Sprott Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to SPOT, Inc.' 's 2022 First Quarter Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star followed by zero for operator assistance at any time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, May 6, 2022. On behalf of the speakers that follow, listeners are cautioned that today's presentation and the responses to questions may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provision of the Canadian Provincial Securities Law. Forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are implied in making forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. For additional information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and about material factors or assumptions applied in making forward-looking statements, Please consult the MD&A for the quarter and Sprott's other filings with the Canadian and U.S. securities regulators. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Peter Groskopf. Please go ahead, Mr. Groskopf.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. On the call with me today is Whitney George, the President of Sprott. Kevin Hibbert, our Chief Financial Officer, and John Champaglia, the Chief Executive Officer of Sprott Asset Management. Our 2022 first quarter results were released this morning and are available on our website, where you can also find the financial statements and MD&A. I'll start on slide four. Sprott started 2022 with the delivery of another very strong quarter. All of our divisions are performing well and our assets under management continue to climb to record highs. We recorded $1.4 billion in net sales during the quarter, matching a record set in Q1 of last year. The majority of our Q1 sales came from our physical trusts, with our uranium, gold and silver trusts all making meaningful contributions. In April, we closed our previously announced acquisition of the URNM Uranium Equities ETF. This transaction expanded our successful uranium franchise and added approximately $1B in AUM subsequent to the quarter end. The backdrop of the quarter was that precious metals performed well in Q1 before pulling back recently. The unfolding tragedy in the Ukraine has created demand for safe haven assets. We seem to be at an inflection point in the markets as the Fed embarks on an aggressive rate hike program. Investors are now rotating out of growth stocks, and that is also helping our area. With that, I'll turn it over to Kevin for a look at our financial results. Kevin?

Thanks, Peter, and good morning, everyone. I'll start on slide five, which provides a summary of our AUM as at March 31st, 2022. AUM was $23.7 billion at the end of the quarter, up $3.2 billion, or 16% from December 31st, 2021. As Peter mentioned, in the quarter we benefited from strong market value appreciation across our fund products, and strong inflows to our physical uranium, physical gold, and physical silver trusts. Slide six provides a brief look into our three-month earnings. Adjusted base EBITDA for the quarter was $18.2 million, up $3.6 million, or 24% from this same time last year. During the quarter, we benefited from the strong market value appreciation and inflows I described earlier, However, those increases were slightly offset by weaker mining equity origination activity in our brokerage segment. For more information on our revenues, expenses, and adjusted base EBITDA, you can refer to the supplemental information section of this presentation, as well as our MD&A filed earlier this morning. With that said, I'll pass things over to John. John?