Letter to shareholders

In alignment with our efforts to strengthen our core businesses for sustainable future growth, IGM’s asset management business continued to leverage the most promising markets in the world through its portfolio of strong partners and highly relevant investments.

Led by Luke Gould, Mackenzie Investments deepened its bedrock of client trust with a clear purpose. To help crystallize this, it launched Be Invested, a new brand platform that underscores the importance of remaining invested across all market cycles. It is a natural extension of Mackenzie’s mission to create a more invested world together. Performing well in 2023 despite broader market challenges, total AUM was $195.7 billion, compared to $186.6 billion at the end of 2022. Investment fund net redemptions were $2.1 billion and total net redemptions (including institutional) were $1.9 billion in 2023.

During the year, Mackenzie continued to advance its ongoing digital transformation through various initiatives. In November, we announced an agreement with CIBC Mellon to provide enhanced asset management capabilities through OnCore, a modern, innovative, and global middle office solution administered by BNY Mellon.

As a company known for its desire to build a more sustainable world, Mackenzie also made a number of key product launches in 2023. This includes the Mackenzie Corporate Knights Global 100 Index Fund and Mackenzie Corporate Knights Global 100 Index ETF and the Mackenzie Greenchip USD Global Environmental All Cap Fund, the largest thematic environmental fund in Canada.

More generally, Mackenzie also launched the Mackenzie All-Equity ETF Portfolio and Mackenzie USD Global Dividend Fund, along with two new funds in partnership with Primerica Financial Services: Mackenzie FuturePath Shariah Global Equity Fund and Mackenzie FuturePath US Core Fund. The firm’s ongoing commitment to product innovation and excellence saw its dedicated Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) team win recognition as Best US Equity ETF and Best Canadian Equity ETF Issuer at the 2023 ETF Express Canada Awards.

During the year, our asset management business strengthened our partnership network through strategic investments that align with our goals of creating a more invested world and building global offerings. To help further this, we expanded our participation in the rapidly growing Chinese asset management industry by acquiring Power Corporation of Canada’s interest in ChinaAMC, increasing our equity interest to 27.8%.

With alternative investments accounting for an increasing portion of the global asset management revenue pool, our growing participation in private assets and alternatives in partnership with Northleaf aligns with our mission to drive growth and deliver long-term shareholder value for IGM. Northleaf’s AUM grew to $26.6 billion in 2023, a 10.4% increase over 2022, representing a cumulative annual growth rate of 22.3% since our partnership was formed in late 2020.

This approach yielded clear benefits for Mackenzie’s people, advisors and investors. For the first time, Mackenzie made Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work List, an award based solely on the input of employees. Mackenzie also achieved continued strong results in the industry’s annual client scorecard, the 2023 Environics Advisor Perception Study (APS), maintaining its strong APS leadership position among the top three in overall score. These results are all the more impressive given that Mackenzie had to navigate a third-party cyber-security incident during the year and are a testament to the team’s ongoing focus on transparency and always putting the advisor and investor first.
 

During 2023, IGM continued to prioritize initiatives that service and strengthen our businesses, our people and the communities around us through a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), environmental sustainability and engagement with local communities.

We continued our transition to a hybrid work environment that will help our people thrive. Finding ways to work together virtually in recent years helped accelerate innovation and flexibility throughout our business, and we will continue to balance the flexible benefits and efficiency of working virtually while also having a presence in the office.

We work hard to be a place where employees across the country feel respected, elevated and valued and give them ample opportunities to develop their careers as we build a culture grounded in DEI. We will continue to build on the progress we have made, embedding an inclusive lens across our business.

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. We understand we have a role to play in implementing sustainable business practices and investing in a climate-resilient economy. We are committed to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and have participated in the annual Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) survey since 2013 to disclose our approach to climate change management and associated metrics and targets. Throughout 2023 our Green Business Resource Group made a positive impact in our communities organizing initiatives that resulted in planting 650 trees and a shoreline and parks cleanup across major Canadian cities.

As a Canadian company, we know we have a responsibility to be actively involved in the communities in which we live and work. IGM’s annual Giving Campaign, in support of United Way and the Mackenzie Together Charitable Foundation, raised more than $1.6 million and featured record employee participation. Further, through our IG Empower Your Tomorrow community platform, we continued to make an impact in helping build financial confidence among four underserved groups, including Indigenous communities, newcomers, seniors and youth. And during our annual Mackenzie Together Volunteer Week the Mackenzie community came together to donate their time to a variety of charities.
 

Our deep bench of talent and leadership have executed exceptionally well amid market fluctuations and macroeconomic challenges. We have reengineered our core businesses, IG Wealth Management and Mackenzie Investments, and combined with our four best-in-class partners, Rockefeller, Wealthsimple, ChinaAMC and Northleaf, we are well positioned for future growth.

We would like to thank our teams for their hard work in 2023 as they helped to ensure the financial well- being of Canadians. The transformative changes of the last four years have strengthened our ability to compete with global asset managers and allowed our wealth management business to extend its relationships with high-net worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. Combined with our deep and experienced pool of talent and focus on execution, these changes have reshaped our company and set us on an exciting path to sustained growth.

As a values-driven company, IGM will continue to support the growth and career development of our employees and advisors, give back to communities where we live and work and use our influence and capacity as a large financial services company to drive positive social impact and fight climate change. After a time of momentous change and evolution, we are confident in our ability to deliver growth and increased value in the years ahead to our shareholders while working to better the lives of Canadians.

Together, these achievements brought us renewed recognition as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers (2024), one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers (2023) and one of Manitoba’s Top Employers (2023) by Mediacorp Canada in its annual ranking of companies that provide an outstanding workplace for their employees. We also once again ranked among the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations on Corporate Knights 2024 Global 100.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,