Colliers International Group Inc.

Legal counsel requires us to advise that the discussion scheduled to take place today may contain forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from any future results. Performance or achievements contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the company's annual information form as filed in the Canadian Securities Administrators and in the company's annual report on Form 40-F as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Today is February 8, 2024. And at this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jay Hennick. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to the fourth quarter conference call. I'm Jay Hennick, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company. Joining me today is Chris McLaren, Chief Executive Officer of our real estate services business, and of course, Christian Mayer, our Chief Financial Officer. This call is being webcast and can be accessed in the investor relations section of our website, where you can also find the presentation slide deck. In the fourth quarter, Colliers experienced robust revenue growth in its high-value recurring service lines. Over the past five years, Colliers has strategically transformed into a more diversified professional services company by adding significant recurring revenue platforms such as investment management and engineering and project management. Today, more than 70% of our earnings comes from these recurring services, providing our company with more balance, more resilience, and more predictability than ever and similar in many ways to other highly diversified global professional service companies. Throughout the year, we observed industry-wide declines in one segment of our business, our transaction segment, our capital markets business. However, we expect a return to higher transaction velocity in the latter part of this year as interest rates and credit conditions hopefully stabilize. In the interim, pricing for most real estate assets continue to adjust as buyers and sellers try to find equilibrium that they need to transact business. With our nearly 30-year track record of creating substantial shareholder value, Colliers is poised for continued success. Anticipating a rise in transaction revenue later this year, and supported by a very strong pipeline for new growth prospects, we are more excited than ever about the future. And with that, let me turn things over to Chris McLaren to discuss some highlights on the services side. Following that, Christian will provide his financial report, and then we'll open things up for questions.

Chris? Thank you, Jay, and good morning. I'm proud of the results that Collier's Real Estate Services delivered in the fourth quarter and the full year. Despite industry-wide headwinds, we have become more resilient than ever, demonstrating the strengths of our highly diversified professional services platform by both service line and by geography. Our outsourcing and advisory business saw 10% revenue growth in the fourth quarter and for the full year has grown 11%. led by engineering, project management, and property management. Our engineering and project management pipelines are filled with a balanced mix of public and private sector clients that want to work with us because of our expertise and ability to provide integrated solutions. Additionally, the growth of our property management business has been driven by strong portfolio retention and expansion within our existing client base. as well as the addition of new clients due to receiverships and key markets. We expect the growth rate for these high-value services to remain resilient over the long term. As mentioned, transaction volumes remain subdued during the quarter because of interest rate volatility, tighter lending standards, and pricing mismatch between real estate buyers and sellers. However, with expectations of interest rates stabilizing, we have greater confidence that transaction velocity will improve in the second half of this year. Importantly, during the slowdown, we would continue to invest in our business, filling gaps, taking market share and top grading leadership. Having been with Colliers for 35 years, I'm especially proud of our enterprising professionals and our culture, the bedrock of our success. I'm pleased to share that we have been named among the world's top companies for women by Forbes, in addition to our inclusion on Forbes' World's Best Employers list. I'll now turn it over the call to Christian to provide more details on our financials.