Moelis & Company

Good afternoon and welcome to the Mollis and Company's earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2024. I'll begin the call by turning the call over to Mr. Matt Terscroft. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for Mollis and Company's second quarter 2024 financial results conference call. On the phone today are Ken Mollis, 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 factors section of Mullis & Company's filings with the SEC. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated. The firm undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. 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 gap 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.molis.com. I'll now turn the call over to Joe to discuss our results.

Thanks, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone. On today's call, I'll go through our financial results, and then Ken will comment further on the business. We reported $265 million of revenues in the second quarter, an increase of 45% versus the prior year period. Our first half revenues of $482 million were up 31% from the prior year. The year-over-year increase in revenues for both periods is attributable to growth across all major product areas. Moving to expenses, our compensation expense was accrued at 75%. consistent with last quarter. Our second quarter non-compensation expenses were $46.6 million, in line with expectations. Moving to taxes, our underlying corporate tax rate was 34%, also consistent with the first quarter. And regarding capital allocation, the board declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.60 per share, consistent with the prior period. Lastly, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with $191.3 million of cash and no debt, And I'll now turn the call over to Ken.