Sprott Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to SPROT, Inc.' 's 2023 third quarter results conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to look for questions. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. November 1, 2023. 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 Security Laws. 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. Whitney George. Please go ahead, Mr. George.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. On the call with me today is our CFO, Kevin Hibbert, and John Champaglia, CEO of Sprott Asset Management. Our 2023 third 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. Despite the challenging market conditions, we continue to grow during the second quarter with our assets under management increasing to 25.4 billion. We also reported our 17th consecutive quarter of net sales driven largely by our energy transition strategies. This area has been a bright spot for Sprott since we launched our first uranium vehicle in 2021. Energy transition assets now account for approximately 25% of our consolidated AUM. A key area of focus this year was the strategic exit of all remaining non-core businesses across the company. This initiative led to the divestment of our former Canadian broker-dealer in the second quarter of this year, and in the third quarter, we successfully exited our last remaining non-core asset management business that was domiciled in Korea. The result of our second and third quarter divestitures of non-core businesses is that we are now far leaner, more focused organizations. We have reduced our headcount by 27%, but increased our AUM and revenue per employee by 64% and 60%, respectively, to industry-leading levels. At the same time, we continue to invest in new talent, particularly in our sales and marketing groups. With that, I'll pass it over to Kevin for a look at our financial results. Kevin?

Thanks, Whitney, and good morning, everyone. I'll start on slide five, which provides a summary of our historical AUM. As Whitney mentioned, we finished the quarter at $25.4 billion, up $256 million or 1% from June 30th of this year, and is up $2 billion or 8% since the end of last year. On both a three and nine months ended basis, we benefited from strong uranium prices and flows to our exchange listed products, which more than offset the exit of our non-Korean, our non-core rather, Korean asset management business. We also benefited from capital raises in our private strategies funds. Slide six provides a brief look at our three and nine month earnings. Adjusted base EBITDA was $17.9 million in the quarter, up $1 million or 6% from the same three month period ended last year. On a year to date basis, adjusted base EBITDA was $53.1 million, up $209,000 from the same nine-month period ended last year. The increase in the quarter and on a year-to-date basis was due to higher average AUM in our exchange-listed products and private strategy segments, more than offsetting lower commissions due to the sale of our former Canadian broker-dealer. As Whitney mentioned, we completed the final divestitures of non-core legacy businesses with the exit of Korea this quarter. This means that our future earnings growth and momentum will no longer be hampered by earnings offsets as we replace non-core earning sources with core earning sources. This not only bodes well for our future earnings trajectory, but also for the quality of our earnings moving forward. Finally, slide seven, depicts our balance sheet in the specific context of our financial flexibility. We believe our balance sheet strength is evidenced by the level of net investable cash and liquid co-investments we build over the years, which as you can see on this slide, has grown by over 32% over the last half decade. Our financial position is further bolstered by access to a fully committed credit facility and our conservative use of leverage. We believe this provides us with ample capital and liquidity to continue building scale in our core AUM in a matter that is highly accretive to our shareholders. For more information on our revenues, expenses, EBITDA, and balance sheet, you can refer to the supplemental information section of this presentation, as well as our second, apologies, our third quarter MD&A filed earlier this morning. With that said, I'll pass things over to John.