Moelis & Company

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Moelis & Company second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chet Mandel, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Moelis & Company's second quarter 2020 financial results conference call. On the phone today are Ken Moelis, Chairman and CEO, and Joe Simon, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to note that the remarks made on this call may contain certain forward-looking statements. which are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those identified from time to time in the risk factor section of Moelis & Company's filings with the SEC and in our earnings release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated. The firm undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Our comments today include references to certain adjusted financial measures. We believe these measures, when presented together with comparable gap measures, are useful to investors to compare our results across several periods and to better understand our operating results. The reconciliation of these adjusted financial measures with the relevant GAAP financial information and other information required by Reg G is provided in the firm's earnings release, which can be found on our investor relations website at investors.moelis.com. I will now turn the call over to Ken to discuss our results. Ken?

Thanks, Chad. Good afternoon, everyone. We are following the same strategy today that we did during the financial crisis, and that's investing in the business at a time of disruption and positioning ourselves for future growth. Our strong balance sheet with no debt, liquid financial position, and collaborative culture has allowed us to attract and retain exceptional talent throughout this dislocation. We've long discussed a few key areas that we believed would be important drivers of activities. Earlier this year, we strengthened our client coverage in the oil and gas sectors, deepened our financial sponsor relationship coverage, and increased our capabilities in advising corporates on activist strategies. More recently, we announced the hiring of three additional managing directors and one senior advisor. One managing director based in Europe advises clients in the healthcare sector, which we expect will be an area of innovation and transformation due to COVID-19 and following. We expanded the firm's capital markets capabilities with two managing directors based in the U.S. who will be vital in growing that product offering. And lastly, one senior advisor has joined to provide access and advice to companies in the media and telecom sector, an already strong power alley for the firm. So far in 2020, we've added 12 managing directors to our platform through external hires and internal promotions, and we will continue to be aggressive in recruiting the best talent for our platform. I know that we have the right talent strategy, capital structure, and management team to navigate the current uncertain environment, be very active in the short term, but also build earnings power over the long term. I'll now pass it to Joe, who'll walk you through our financial results, and then I'll conclude with a few final thoughts on the environment and the business. Joe?