Perella Weinberg Partners

Good morning and welcome to the Perella Weinberg first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. During today's discussion, all callers will be placed in a listen-only mode. Following management's prepared remarks, the conference call will be open for questions from the research community. This conference call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Taylor Reinhart, head of communications and marketing. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome all. Joining me today are Andrew Bednar, Chief Executive Officer, and Alex Gottschalk, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to note that this call may contain forward-looking statements, including Cruella Weinberg's expectations of future financial and business performance and conditions and industry outlook. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future events or performance. Please refer to Perrella Weinberg's most recent SEC filings for discussion of certain of these risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations, and the firm undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. During the call, there will also be a discussion of some metrics, which are non-GAAP financial measures, which management believes are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business. Parola Weinberg has reconciled these items to the most comparable GAAP measures in the press release files of today's Form 8-K, which can be found on the company's website. I will now turn the call over to Andrew Bednar to discuss our results.

Andrew Bednar Thank you, Taylor, and good morning. Today, we reported first quarter revenues of $102 million, results that do not reflect the underlying strength of our business. We are the lead advisor in three of the 15 largest transactions announced year to date, and our announced and pending transaction revenue backlog stands today at a record high for the firm, nearly double the level last year at this time. This quarter, we experienced an unusually large amount of transaction announcements with elongated closing timelines and where closing and revenue recognition are expected to occur in subsequent periods. The market backdrop continues to improve, especially for larger transactions. For many of our clients, as market values increase, even more scale is needed to move the needle and drive growth. This is something we are seeing across industries and geographies, along with increased complexity. So we see more corporate carve-outs. sponsors in joint bids with strategic buyers, and asset contribution transactions, trends that are broadly aligning very favorably with our stated strategy and our firm's capabilities. We and our industry also are benefiting from a market that values independent advice more than ever, with 14 of the top 20 announced transactions this year having a boutique as the exclusive or as a co-advisor. The higher for longer consensus on interest rates combined with impending maturities continues to fuel the need for liability management advice, and demand from both investors and borrowers for capital solutions remains strong. While base rates are higher, spreads have narrowed, and corporate and sponsor clients have plenty of access to capital. It's financing terms and valuations that present hurdles to transactions, not credit availability. Recruiting remains a strategic priority in our mission to scale the firm. We welcomed the managing director of financial institutions earlier this year, and in April we welcomed a new partner with a focus on media and interactive entertainment, including gaming, a very active sector which we believe will be accretive to our business. We are executing on our growth strategy and enhancing our franchise globally with the addition of exceptional talent, and world-class clients who choose Perola Weinberg as their trusted advisor. We are focused on serving our clients with the highest caliber advice, strengthening our relationships across corporate sponsors and beyond, investing to operate at scale, and in turn delivering for our shareholders. We are confident that in time, our reported results will reflect the underlying strength and progress of our business. Alex, I'll now turn the call over to you to review our financial results and capital management in more detail.