Hamilton Lane Incorporated

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hamilton Lane Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, online is in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, and I would now like to turn the conference over to John Oh, Head of Shareholders Relations, please go ahead.

Thank you, Wina. Good morning and welcome to the Hamilton Lane Q2 Fiscal 2024 Earnings Call. Today, I will be joined by Mario Giannini, CEO, Eric Hirsch, Vice Chairman, and Jeff Armbruster, CFO. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release and slide presentation, which are available on our website. Before we discuss the quarter's results, we want to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements. forward-looking statements discuss our current expectations and projections relating to our financial position, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance, and business. These forward-looking statements do not guarantee future events or performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected. For discussion of these risks, please review the cautionary statements and risk factors included in the Hamilton Lane Fiscal 2023 10-K and subsequent reports we file with the SEC. These forward-looking statements are made only as of today and, except as required, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of them. We will also be referring to non-GAAP measures that we view as important in assessing the performance of our business. Reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to GAAP can be found in the earnings presentation materials made available on the shareholder section of the Hamilton Lane website. Our detailed financial results will be made available when our 10Q is filed. Please note that nothing on this call represents an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase interest in any of Hamilton Lane's products. Beginning with the financial highlights. Year to date, our management and advisory fee revenue grew by 20%, while our fee-related earnings also grew by 20% versus the prior year period. Translated into GAAP EPS of $1.92, based on $73 million of GAAP net income, and non-GAAP EPS of $1.83, based on $99 million of adjusted net income. We have also declared a dividend of 44.5 cents per share this quarter, which keeps us on track for the 11% increase over last fiscal year, equating to the targeted $1.78 per share for fiscal year 2024. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Mario.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with addressing the CEO transition announcement we made several weeks ago. At the beginning of calendar 2024, I will be stepping down as CEO of Hamilton Lane after having served the last 22 years in that capacity. I will move into an executive co-chair role alongside Hartley Rogers, our current chairman. At that time, Eric Hirsch and Juan Delgado Morera will become the new co-CEOs of Hamilton Lane. I want to emphasize that I will not be moving on or back from Hamilton Lane, and in fact, quite the opposite. I'm a significant shareholder, and I plan to remain very active and do my part in continuing to grow and scale our business. I once asked a fund manager how you know if someone is a good CEO. His answer was that you don't know until a couple of years after that person is no longer CEO, because the mark of a good CEO is that his or her transition to another CEO is smooth and the successor continues to run the business successfully. If that's the measure, then I am certain that I will be regarded as a good CEO, because this transition has and will continue to be seamless, and Juan and Eric will be great CEOs at Hamilton Lane. I've worked with both of them over many years here, and there has been no decision or strategic discussion over the last 15-plus years of which they haven't been an integral part. Their thoughts and judgments have been a key part of Hamilton Lane's success, and we would be nowhere near what we are today without them helping to spearhead the growth of the business over the last decade and longer. Both Eric and Juan have highly complementary investment and strategic management skill sets and bring fresh perspectives on the future of our business. Juan will primarily focus on leading Hamilton Lane's global sales effort and client service organization, while Eric will take the lead on the strategic direction and operations of the firm. Eric and Juan will jointly lead our global investment team. I look forward to working with them as Hamilton Lane builds on its market leadership position. I will now turn it over to Eric.