Moelis & Company

and thank you for joining us for Mollis & Company's second quarter 2025 financial results conference call. On the phone today are Ken Mollis, chairman and CEO, Navin Mabudzadegan, co-founder and co-president, and Chris Colasano, 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 Mollis & 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 Chris to discuss our results.

Thanks, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. On today's call, I will go through our financial results. Ken will comment further on the business, and Navid will provide a few remarks before we open the call for Q&A. We reported $365 million of revenues in the second quarter, an increase of 38% versus the prior year period, and our highest second quarter revenues on record. Our first half revenues of $672 million were up 39% from the prior year period. The year-over-year increase in revenues in both the second quarter and first half of the year is primarily attributable to growth in M&A and capital markets. Moving to expenses, our second quarter compensation expense ratio was accrued at 69%, consistent with last quarter. Our second quarter non-compensation expense ratio was 14.4%. We continue to anticipate the full-year growth of non-compensation expense to be approximately 15% compared with the prior year. Moving to taxes, Our corporate tax rate was accrued at 29.5%, consistent with the underlying tax rate in Q1 prior to the discrete tax benefit related to the vesting of equity awards. Regarding capital allocation, the Board declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.65 per share, consistent with the prior period. And lastly, we continue to maintain a strong balance sheet with cash and liquid investments of $475 million and no debt. I will now turn the call over to Ken.

Thanks, Chris. Good afternoon, everyone. Our revenues in the second quarter and first half of the year reflect the investments we've made over the last few years, our globally integrated platform, and our team's relentless focus on executing for our clients. We entered the second half of the year in a significantly improved transaction environment since we last spoke in April, which was right in the heart of the post-Liberation Day market chaos. In retrospect, Liberation Day did cause a temporary disruption activity However, our new business origination remained healthy and our pipeline currently sits near record levels. Both our strategic and sponsor clients are moving forward with transactions driven by technology disruption and the need for sponsors to recycle capital. The investments we've made in capital markets have continued to pay off as well as our team achieved record revenues in the first half of the year. The team enters the second half of the year with strong momentum as investor risk appetite grows and capital is generally available. During the second quarter, three of the leading private capital advisory bankers joined our firm, underscoring our ambition to build the premier platform in secondary and primary capital solutions for sponsors. We continue to believe there is a significant opportunity for us to grow this franchise, and we plan to aggressively scale into a market leader. Finally, our capital structure advisory team continues to work on a steady amount of liability management engagements across a range of industries and our investments in our creditor side franchise are beginning to show results. In addition to our hiring and PCA, we welcomed one technology focused and one business services MD, both based in Europe during the second quarter. In summary, we entered the back half of the year with momentum across the business and I'm confident in our team's ability to execute for our clients. Before I pass it to Navid, I'd like to make a few remarks about our upcoming CEO transition. With the firm in such a strong position, financially, strategically, and culturally, the board and I determined this was the right time to elevate our next generation of leadership. Navid founded the firm with me 18 years ago and has been a key driver of our most impactful growth initiative and was one of the best strategic advisors I've ever worked with, making him well-positioned to lead us through the next phase of growth as CEO. In my role as executive chairman, I'll spend even more time with clients and in boardrooms around the world advising on critical strategic decisions while also remaining involved in the firm's long-term strategy. And although I am excited to spend more time with our clients, I'll certainly miss my time with you on these quarterly earnings calls. I know you've been hearing my voice for a long time. I know you'll be in good hands with Navid when he gets the mic at our quarter three earnings call. So with that, I'll pass it to Navid for a few more remarks.