Sprott Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Sprouts Incorporated's 2024 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 queue up for questions. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, November 6, 2024. 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 Sprout'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, operator, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. On the call with me today is our CFO, Kevin Hibbert, and John Pavia, our CEO of Sprott Asset Management. Our 2024 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'd like to start on slide four. Before I get into our results for the quarter, I'd like to comment on the elephant in the room. Last night's election was decisively won by Donald Trump, a result of the shorter costs and volatility in the financial markets, as we are already seeing this morning. However, it's not our job to be distracted by noise, short-term noise, and remain focused on the long-term drivers of our business, which are fundamentally unchanged. With our focus on precious metals and critical materials investments, we are very well positioned to benefit from the powerful trends that define the current market environment. Turning now to our results for the quarter, I'm pleased to report that our assets under management increased by $2.3 billion to $33.4 billion, which is another record high for Sprott. Our assets have continued to grow subsequent to the quarter, and AUM was $34.2 billion as of November 1st. Precious metals prices have been the main driver of our asset growth this year. Gold has posted gains every month of 2024 and is currently trading near all-time highs, up 32% year-to-date today notwithstanding. Silver broke out late in Q3 and is up approximately 36% year-to-date. Our managed equity strategies have benefited from rising precious metal prices and have delivered strong performance on both a three- and nine-month basis. After a slower start to the year, we recorded $589 million in net sales during the quarter, largely in our physical gold and silver funds. Looking ahead, we're currently developing two new precious metals ETFs, which we expect to launch in the first quarter of 2025. With that, I'll pass it over to Kevin for a look at our financial results. Kevin?

Thank you, Whitney, and good morning, everyone. I'll start on slide five, which provides a summary of our historical AUM. AUM, to Whitney's point, finished the quarter which was up $8 billion last quarter and up 16% from $28.7 billion at the end of last year. On a three and nine months ended basis, we benefited from market value appreciation in our precious metals physical trusts, net inflows across our exchange listed products mix, and the launch of the physical copper trust in the second quarter of the year. Over the last five years, our AUM has grown by $24.1 billion, of which 47% was attributable to net inflows, 40% was related to market value appreciation, and 13% related to acquisitions and new fund launches, demonstrating the strength and quality of our AUM growth over the years. Subsequent to quarter end, on November 1st, our AUM increased another $800 million to $34.2 billion. Slide six provides a brief look at our three- and nine-month earnings. Net income this quarter was $12.7 million, up 87% from $6.8 million for the same three-month period last year. On a year-to-date basis, net income was $37.6 million, up 17% from $32.1 million last year. Our three- and nine-months-ended results benefited from higher management fees on strong market valuations of our precious metals physical trusts and inflows to our exchange-listed products. We also benefited from carried interest crystallization in our managed equities funds and market value appreciation of our co-investments. Adjusted base EBITDA was $20.7 million in the quarter, up 16% from $17.9 million earned over the same three-month period last year and was $62.8 million on a nine months ended basis, up 18% from $53.1 million earned over the same nine month period last year. Our three and nine months ended results benefited from higher management fees on strong market valuations of Precious Metals Physical Trusts and good inflows to our exchange listed products. Finally, slide seven provides a few treasury and balance sheet management highlights. And as you can see, due to our improved earnings, our cash and liquidity profile continues to strengthen quarter over quarter, our leverage remains low, and we will be debt-free in the last quarter of the year as we expect to fully pay down the outstanding balance of our credit facility. With a strong cash and liquidity profile and strength of our earnings, we are well positioned to cover a 20% increase to our dividend. For more information on our revenues, expenses, net income, EBITDA, and balance sheet metrics, you can refer to the supplemental information section of this presentation, as well as our quarterly MD&A and financial statements filed earlier this morning. With that said, I'll pass things over to John. John?