Lazard LTD.

Good morning and welcome to Lazard's third quarter and nine-month 2020 earnings conference call. This call is being recorded. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the call, please press the star key followed by the zero on your touchtone phone. At this time, I will turn the call over to Alexandra Degnan, Lazard's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Holly. Good morning, and welcome to Lazard's earnings call for the third quarter and first nine months of 2020. I'm Alexandra Dagnon, the company's head of investor relations. In addition to today's audio comments, we've posted our earnings release and an investor presentation, which you can access on our website at www.lazard.com. A replay of this call will also be available on our website later today. Before we... Before we begin, let me remind you that we may make forward-looking statements about our business and performance. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to those factors discussed in the company's SEC filings, which you can access on our website. Lazard assumes no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of these forward-looking statements and assumes no duty to update these forward-looking statements. Today's discussion also includes certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are meaningful when evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP measures is provided in our earnings release and investor presentation. Hosting our call today are Kenneth Jacobs, Lazard's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Evan Russo, Chief Financial Officer. They will provide opening remarks, and then we will open the call to questions. I will now turn the call over to Ken.

Good morning. Our third quarter results reflected strong performance across our businesses as financial advisory and asset management both gained momentum. Our financial advisory results underscored the benefits of our diversified advisory platform. Our strategic and M&A activity accelerated even as our restructuring work continued at a robust pace. In the third quarter, Lazard's global announced M&A volume increased 64% year over year compared to the market's increase of 38%. Over the first nine months, our volume rose 5%, even as the market's volume declined 24%. Our strong and established footprints in Europe helped drive the gains, as our European M&A announcements rose significantly in the third quarter. Our preeminent global restructuring practice had a strong third quarter as we continued to be engaged in a wide range of complex assignments for both debtors and creditors. Year-to-date, Lazard is number one in the lead tables for both announced and completed restructurings. Our sovereign advisory practice is also seeing increased activity as we work with governments to restructure debt and strengthen balance sheets. In the third quarter, we completed restructurings for both Argentina and Ecuador, and we continue to gain assignments from countries facing unprecedented financial challenges. We continue to see growth opportunities across our advisory businesses. Year-to-date in financial advisory, we've brought on 12 new managing directors globally. This includes last week's recruitment of a London-based team with expertise that complements our capital markets, and shareholder advisory practices. Our asset management business benefited from strengthening global markets in the third quarter, with average assets under management increasing 8% sequentially from last quarter. Gross flows continue to be strong, and we achieved net inflows in August and September. Net inflows have continued this month, reflecting demand across our platforms. We are investing in areas where we see high growth potential, including strategies focused on sustainability and ESG. quantitative investing, and alternative and thematic strategies. We recently announced the addition of thematic teams to our global and emerging markets platforms and a longshore credit team on our alternatives platform. We continue to see new strategies and launch funds to meet investor demand. We're also seeing an increase in solutions-oriented mandates as we serve more clients with customized strategies. Firm-wide, our results underscore the strength of a diversified business model, global platform, and a deep culture of client service. Our clients are dealing with unprecedented challenges and uncertainties caused by the ongoing pandemic, and we're providing them with expert advice and innovative solutions. Evan will now provide more color on our financial results, then I'll comment at our elbow.