Houlihan Lokey, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Houlihan Lokey's first quarter fiscal year 2027 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, July 29, 2026. We'd now like to turn the call over to the company.

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. By now, everyone should have access to our first quarter fiscal year 2027 earnings release, which can be found on the Houlihan Lokey website at www.hl.com in the investor relations section. Before we begin our formal remarks, we need to remind everyone that the discussion today will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by use of words such as will, expect, anticipate, should, or other similar phrases, are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect, and therefore, you should exercise caution when interpreting and relying on them. We refer all of you to our recent SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. We encourage investors to review our regulatory filings, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, when it is filed with the SEC. During today's call, We will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe can be useful in evaluating the company's financial performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to be considered in isolation from, as a substitute for, or as more important than the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. In addition, these non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all the items associated with the company's results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our earnings release and our investor presentation on the HL.com website. Hosting the call today, we have Scott Adelson, Houlihan Lokey's Chief Executive Officer, and Lindsey Alley, Chief Financial Officer. They will provide some opening remarks and then we will open the call to questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott.

Thank you, Christopher. Welcome everyone to our first quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call. We ended the quarter with revenues of $511 million and adjusted earnings per share of $1.35. We are disappointed with these quarterly results but believe the results are a temporary disruption and not a fundamental resetting of our outlook. Overall, our financial and valuation advisory business performed well. Our financial restructuring business generally performed as expected, but our corporate finance business results suffered. On our fourth quarter call, we identified several macro factors that were beginning to impact corporate finance, namely the knock-on effects of the war in the Middle East and the disruption in the software sector as companies and the markets consider the potential long-term effects of AI. Headwinds that started in February and March persisted into April and May as deal momentum slowed, specifically in consumer-facing sectors that are particularly sensitive to inflation and consumer sentiment and software as reduced valuations meant many technology deals were reassessed. As a result, a significant number of transactions were expected to close in the quarter or delayed into subsequent quarters. These delays disproportionately affected larger fee transactions. So while our transaction volume was more or less the same year over year, our business mix was weighted more heavily towards lower fee advisory products. Notably, the vast majority of delayed transactions continue to move through the pipeline, but timelines remain extended. We have seen market disruptions like this in the past, and like others, we expect this one to be temporary. We are encouraged by the fact that public market valuations remain strong in both new business activity and backlog in CF are at record levels. And we see no meaningful change in the typical rates of dead or on hold deals. It is these metrics and others that provide us with the confidence of our comments. It is not, however, a call on when the broader middle market M&A environment will normalize. The macro uncertainties that persist particularly around the situation in the Middle East create enough headwinds to make it difficult to predict when we will return to typical market conditions. Financial restructuring performed generally in line with our expectations and is expected to have a solid year, consistent with our views at the beginning of the year. We continue to see strong activity levels in our restructuring business amid continued volatility in the energy market and dislocation in both private credit and the software sector. Financial and valuation advisory produced a strong quarter with growth across all three service lines, underscoring the general health of the economy and FBA's balanced business model across industry and transaction size. We're optimistic this business will continue to grow as we invest in more sophisticated data tools and offerings for our clients, further differentiating us from our smaller competitors. Our collaboration with Morningstar, which was announced last quarter, to establish a jointly branded industry benchmark for the fast-growing CLO market is one example of this. In Q1, we announced the acquisition of Intrepid Financial Partners, a premier independent investment bank specializing in the energy sector. We're excited about the momentum this combination is already bringing to our energy business. The acquisition, which we expect to close by end of the second fiscal quarter, will add 32 colleagues to the firm. As we've said over the last several quarters, our acquisition pipeline remains as busy as ever. In addition, we hired three new managing directors in the quarter and we continue to see a robust market for senior talent, which we will continue to capitalize on strategically as we diversify and expand into underweighted industry sectors, geographies, and product lines. Despite a challenging first quarter in corporate finance, we remain confident in the continued growth in our business over the coming years. We have built a diversified global business that has repeatedly shown a remarkable ability to adapt and to thrive in a range of market conditions. And we remain committed to our goal of delivering consistent long-term growth for our shareholders, clients, and employees. and with that, I will turn it over to Lindsey.