Citywire Professional Buyer, Los Angeles Due Diligence Retreat 2026

Join AGF Investments for a discussion on the benefits and opportunities of a flexible growth investing framework. This philosophy takes a broader, more diversified approach to growth investing backed by bottom-up fundamental research, flexibility across sectors, securities and market caps.
We believe growth investing should be defined by future earnings potential, not constrained by sector or traditional investment styles. As a result, our approach finds market leadership wherever sustainable growth can be found.
This workshop will provide valuable insights into AGF Investments’ existing investing process and demonstrate how we build high-conviction portfolios from our best investment ideas.

Workshop Objectives:

• Expanding opportunities through a flexible growth framework
• Identifying tomorrow’s growth leaders through fundamental research
• Building high-conviction portfolios with disciplined risk management
• Adapting to secular trends, innovation cycle and evolving market leadership

Company Profile:

About AGF Investments 
AGF Investments is a group of wholly owned subsidiaries of AGF Management Limited, a Canadian reporting issuer. The subsidiaries included in AGF Investments are AGF Investments Inc. (AGFI), AGF Investments LLC (AGFUS) and AGF International Advisors Company Limited (AGFIA). The term AGF Investments may refer to one or more of these subsidiaries or to all of them jointly. This term is used for convenience and does not precisely describe any of the separate companies, each of which manages its own affairs. 
 AGF Investments entities only provide investment advisory services or offers investment funds in the jurisdiction where such firm and/or product is registered or authorized to provide such services. 
 
AGF Investments Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AGF Management Limited and conducts the management and advisory of mutual funds in Canada. 

Over the last decade, we’ve observed increasing concentration, significant multiple expansion in certain market segments, and U.S. stock returns dominating non-U.S. developed and emerging markets. What, if anything, could this mean for core equity allocations?

Increasingly, investors appear to have shifted toward purely “passive” core allocations, allocating significant assets to low-cost beta while attempting to generate excess returns through smaller active satellite positions or substantial private-markets exposure.
 
We contend that, although the simplicity of these allocations cannot be disputed, investors may benefit from incorporating more valuation-driven core sleeves. Through thoughtful construction, integrated risk management, and daily active oversight, investors may be able to shift the distribution of expected returns in their favor while maintaining many characteristics of passive core allocations they have come to appreciate.

Workshop Objectives:

• Review secular trends contributing to the shift into passive allocations
• Demonstrate why taking zero active risk in these allocations is suboptimal
• Provide context on why design, risk management, and implementation choices are critical to success

Company Profile:

About American Century Investments  
Founded in 1958, American Century Investments® is a leading global asset manager dedicated to putting clients first. Its commitment to innovative solutions and superior outcomes led to the 2019 launch of Avantis Investors®, advancing active and passive investing. Avantis offers broadly diversified, cost-effective equity and fixed income solutions powered by financial science and a time-tested, academically supported approach designed to increase expected returns. American Century’s success also supports global health. The firm distributes 40% of its dividends to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a 500-person nonprofit focused on foundational biomedical research. As American Century’s largest owner, the Stowers Institute has received more than $2 billion in dividend payments since 2000.

As benchmarks grow more concentrated and classification changes redraw the value universe, investors face a complex set of challenges from avoiding the proverbial falling knife to resisting the pull of benchmark-driven winners. This session explores how free cash flow, alongside capital and valuation discipline, can serve as a compass for identifying high-quality investments across a changing opportunity set. Learn how combining these disciplines can help distinguish resilient companies with a margin of safety from structurally impaired businesses, sharpen security selection and uncover industry leaders positioned to compound value over the long term.

Workshop Objectives:

Understand how combining free cash flow analysis with valuation discipline can help investors avoid value traps, resist benchmark-driven style drift and identify resilient companies across a changing value universe.

Company Profile:

Brown Advisory is an independent investment management and strategic advisory firm committed to delivering client-first investment performance, strategic advice and the highest level of service. The firm’s clients—including individuals, families, family offices, endowments, foundations, charities, institutions, consultants, and financial intermediaries—are served by over 1,000 colleagues worldwide, all of whom are equity owners of the firm.

First, a broad marketplace update on alternatives, focused on private equity, including products that combine public-market stocks and private equity.
 
Then, a closer look at the Capital Group/KKR Public-Private Solution equity product that launched in March 2026, including the impetus for the launch, product design, and Capital Group’s partnership with KKR.

Workshop Objectives:

Provide participants with an update on the current landscape of public-private alts products and an intro to the Capital Group/KKR recently launched solution.

Company Profile:

Since 1931, Capital Group has been dedicated to improving people's lives through successful investing, collaborative research, diverse perspectives and a long-term view. Known for our American Funds® mutual funds, we’ve brought the same time-tested active management to ETFs and are excited to now offer public-private investments. Our growing lineup of active ETFs and Public-Private+ Solutions represents the latest evolution in our more than 90-year history of bringing our distinct, long-term active management approach to investors in their investment vehicle of choice. As of December 31, 2025, Capital Group manages $3.3 trillion in equity and fixed income assets for millions of individual and institutional investors around the world.

Emerging markets delivered one of their strongest years in over a decade in 2025, yet valuations remain compelling relative to developed markets. For those reassessing long-term asset allocation, the conversation often turns to whether EM deserves a structural role in client portfolios. This workshop examines how a dedicated EM allocation has historically enhanced diversification and improved portfolio efficiency over full market cycles. We’ll also explore how accessing the full opportunity set—including underfollowed small- and mid-cap companies with limited sell-side coverage—can potentially uncover differentiated sources of return beyond index-heavy approaches.

Workshop Objectives:

Examine the long-term role EM can play in diversified portfolios, and examine how active, valuation-disciplined management can access opportunities beyond the index.

Company Profile:

Dodge & Cox was founded in 1930 in the wake of the Roaring Twenties as a new kind of asset management firm, built on a simple business model and a commitment to pursuing investment excellence. Today, we are one of the world’s largest independently owned investment firms. We actively manage money for individuals and institutions globally with a single, value-oriented investment philosophy applied across a deliberately limited set of offerings. Our focus means we put more resources behind fewer strategies, more passion behind fewer priorities, and more confidence behind every decision. Dodge & Cox was built on a bedrock of independent ownership, integrity, and continuous improvement—so it could serve our clients not just for decades, but for generations.

Machine learning has changed how quantitative investors search for alpha, but building models that are both effective and explainable remains a real challenge. In this session, Dan Mahr, Head of MDT Advisers, a Federated Hermes company, pulls back the curtain on how a $40 billion quantitative equity team applies machine learning across live client portfolios. Dan walks through MDT's 'glass box' decision-tree framework, a transparent alternative to black-box modelling, and shares lessons from two decades of building and refining models, including how the team manages overfitting, blends data-driven signals with human judgement, and adapts its process as computing power and data evolve. Attendees will leave with a clear view of where machine learning genuinely adds value in portfolio construction.

Workshop Objectives:

Give attendees a practical, non-technical understanding of how MDT applies machine learning within a transparent 'glass box' framework to help generate consistent alpha across client equity portfolios.

Company Profile:

MDT Advisers, a Federated Hermes company, is a quantitative equity investing group managing approximately $40 billion across actively managed mutual funds, ETFs, collective investment trusts and separately managed accounts. Since the 1990s, MDT has used a systematic, decision-tree-based approach to stock selection, blending machine learning with a 'glass box' philosophy that keeps every stage of the investment process transparent and explainable. The team's models are designed to identify mispriced stocks across the market. Federated Hermes' scale and stewardship-driven investment culture give MDT the resources to continually refine its models while keeping a disciplined, repeatable process at the center of its work.

For over 25 years Guggenheim Investments has delivered alpha to fixed income and credit portfolios by investing in less followed parts of the credit markets – particularly in structured credit.  One of Guggenheim’s portfolio managers will walk through the current opportunity set in ABS, CLOs, and RMBS and how these sectors can add incremental income and diversification to portfolios.

Workshop Objectives:

Showcase the value of and Guggenheim Investments’ capabilities in structured credit.

Company Profile:

Guggenheim Investments is a global asset management and investment advisory firm with assets across fixed income, equity, and alternative strategies. We focus on the return and risk needs of insurance companies, corporate and public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, consultants, wealth managers, and high-net-worth investors. Our 220+ investment professionals perform rigorous research to understand market trends and identify undervalued opportunities in areas that are often complex and underfollowed. This approach to investment management has enabled us to deliver innovative strategies providing diversification opportunities and attractive long-term results.

The markets for high yield bonds, broadly syndicated loans and private credit have converged over the last several years. This session will explore how that convergence occurred, and how we’ve structured the investment process for the Loomis Sayles Credit Income Opportunities Fund to best exploit the characteristics of the public and private markets. By understanding the risk premium available across asset classes, we assess credit, structural and liquidity risk and how well we’re being compensated for those risks.

Workshop Objectives:

Public and private credit markets are converging. Loomis Sayles believes interval funds are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the risk premium in this broad opportunity set.

Company Profile:

Celebrating 100 years of investment excellence
Since 1926, Loomis, Sayles & Company has built a legacy of research-driven, active investment management guided by a single purpose: helping clients achieve their investment goals with clarity and confidence.

Over the past century, the firm has navigated various market cycles, consistently adapting and innovating to meet the changing needs of its clients. Through deep independent research and rigorous risk analysis, Loomis Sayles aims to make informed investment decisions that result in strong, long-term, risk-adjusted performance.

The firm remains committed to excellence as a leading global active manager, consistently placing clients’ interests at the forefront of its operations,  for whom it manages $434.60b* in assets (as of 30 June 2026).
*Assets under management (AUM) as of June 30, 2026. AUM, as reported, may include notional assets, assets serviced, gross assets, assets of minority-owned affiliated entities and other types of nonregulatory AUM managed or serviced by firms affiliated with Natixis Investment Managers.

Emerging markets debt (EMD) offers compelling income and diversification from concentrated U.S. credit exposure. High real yields, strong sovereign fundamentals, disciplined central banks, and positive ratings momentum continue to support the case for EMD allocations. 
Payden & Rygel brings more than 25 years of experience navigating this diverse opportunity set with a consistent set of portfolio managers at the helm. The team’s continuity is reinforced by over 14 dedicated professionals, including portfolio managers, sovereign analysts, traders, and portfolio architects, who combine fundamental country research, relative-value analysis, and disciplined portfolio construction across hard currency, local, and corporate markets.
Members of the team will share why EMD deserves a spot in a long-term asset allocation not simply a tactical exposure.

Workshop Objectives:

To offer investors updated perspectives on EM debt, including hard currency and local currency opportunities.

Company Profile:

Founded in 1983 by Joan Payden, Payden & Rygel is one of the largest independent global investment managers, currently managing $165 billion. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Boston, London, and Milan, the firm is 100% owned by senior management actively involved in its day-to-day direction, with investment management as its only line of business.

Payden & Rygel focuses on the active management of fixed income and equity portfolios across domestic and international markets, offering separately managed accounts alongside U.S. mutual funds, UCITS, and alternative investment funds. Clients include corporations, insurers, pension plans, endowments and foundations, public entities, health care systems, wealth managers, and high-net-worth individuals. The firm emphasizes deep research, disciplined risk management, and highly customized portfolios.

With high yield spreads near historically tights, investors may be missing the more nuanced picture of a market that is fundamentally different from years past. Issuers are running with more disciplined leverage, larger capital structures, and meaningfully improved credit quality. At the same time, continued dispersion is creating meaningful pockets of value and a compelling proposition for active managers, and investors, willing to look beyond the headline numbers. In this session, we will explore why high yield's true value lies not in broad market movements, but in the skills required to navigate complexity and uncover the overlooked opportunities that generic spreads miss.

Workshop Objectives:

Provide participants with views on the current landscape of US high yield and leveraged finance markets and how BlueBay looks to add value in the space.

Company Profile:

RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) strives to provide clients an unrivaled experience of investment and service excellence, offering a comprehensive range of solutions and services. We operate as a global firm of specialized investment teams with more than $597 billion* under management. In addition to broad-based capabilities in equities, liquidity management and alternatives, our BlueBay fixed income platform seeks to embody the best aspects of alternative and traditional fixed income investing. We manage more than $155 billion* across a full spectrum of active fixed income strategies, all of which are designed to generate alpha within a capital preservation context. Our platform spans multiple investment dimensions and leverages our collective skill set to create differentiated portfolios. Through this approach, we seek to meet our cli-ents’ risk/return objectives for a specific asset class while providing additional diversification across their overall portfolio.

*as of June 30, 2026

AI dominates headlines, but the structural investment opportunity is in what powers it. The Electrification of Everything, spanning data centers, EV adoption, automation, and reshoring, is creating a multi-decade demand surge for power, infrastructure, and raw materials that rivals the Industrial Revolution in scale. In this session, we examine the data behind that demand: $1.1 trillion in utility capital expenditures, 106 GW of projected data center power demand by 2035, and copper requirements of 27 to 47 tons per megawatt. More importantly, we'll explore how to position portfolios across energy infrastructure, commodities, and real estate to capture these tailwinds with reduced correlation to tech-heavy allocations, and why the physical economy deserves a seat at the table.

Workshop Objective:

Help attendees move beyond AI narratives to identify actionable, real-asset investment strategies across energy infrastructure, commodities, and real estate positioned to benefit from the Electrification of Everything.

Company Profile:

SS&C ALPS Advisors, with $37.12 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2026, is an open architecture boutique investment manager offering portfolio building blocks, active insight, and an unwavering drive to guide clients to investment outcomes across sustainable income, thematic and alternative growth strategies.

Artificial intelligence is evolving from a narrow technology theme into a broader economic and capital spending cycle. This presentation examines how AI is reshaping sector leadership across the equity market, creating opportunities among both AI enablers and AI adopters. We explore why Technology remains central to the AI buildout, while Industrials, Materials, Utilities, and Financials are increasingly benefiting from infrastructure investment, electrification, manufacturing recovery, and rising capital expenditures. The discussion also highlights opportunities in Health Care through innovation and productivity gains, while assessing more selective outlooks for Communication Services and Consumer sectors. Attendees will gain a framework for using sector investing to identify where AI-driven spending and adoption may translate into sustainable earnings growth and investment opportunities.

Workshop Objectives:

Explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping sector leadership, identify the industries best positioned to benefit from AI-driven spending and adoption, and provide a framework for sector allocation decisions.

Company Profile:

At State Street Investment Management, we have been helping create better outcomes for institutions, financial intermediaries, and investors for nearly half a century. Starting with our early innovations in indexing and ETFs, our rigorous approach continues to be driven by market-tested expertise and a relentless commitment to those we serve. With over $6 trillion in assets managed*, clients in 60 countries, and a global network of strategic partners, we use our scale to deliver a comprehensive and cost-effective suite of investment solutions that help investors get wherever they want to go.

*This figure is presented as of June 30, 2026 and includes ETF AUM of $2,203.98 billion USD of which approximately $156.81 billion USD in gold assets with respect to SPDR products for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) acts solely as the marketing agent. SSGA FD and State Street Investment Management are affiliated. Please note all AUM is unaudited.

Fixed income markets are navigating a period of heightened uncertainty, shaped by a transition in Federal Reserve leadership, the discontinuation of forward guidance, and ongoing questions surrounding Fed independence. Against this backdrop, credit spreads across global markets remain historically tight, with high yield spreads trading near multi-decade lows despite persistent macro and geopolitical risks, including recent volatility stemming from the conflict involving Iran. This combination of policy ambiguity and compressed valuations creates a challenging environment for investors seeking compensation for risk. This presentation examines how these dynamics are shaping portfolio positioning across duration, credit quality, and sector allocation, and explores where relative value remains most compelling for fixed income investors navigating markets that offer limited room for error.

Workshop Objectives:

Engage with prospective partners on how Thornburg’s approach to multi-sector bond investing can prospectively improve portfolio outcomes.

Company Profile:

Thornburg Investment Management (“Thornburg”) is an active, high-conviction manager of equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative solutions. As a privately owned firm and with $54.5 billion in assets under management as of July 29, 2026, Thornburg serves institutions, financial professionals and investors worldwide. The firm offers mutual funds, ETFs, closed-end funds, separate accounts and UCITS funds.

We find investment truth with intense scrutiny at the individual security level to pinpoint high-conviction ideas in an evolving investment environment. Our fundamental research process incorporates qualitative and quantitative analysis covering asset classes, geographies, sectors and business cycles to deliver consistent risk-adjusted outperformance over the long term. Thornburg was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Fe, New Mexico with additional offices in Hong Kong and London. For more information, visit www.thornburg.com. 

The U.S. energy system is entering a new era. For more than a decade, the shale revolution created a supply-push environment, with surging oil and natural gas production reshaping energy markets. Today, a demand-pull environment is emerging as AI and data centers accelerate electricity consumption, U.S. energy exports connect domestic resources to global markets, and energy security takes on renewed importance.

Together, these forces are creating new infrastructure needs to connect abundant energy resources with growing demand. From natural gas and power generation to pipelines, transmission and digital infrastructure, the scale and direction of investment are changing.

This session will explore where opportunities are emerging and how the shift from supply push to demand pull is reshaping the energy infrastructure value chain.

Workshop Objectives:

Explore how energy markets are shifting from supply-driven growth to rising demand from AI, electrification and exports, creating new infrastructure needs and investment opportunities.

Company Profile:

With more than 20 years of investment experience across the energy value chain, Tortoise Capital has evolved from an early investor in midstream energy into a forward-looking investor at the forefront of the global energy transformation. Tortoise Capital advocates for energy’s essential role in powering economies and advancing progress while emphasizing reliable, affordable, and secure systems. Its experienced team applies high-conviction, research-driven strategies to identify value in a complex sector. Through a suite of investment solutions focused on investing in publicly traded energy and power infrastructure companies, Tortoise Capital seeks to deliver income, diversification, and long-term growth from its base in Kansas. Learn more at www.tortoisecapital.com.

With interest rate expectations becoming more balanced and bond markets adapting to a new economic environment, investors are looking beyond central bank policy for sources of return. Today, fixed income opportunities are increasingly driven by credit fundamentals, sector dispersion and active security selection rather than broad market movements. This session will explore where value can be found across global fixed income markets including more specialist sectors. We will discuss how investors can navigate evolving macroeconomic conditions, manage risk, and identify attractive income opportunities. 

Workshop Objectives:

To help the audience understand why now is the right time to allocate to fixed income and where the opportunities are in the asset class right now.

Company Profile:

TwentyFour Asset Management are high conviction, active, fixed income specialists headquartered in the city of London.
Our specialist focus enables us to seek value across the global bond markets and deliver long-term outperformance for our investors.
Since our inception in 2008, we have built a strong reputation for performance, expertise and innovation in the global bond markets. Our robust investment process and transparent products aim to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns across market cycles, with a focus on capital preservation 

Given the current landscape and the many questions swirling around private credit, we believe this is a perfect opportunity to provide advisors with practical insights and various access points to different credit investment opportunitiesWe see this as a timely moment to address growing concerns and offer valuable perspective—especially as the credit market continues to evolve. . Please join us in a workshop that helps to demystify “credit” and break down complex concepts into actionable takeaways.

The Many Faces of Credit
Private Credit has seen an incredible level of growth in the past decade, it is now a widely discussed and recognized asset class for all types of investors. While it seems that Private Credit has dominated credit-related conversations, we would be amiss if syndicated loans, high yield bond and structured credit were not included in the conversation.  Credit markets are undergoing a structural transformation. Corporate issuers increasingly access multiple funding channels —moving fluidly between syndicated loans, high yield bonds, private credit, and structured markets to optimize cost, flexibility, and investor demand. As a result, the traditional boundaries between liquid and illiquid credit, public and private markets, and fixed and floating rate instruments have become increasingly blurred. For our proposed presentation, we would like to discuss the differences and similarities between these asset classes, recent trends in leveraged finance, and how an investor could best access credit opportunities. 

RAAX provides dynamic exposure to real assets like commodities and infrastructure, adjusting to shifting macro and inflationary environments. Historical data shows commodities and gold have delivered strong returns during periods of elevated inflation. RAAX has outperformed the Bloomberg Commodity Index over 1-, 3-, and 5-year periods, making it a compelling solution for investors seeking inflation-sensitive, actively managed real asset strategies.

Workshop Objectives:

Introduction to RAAX with Portfolio Manager David Schassler who will summarize his active multi-asset approach to managing a diversified portfolio of real assets. 

Company Profile:

VanEck looks beyond the financial markets to identify trends that are likely to create impactful investment opportunities. We offer active and passive strategies with compelling exposures through various vehicles, including ETFs, mutual funds, institutional funds, separately managed accounts and model delivery. Our capabilities range from core opportunities to specialized exposures to enhance diversification. Since our founding in 1955, putting clients’ interests first, in all market environments, has been at the heart of the firm’s mission.