PJT Partners Inc.

Good morning. Welcome to the PJT Partners' third quarter and nine-month 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining the Earnings Conference Call today is Paul Taubman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Helen Yates, Chief Financial Officer. During the course of this conference call, management may make a number of forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. and there are important factors that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. These factors are described in the Risk Factors section contained in PJT Partners 2024 Form 10-K, which is available on PJT Partners' website at pjtpartners.com. The company assumes no duty to update any forward-looking statements. The presentation made today contains non-GAAP financial measures, which the company believes are meaningful in evaluating the company's performance. For detailed disclosures on these non-GAAP metrics and their GAAP reconciliations, please refer to the financial data contained within the press release the firm issued this morning, also available on the firm's website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Paul Taupman.

Good morning. Thank you all for joining us today. This morning we reported record results. Revenue adjusted pre-tax income and adjusted EPS all reaching record highs for both the three and nine month periods. Third quarter revenue was $447 million, up 37%. Adjusted pre-tax income was $94 million, up 86%. and adjusted EPS was $1.85, up 99 percent from year-ago levels. For the nine months, revenues increased 16 percent to $1.18 billion, adjusted pre-tax income increased 34 percent, and adjusted EPS increased 43 percent from year-ago levels. Since our last earnings call, We have seen further improvements in the macro environment. Equity prices are near record highs, volatility across equities and credits near historic lows, debt issuance is strong, and the IPO market has reopened. This favorable capital markets backdrop has been an important catalyst in the M&A recovery. greater clarity on regulatory outcomes as well as increased CEO confidence has further amplified deal-making momentum with many companies revisiting their strategic wish list. That said, we still operate in a world fraught with risk, continuing geopolitical uncertainty, a weakening labor market, stubbornly high interest rates, Tariff dislocations coupled with concerns of an AI bubble have the potential to derail this pickup in activity levels. While we remain optimistic about the near to intermediate operating environment, it is a tempered optimism when balanced against these risks. After Helen takes you through our financial results, I will review our business performance and outlook in greater detail. Helen?

Thank you, Paul. Good morning. Beginning with revenues. Total revenues for the third quarter were $447 million, up 37% year-over-year, and for the nine months into September 30, total revenues were $1,179,000,000, up 16% year-over-year. Revenue growth for the third quarter and first nine months was primarily driven by strategic advisory. which was up significantly for both periods. Restructuring revenues rose slightly in the third quarter and first nine months, while PKP Park Hill revenues were flat in the third quarter and down modestly for the first nine months. Turning to expenses, consistent with prior quarters, we presented the expenses with certain non-GAAP adjustments, which are more fully described in our 8K, first adjusted compensation expense. We accrued compensation expense at 67.5% of revenues for the first nine months of the year, compared to 69.5% for the same period last year. This ratio represents our current best estimate for the full year 2025. Turning to adjusted non-compensation expense. Total adjusted non-compensation expense was $51 million in the third quarter, up 5% euro the year, and 153 million for the first nine months, up 10.5% year-over-year. As a percentage of revenues, 11.5% in the third quarter and 13% in the first nine months. The main drivers of the expense increase for the first nine months of the year were higher occupancy costs, which are up 19% year-over-year, reflecting the expansion of our New York and London offices, and higher travel and related expenses, which are up 25% year over year, primarily reflecting higher levels of business-related travel. Overall, for the full year, we continue to expect that our non-comp expense will grow at around 12%, a similar rate to our 2024 growth rate. Turning to adjusted pre-tax income, we reported adjusted pre-tax income of $94 million in the third quarter and $230 million for the first nine months. Our adjusted pre-tax margin for the third quarter was 21%, compared with 15.5% for the same period last year, and 19.5% for the first nine months, compared with 16.9% for the same period last year. The provision for taxes, as with prior years, we've presented our results as if all partnership units had been converted to shares and that all of our income was taxed at corporate tax rates. Our effective tax rate for the first nine months of 2025 was 15.5%, which now represents our current expectations for the full year. This rate is slightly below our previous full year estimate of 16.5%. As a result, the effective tax rate for the third quarter was 14%. The reduction in the full year rate is primarily due to an updated estimate of our income allocation across state and foreign entities. Earnings per share are adjusted if converted earnings were $1.85 per share for the third quarter, up 99%, and $4.43 per share for the first nine months, up 43% from the same period last year. For the quarter, our weighted average share count was 43.8 million shares, down 2% versus a year ago. And during the third quarter, we repurchased the equivalent of approximately 186,000 shares, primarily through exchanges. Our repurchases in the first nine months of the year totaled approximately 2.3 million shares. We are in receipt of exchange notices for an additional 115,000 partnership units, and subject to a board approval, we intend to exchange these units for cash. On the balance sheet, we entered the quarter with $520 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, and $558 million in net working capital, and we have no funded debt outstanding. Finally, the Board has approved a quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share. Back to Paul.