A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc.

Good afternoon. Welcome to AMARC Precious Metals Conference call for the fiscal second quarter ended December 31st, 2021. My name is Sherry and I will be your operator this afternoon. Before this call, AMARC issued its results for the fiscal second quarter 2022 in a press release, which is available in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.amarc.com. You can find a link to the investor relations section at the top of the home page. Joining us for today's call are AMARC CEO Greg Roberts, President Thora Georgioum, and CFO Kathleen Simpson-Taylor. Following their remarks, we will open up the call for your questions. Then before we conclude the call, I'll provide the necessary questions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during this call. I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded. and will be made available for replay via the link available in the Best Relations section of the AMARC website. Now I would like to turn the call over to AMARC CEO, Mr. Greg Roberts. Please proceed, sir.

Thank you, Sherry, and good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. As you can see from our earnings release, Q2 marked another solid quarter as AMARC delivered $31.8 million of net income and diluted EPS of $2.61 a share. We also generated $49 million of adjusted net income before provision for income taxes, or $4.02 per diluted share. Our Q2 results reflect the strength of our fully integrated precious metals platform, combined with the continuation of the favorable macro conditions that had benefited our business over the past several quarters. We continue to experience robust demand from both our retail and wholesale customers, along with ongoing supply constraints, which have resulted in continued higher premium spreads. Our fully integrated business model continues to provide us with steady access to product, enabling us to take advantage of favorable market conditions through our wholly owned and equity interests in private mints and our 30-plus year relationship with other supply sources. The unique strength of our model is evident in our Q2 performance, which included an 18% sequential increase in gross profit to $65.9 million, with our gross profit margin expanding by 61 basis points and an 8% return on equity. Now, I want to turn the call over to our CFO, Kathleen Simpson-Taylor, and she will walk you through our financials in more detail. Then our president, Thor Jerdrum, will come on to discuss our KPIs and operational metrics. Afterwards, I will provide a further update on our business and growth strategy. Kathleen, take it away.

Thank you, Greg, and good afternoon, everyone. Our revenues for fiscal Q2 2022 increased 28% to $1.95 billion from $1.52 billion in Q2 of last year. The increase in revenues was due to an increase in gold and silver ounces sold offset by lower average selling prices of gold and silver. JM Bullion, JMB, contributed $489.3 million of revenue to the quarter. For the six-month period, our revenues increased 17% to $3.96 billion from $3.38 billion in the same year-ago period. The increase in revenues was due to an increase in gold and silver ounces sold, combined with higher average selling prices for silver, offset by lower average selling prices for gold. JMB contributed $961.6 million of revenues to the six-month period. Gross profit for fiscal Q2 2022 increased 252%. to 65.9 million or 3.39% of revenue from 18.8 million or 1.23% of revenue in Q2 of last year. The gross profit increase was due to higher gross profits earned from the wholesale sales and ancillary services and direct to consumer segments, including 29.7 million contributed by JMB. For the six-month period, gross profit increased 122% to $121.9 million or 3.08% of revenue from $54.9 million or 1.62% of revenue in the same year-ago period. The gross profit increase was due to higher gross profits earned from the wholesale sales and ancillary services and direct-to-consumer segments including 54.4 million contributed by JMB. SG&A expenses for fiscal Q2 2022 increased 119% to 18.7 million from 8.5 million in Q2 of last year. The increase was primarily due to 6.9 million of expenses incurred by JMB, 2.3 million of legal consulting and professional fees, increased compensation expense, including performance-based accruals, of $0.9 million, and higher insurance costs of $0.1 million. For the six-month period, selling, general, and administrative expenses increased 96% to $35.4 million from $18 million in the same year-ago period. The increase was primarily due to $12.9 million of expenses incurred by JMD, $2.8 million of legal consulting and professional fees, increased compensation expense, including performance-based accruals, of $1.1 million, and higher insurance costs of $0.6 million. Depreciation and amortization expense for fiscal Q2 2022 increased 1,535% to $8.3 million, from $0.5 million in Q2 of last year. For the six-month period, depreciation and amortization expense increased 1,543% to $16.5 million from $1 million in the same year-ago period. The increase was primarily due to amortization of the acquired intangibles related to JMB. Interest income for fiscal Q2 2022 increased 16% to $5.3 million from $4.5 million in Q2 of last year. For the six-month period, interest income increased 27% to $10.8 million from $8.5 million in the same year-ago period. The aggregate increase was primarily due to higher interest income earned by our secured lending segment and higher other finance product income. Interest expense for fiscal Q2 2022 increased 7% to $5.4 million from $5 million in Q2 of last fiscal year. The increase was primarily driven by $0.3 million associated with our trading credit facility and notes payable, including amortization of debt issuance costs, $0.2 million of loan servicing fees, offset by a decrease of $0.1 million in interest associated with liabilities on borrowed metals. For the six-month period, interest expense increased 16% to $10.9 million from $9.3 million in the same year-ago period. The increase was primarily driven by $0.8 million associated with our trading credit facility and notes payable, including amortization of debt issuance costs, $0.7 million related to product financing arrangements, $0.4 million of loan servicing fees, offset by a decrease of $0.3 million in interest associated with liabilities on borrowed metals. Earnings from equity method investments in fiscal Q2 2022 decreased 48% to $1.2 million from $2.4 million in the same year-ago quarter. The change includes an increase in earnings of $0.7 million from our current equity method investments, offset by a decrease of $1.9 million related to J&B, a former equity method investment which is now reported by the company as a wholly owned subsidiary. For the six-month period, earnings from equity method investments decreased 58% to $2.7 million from $6.5 million in the same year-ago period. The change includes an increase in earnings of $1.8 million from our current equity method investments, offset by a decrease of $5.6 million related to J&B, a former equity method investment which is now reported by the company as a wholly owned subsidiary. Net income attributable to the company for the second fiscal quarter of 2022 totaled $31.8 million or $2.61 per diluted share. This compares to net income attributable to the company of $8.9 million or $1.16 per diluted share in Q2 of last year. Our diluted EPS for the fiscal second quarter of 2022 is based on the weighted average shares outstanding of 12.2 million, compared with 7.7 million weighted average shares outstanding during the second quarter of last year. Adjusted net income before provision for income taxes, a non-GAAP financial measure, which excludes acquisition expenses, amortization, and depreciation, For Q2 fiscal 2022, totaled $49 million, or $4.02 per diluted share, an improvement of $36.3 million compared to $12.7 million, or $1.64 per diluted share for Q2 fiscal 2021. The weighted average shares outstanding for the current fiscal quarter were $4.5 million higher than those outstanding in the prior year fiscal quarter. For the six-month period, net income attributable to the company totaled $57.8 million, or $4.78 per diluted share. This compares to net income attributable to the company of $32 million or $4.21 per diluted share in the same year-ago period. Our diluted EPS for the six-month period is based on weighted average shares outstanding of $12.1 million compared with 7.6 million weighted average shares outstanding during the same year-ago period. Adjusted net income before provision for income taxes, a non-GAAP financial measure, which excludes acquisition expenses, amortization, and depreciation for the six-month period, totaled $90.1 million, or $7.44 per diluted share, an improvement compared to $43.4 million, or $5.70 per diluted share, in the same year-ago period. The weighted average shares outstanding for the six-month period were $4.5 million higher than those outstanding in the prior year six-month period. Now turning to our balance sheet. At quarter end, we had $19.4 million of cash compared to $101.4 million at the end of fiscal year 2021. Our fiscal year 2021 cash balances were high, due to our significant planned precious metals purchases in the first few days of July 2021, specifically due in part to the US Mint's release of a new bullion coin design on July 1st. Our tangible net worth at the end of the quarter was $226 million, up from $184.9 million at the end of the prior quarter. Finally, as we announced in December, We closed our new three-year committed $350 million trading credit facility during the quarter, replacing our previous $280 million trading credit facility. The new credit facility is the largest in the company's history as we added a number of new lenders to expand our lender base, which provides additional lending capacity should we need it in the future. We believe this reflects the strong performance of our business and our capital partners' confidence in our vertically integrated model. That completes my financial summary. Now I will turn the call over to Thor, who will provide an update on our key performance metrics. Thor?