CI Financial Corp.

Good morning. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the CI Financial 2020 First Quarter Results Webcast. All lines are in a listen-only mode. After these speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star 2. Please take note of the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements and non-IFRS measures on the second page of the presentation. I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Kurt McAlpine, CEO of CI Financial. Mr. McAlpine, you may begin, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CI Financial's first quarter earnings call. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. I'm joined today by Doug Jamison, our CFO. I will start by providing an update on how we are responding to the pandemic and share our highlights and challenges during the first quarter, followed by Doug, who will share our financial results. After that, I will update you on our flows for the month of April and share with you the details of a new strategic initiative we have underway. Then we will take your questions. First, on our response to the global pandemic, I provided a detailed update during the off-cycle investor call that we hosted on March 23rd, so I won't go through all the points outlined on the page. Eight weeks into a remote working model, we continue to operate the company seamlessly. Over 97% of our employees are working from home, and our service levels and operational efficiency are as effective as if we were in a normal working environment. Client and advisor engagement continues to be at incredibly high levels. On the community support front, last week we launched our Be Well Advised campaign, where we are providing free financial counseling and support to Canadians who are struggling during these unprecedented times. Anyone who feels they would benefit from financial guidance can reach out for a free one-on-one counseling session with an Asante advisor or member of our CI Wealth Planning Group. I will now touch on our highlights and challenges for the quarter. Despite the global pandemic, we had a strong financial quarter. Our adjusted earnings per share were 58 cents or 63 cents, excluding unrealized losses from marketable securities. This compares to the Q4 result of 64 cents excluding unrealized gains from marketable securities that quarter, making this the second best financial quarter in our company's history. Our comparable SG&A expenses were down 11.5 million from Q1 2019, which reflects the impact of the restructuring we did in the fourth quarter to better align our spend with our three strategic priorities. During the quarter, we repurchased 5.3 million shares, and since the end of the quarter, we've paid down 119 million in debt. This leaves us with 56 million outstanding on our credit facility, which we will have fully repaid this month. Except for March, our net flows, while not positive, have improved considerably. Our net flows in January and February improved by 830 million, or 70% year over year, while March declined by 112%. This trend was seen across the asset management sector, with March being the worst ever month for net redemptions of long-term funds in the history of the Canadian mutual fund industry. Our institutional business performed significantly better than the prior quarter, but worse than Q1 2019, as a couple of bank and insurance platforms repatriated assets to internal managers. It is important to note that we did not lose any large mandates to third-party investment managers. We continue to make significant progress on executing against our three strategic priorities of modernizing asset management, expanding wealth management, and globalizing our company. During the quarter, we closed on the previously announced acquisitions of SureVest and Wisentree Canada's ETF business. And as of today, we have closed on our previously announced acquisition of One Capital Management, a California-based RIA. We entered into exclusive product partnerships with DoubleLine and Adam Street. Our DoubleLine funds are launching in both mutual fund and ETF formats on May 12th, and we are expecting a strong start. as this is the first time Canadian investors will have access to flagship funds from the world's most famous bond investor. We're anticipating launching our Adam Street products this fall. We finalized the initial build of our advanced analytics distribution database and we've developed a new marketing strategy that will be rolled out in the coming weeks. We've also centralized all trading desks across our in-house investment management teams creating efficiencies and better execution for our clients. I will now turn the call over to Doug to discuss our financial results.

Thank you, Kurt.