Perella Weinberg Partners

Good morning, and welcome to the Perella Weinberg Partners first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Currently, all callers have been placed in a listen-only mode, and following management's prepared remarks, the call will be open for your questions. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you need to remove yourself from the queue, press star 2. At any time, if you should need operator assistance, press star 0. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Taylor Reinhart, Head of Communications and Marketing. You may begin.

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 Perrella Weinberg's expectations of future financial and business performance and conditions and industry outlook. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risk, 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. These refer to Perel of Weinberg's most recent SEC filing 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. Perrella Weinberg has reconciled these items to the most comparable GAAP measures in the press release filed with 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.

Thank you, Taylor, and good morning. Today we reported first quarter revenues of $212 million, up more than 100% year over year, and representing the highest first quarter revenue in our history. Our results were up across the firm, with revenue in the U.S. and in Europe up twofold, driven by larger fees per transaction, which resulted from our continued focus on client coverage and business selection. Policy action from the U.S. government at the start of April and related reactions have not stopped deal announcements but have slowed them down. Our clients are in an adjustment stage and are awaiting clarity on ultimate tariff and trade policy. Once the range of uncertainty narrows, we expect transaction activity to accelerate, as we experienced in both 2008 and 2009 and COVID periods. Unlike these prior market dislocations, however, We have not seen clients today broadly terminating processes or walking away from deals, just pausing, which is encouraging. Our client engagement dashboard stats, which include new business reviews, client calls, and requests for meetings, are at all-time highs, and our pipeline is very strong. Our announced and pending backlog, however, has declined from record levels. In the current fog, we see two bright spots. Our restructuring, liability management, and financing advisory business experienced a meaningful uptick in demand from the start of April. And second, recruiting, where in the first quarter we added a managing director focused on transportation, leasing, and logistics, and we have a healthcare partner, a software partner, a managing director in financials, and a managing director in industrials slated to join us in the coming months. Disruption creates opportunity. This is a time to showcase the strength of our firm and lean into growth initiatives. Our client-centric model allows us to quickly pivot our resources to deliver the services our clients need, from advising on their most transformative strategic initiatives to their most pressing financial needs. Our client relationships are measured by a lifetime and not by a transaction timeline. And it's in times like these that we gain and solidify their trust. Our brand and our team are stronger than ever. and we are exceptionally well-positioned. I remain very confident in our long-term prospects. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Alex to review our financial results and capital management in more detail.