You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: AMG achieved outstanding results in 2021 through the strong execution of our growth strategy, the excellent performance of our affiliates and increasing momentum across our business.
AMG generated over $1 billion of EBITDA, up 33% year over year, and record economic earnings per share of $18.28, representing annual growth of 37%.
Our demonstrated commitment to investing for growth across both existing and new affiliates while simultaneously returning capital to shareholders has resulted in significant business momentum and compounded earnings growth, which continues in 2022.
Stepping back, over the last few years, we have renewed our focus on AMG's foundational values of entrepreneurial spirit, ownership mindset, and disciplined execution, which has resulted in reinvigorating our new investment strategy, enhancing our strategic engagement with affiliates, and realigning our resources with our most significant growth opportunities.
Through these initiatives, we have meaningfully increased our long-term earnings power, and more importantly, are reshaping our business in favor of fast-growing areas, including private markets, liquid alternatives, Asia, wealth management, and ESG.
All of which are well positioned to deliver strong growth over time.
More broadly, we believe that the investment environment has fundamentally changed.
Following a decade of globally coordinated monetary policy, ultra low rates, and highly correlated returns across asset classes.
A new paradigm is forming.
Looking ahead, given the combination of elevated inflation, rising interest rates, and an increasing focus on climate change and sustainability, taking an active approach to investing is critical to achieving clients' goals and objectives.
AMG's affiliates are industry-leading active managers, with proven track records of delivering excellent risk-adjusted returns for clients across market cycles and are well positioned for this evolving environment.
In parallel with the fundamental shift in the investment environment, clients are changing the way they manage their exposures as well.
And all of these developing trends will continue to shape our strategy and the way that we and our affiliates engage with clients.
Among the trends that are influencing both our capital allocation decisions and our financial results are the ongoing demand for private markets, the diversifying power of uncorrelated liquid alternatives, and an increasing appetite for sustainable investing.
Today, AMG is structurally well positioned in these areas.
Within private markets, our Affiliates manage $120 billion in assets under management across roughly 30 global and regional private equity, credit, direct lending, real estate, infrastructure, and private market solution strategies, offering investors diversification, income, and inflation protection across market cycles.
We have established three new partnerships in this segment over the last 24 months, in Comvest, OCP Asia, and Abacus, and have invested in distribution and product development at Pantheon, PFM, and Baring Asia to continue to address growing demand for both institutional and wealth investors globally.
And now that we have completed the repositioning of our U.S. Wealth platform, we are investing in private markets, resources, and product development to accelerate our Affiliates growth in this attractive client segment.
Collectively, our Affiliates have raised nearly $25 billion in the private markets over the course of 2021, generating organic growth north of 20%, and each have significant dry power -- powder to capitalize on market opportunities ahead.
The changing environment is also creating greater opportunities for liquid alternatives as correlations fall across markets and the demand for these unique return streams has rapidly improved.
Our liquid alternative Affiliates had an excellent year in 2021, generating significant returns and performance fees while navigating volatility and protecting capital.
Strong flow trends continue for Capula and Garda, and each is focused on product innovation.
And we began 2022 with an incremental investment in Systematica, one of the industry's leading technology-driven alternative managers.
Through Leda Braga's outstanding leadership, Systematica has grown and diversified substantially since AMG's initial investment in 2016 and is well positioned to benefit from increasing client demand for absolute return streams and portfolio diversification.
A consistent theme across our client conversations today is the desire for and increasing focus on sustainable investing and active stewardship.
As I've said before, sustainable investing requires an active approach, and our affiliates are benefiting as clients increasingly engage high-quality active managers to generate positive impact in communities worldwide.
Dedicated ESG strategies across our Affiliates now account for over $90 billion of our assets under management, a segment that is growing organically at a double-digit rate.
Two ESG pioneers, Parnassus and Boston Common, joined as new affiliates in 2021, each with a multi-decade and differentiated track record of sustainable investing.
In addition, we are collaborating with a number of our affiliates to broaden their capabilities in this area.
As client demand for ESG investing continues to accelerate, our Affiliates authentic approach will be an ongoing area of differentiation for AMG.
Our strategic focus on the fast-growing areas of private markets, liquid alternatives, and ESG strategies, along with our Asia focus and wealth management businesses, have collectively become a more significant contributor to our overall growth profile.
Our Affiliates in these areas generate approximately $35 billion in net client flows, which accelerated in the second half of the year, and we will continue to invest in these attractive areas.
As I said earlier, we are focused on long-term sustainable growth.
And the strategic decisions we are making today with our capital and resources are aligned with the growth opportunities we see over the next decade.
AMG's business model is uniquely advantaged in this respect.
We have the ability to shape and scale our earnings power through new investments, the magnitude of which is evident across our recent transactions.
In 2021, we partnered with four new affiliates operating in fast-growing areas.
And so far in 2022, we've made a significant incremental investment in Systematica, which together will contribute approximately $120 million in annual EBITDA going forward.
AMG has been one of the most active investors in independent asset managers over the past 24 months.
Our partnership approach is resonating with the highest quality partner-owned investment firms.
And looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to execute on our new investment opportunity set given the favorable transaction environment, AMG's strong competitive position and increasing demand for our unique partnership solutions.
As we continue to invest in high-quality new affiliates and in growth opportunities at existing affiliates using a disciplined capital allocation framework, we are able to meaningfully enhance our growth profile over time.
Given our ability to invest for growth and evolve the shape of our business, together with share repurchases, the long-term opportunity to compound earnings growth is clear.
And we are uniquely positioned to deliver significant shareholder value over time.
As Jay highlighted, we delivered excellent results in 2021, with strong momentum across Affiliate performance, organic growth and capital deployment.
And we entered 2022 with enhanced earnings power and significant liquidity and capital flexibility.
Our diverse group of Affiliates is well positioned to deliver strong outcomes for clients in an environment where active management is critical to navigating the fundamentally changing investment landscape.
And we continue to focus on strategically evolving our business toward attractive secular growth areas and driving long-term durable earnings growth.
Turning to the quarter.
Adjusted EBITDA of $357 million grew 40% year over year and economic earnings per share totaled $6.10, up 45% year over year.
On a full year basis, adjusted EBITDA of $1.06 billion and economic earnings per share of $18.28 each grew more than 30% versus the prior year.
Net client cash flows, excluding certain quantitative strategies, were $4 billion for the quarter.
Outflows from certain quant strategies totaled $10 billion and continue to have a de minimis impact on our earnings.
Over the course of 2021, our core organic growth trends gained momentum quarter by quarter, delivering $14 billion in total inflows ex quant for the year.
We enter 2022 with an enhanced overall AUM, earnings and organic growth profile, with a strong presence across private markets, liquid alternatives, Asia, wealth management, and ESG strategies, areas where active management is delivering significant value for clients, and growth is accelerating.
Turning to business performance by asset class and excluding certain quantitative strategies.
In alternatives, net inflows totaled $12 billion, driven by strength across private markets and liquid alternatives, and reflected the continuing impact of our strategy to evolve our business toward growth.
In private markets, we continue to see very strong fundraising levels across Baring Asia, Pantheon, EIG, and Comvest, with net inflows totaling $9 billion for the quarter and nearly $25 billion for the full year.
Interest in private market strategies continues to grow as both retail institutional clients seeking long-term returns and alternative sources of income look to increase their allocations.
And these long-duration assets are adding further stability and diversity to our earnings.
We are also experiencing increasing demand for our liquid alternative strategies given their excellent performance track records and demonstrated ability to deliver absolute returns and uncorrelated alpha to client portfolios.
Collectively, our liquid alternative managers, including Systematica, ValueAct, Capula, and Garda, delivered outstanding performance to clients in 2021 and generated substantial management and performance fees for AMG.
Moving to global equities.
Net outflows of $8 billion were driven by two large institutional redemptions, which accounted for two-thirds of the activity in this category.
Overall, our affiliates investment performance remains strong and the environment for high-quality active managers continues to be favorable.
Our global equity affiliates offer differentiated strategies where we continue to see client demand, including in Asian equities and ESG.
We are confident that with our strong performance and diverse offerings, we are well positioned to attract increased client allocations in the future.
Within U.S. equities, we reported net outflows of $1 billion, reflecting Q4 seasonality.
We are excited about the growth potential for this category overall.
And our long-term investment performance remains excellent, with approximately 75% of assets outperforming on a 5-year basis.
We experienced strong demand for our ESG and value-oriented affiliates, including Boston Common, Parnassus, Yacktman, and River Road, and are well placed to benefit in 2022 from current market trends and investor focus on sustainable and impact investing as well as the implications of higher rates and inflation.
And lastly, in multi-asset and fixed income, we generated inflows of $1.5 billion for the quarter and $4 billion for the full year, with a continuation of steady growth in our wealth management businesses.
These businesses continue to deliver a valuable combination of organic growth and long-duration assets and earnings.
For the fourth quarter, adjusted EBITDA of $357 million grew 40% year over year, driven by strong affiliate performance and the addition of our recent new affiliate investments.
Economic earnings per share of $6.10 grew 45% year over year, further benefiting from share repurchases.
We generated $122 million of net performance fees in the fourth quarter, driven by excellent investment performance, most notably in our liquid alternatives category.
And we see a growing opportunity to generate performance fees across our diverse set of absolute return, beta sensitive, and private market strategies that builds on itself over time, as strong performance leads to inflows, which translate into higher asset levels and a greater opportunity to generate earnings growth in the future.
Historically, performance fees have proven consistent and durable, averaging approximately 10% of annual earnings, with significant upside asymmetry to those levels in certain years, similar to what we experienced in 2021.
Not only do performance fees contribute a steady recurring earnings stream, but they also represent a meaningful source of capital to facilitate the execution of our long-term growth strategy.
Now moving to specific modeling items for the first quarter.
We expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $235 million to $245 million based on current AUM levels, which reflect our market blend, down approximately 4% through Friday.
This guidance reflects performance fees of up to $10 million and the full impact of our recent investments in Abacus and Systematica.
Our share of interest expense was $29 million for the fourth quarter, and we expect a similar level in the first quarter.
Controlling interest depreciation was $2 million in the fourth quarter, and we expect the first quarter to be at a similar level.
Our share of reported amortization and impairments was $88 million for the fourth quarter.
We expect it to be approximately $30 million in the first quarter.
Our effective GAAP and cash tax rates were 30% for the fourth quarter.
And we expect GAAP and cash tax rates to be 26% and 18%, respectively, in the first quarter.
Intangible-related deferred taxes were $1 million this quarter, and we are expecting $15 million in the first quarter.
Other economic item adjustments were negative $12 million for the fourth, reflecting the exclusion of mark-to-market gains.
In the first quarter, for modeling purposes, we expect other economic items, excluding any mark-to-market, to be $1 million.
Our adjusted weighted average share count for the fourth quarter was 41.8 million, and we expect our share count to be approximately 41 million for the first quarter.
Finally, turning to the balance sheet and capital allocation.
2021 was a very active year.
And we deployed more than $1 billion of capital into growth investments as well as share repurchases.
In line with our strategy, more than half of that capital was allocated toward growth, including across the four new investments we made in private markets and sustainable investing firms.
Additionally, in January, we completed an incremental investment in Systematica, a leading global technology-enabled alternatives manager, further increasing our economic exposure to in-demand uncorrelated return streams.
These investments were structured and priced to deliver strong shareholder returns across a range of outcomes and are expected to collectively contribute approximately $120 million of EBITDA in 2022.
For the full year, we also repurchased $510 million of shares, including $120 million in the fourth quarter, reducing our shares outstanding by 8% for the year.
We remain committed to returning excess capital to shareholders through share repurchases.
And in 2022, we expect to repurchase approximately $400 million of shares, subject to market conditions and new investment activity.
In addition, we took advantage of last year's favorable financing environment to extend the duration of our balance sheet by issuing a 40-year hybrid note and extending our revolver and term loan through 2026.
And we entered the year with a very strong balance sheet and ample capacity to execute on the significant and broad-ranging growth opportunities we see ahead.
Our business continued to evolve in 2021, driven by our focus on allocating our resources and capital to areas of secular growth, including the key themes that Jay focused on: private markets, liquid alternatives, and ESG.
We have demonstrated our ability to successfully compound earnings, leveraging our unique growth drivers.
And today, our business is in as strong a position as it has ever been.
We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us and are well positioned to create significant value for our shareholders over time.

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q4 earnings per share $6.10.
compname reports earnings per share of $4.17, economic earnings per share of $6.10 in q4.

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