Heritage Global Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings and welcome to the Heritage Global Inc. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star and zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, John Nesbitt with IMS Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and projections about future events and are subject to change based on various important factors. In light of these risks and certainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only of the date of this call. For more details on factors that could affect these expectations, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Heritage Global's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ross Dove. Ross?

Thank you, John, and thank everyone for attending and listening. Before Brian gives you an overview of what we feel was an extremely good quarter, I wanted to take a few moments up front to walk everyone through our non-cash $900,000 loan loss reserve, the reasons why we took it and how we feel about it. So our largest borrower came to us and said that they would like to extend the term of their loan, that they believe they'll definitely be able to pay off a full. However, the collection curves have slowed, and they've asked for an extension. The first thing I thought about them asking for an extension is, thank God I'm only 71 years old, so I've got plenty of time to extend it. So we feel comfortable that it's going to work, but we took the $900,000 charge because the buyer is asking for an extension. So Over time, we'll have to figure out whether or not that charge or that non-cash reserve will stay on the books. For now, we believe it was prudent and the safest thing to do. So after I thought about it for a long time, I started thinking about a story from very early in my career that my grandfather, our founder, told me. He said to me, kid, never worry too much about the money that people owe you, worry far more about the people you owe money to. So the good news there is our loan book is growing to $35 million plus, while our bank debt is only $7 million. So with that perspective in mind, I feel very comfortable about our future here. Everybody kind of looking at the market right now, and I'll talk about it later on after Brian speaks, says it looks like there's rocky roads coming ahead. After 50 years doing this, I can tell you over and over again that rocky roads have been ice cream to liquidators, and we think our time is going to get better and better over the next two or three years. The $13 million guidance we gave for this year, I'm still confirming after we took the loan loss reserve, and I'm positive that next year and the year after, you'll see growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian to walk you through the quarter. Once he does walk you through the quarter, I'll kind of walk you through why I see there's growth over the next two years, three years, and beyond. Brian, go ahead. You're up. Thank you, Ross.