Acadian Asset Management Inc. Liquidation Value

Acadian Asset Management Inc. (AAMI) is a pure-play quantitative asset manager operating through its ownership interest in Acadian LLC. Under a liquidation lens, the recovery posture is structurally negative and typical for an asset-light investment manager: virtually all enterprise value resides in intangible goodwill, client relationships, and AUM-linked revenue streams that carry zero liquidation recovery. Tangible assets recoverable at face or near-face value are limited primarily to cash/equivalents and seed capital investments.

As of March 31, 2026, total assets are $715.4M against total liabilities of $616.0M, producing GAAP book equity of approximately $99.4M. Applying liquidation haircuts, recoverable asset value is estimated as follows: cash and restricted cash of $150.0M (100% = $150.0M); investments of $141.9M — of which $96.7M is seed capital (marked to fair value, assume 90% recovery = $87.0M) and $37.4M is VDP-matched investments (offset by corresponding liability, net zero contribution); operating lease ROU assets ($59.5M liability implies comparable asset, but net lease position is a liability at face in wind-down, not an asset); remaining tangible assets (PP&E, receivables) not separately tagged but immaterial relative to the total balance sheet. Against this, liabilities at face value total $616.0M, including: long-term debt of $285.0M ($200M term loan + $85M revolving credit facility drawn as of 3/31/26, variable rate, maturity October 2028); operating lease obligations of $59.5M; other compensation liabilities of $142.5M (share-based payments $39.5M, profit interests $65.8M, VDP $37.2M); accrued incentive compensation of $47.4M; plus remaining trade and other liabilities. The most significant change since the prior filing (10-K for year ended December 31, 2025) is the draw of $85.0M on the revolving credit facility — the revolver was undrawn at year-end 2025. This materially increases the liability stack and further widens the negative liquidation gap. The profit interests compensation liability jumped from $54.0M to $65.8M (+$11.8M) in a single quarter, driven by non-cash equity revaluations of $16.1M tied to higher AUM-linked earnings. The filing discusses goodwill and acquired intangibles in MD&A (noting zero amortization/impairment in the current and prior period) but does not separately XBRL-tag goodwill or intangible asset balances in the TAG_CONTEXT — those values are absent from the taggable data set. Net liquidation recovery to equity is deeply negative on a tangible basis; the company's going-concern value is wholly dependent on continuation of AUM-linked fee revenues.