drivers. Of note, our wealth and retirement businesses remain a point of particular strength together generating $30 billion in positive net flows this year.

At Empower we crossed the CAD1 billion based earnings mark exceeding the objective we set at the beginning of 2023. The actions we have taken to reposition the portfolio and enhance capital efficiency are supporting both our near-term and long-term growth.

On January 1st, we completed the sale of Putnam Investments to Franklin Templeton. This combination furthers our strategy of building strategic partnerships with best-in-class asset managers to support our customers and clients. The transaction was executed on attractive terms and Garry will share more on this out later in the presentation....

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