Sprott Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Sprott, Inc.' 's 2026 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. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, May 6, 2026. On behalf of the speakers that follow, listeners are cautioned that today's presentation and the responses to questions may contain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements involve risks 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, Operator, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. On the call with me today is our CFO and co-COO, Kevin Hibbert. and John Cipaglia, CEO of Sprott Asset Management. Our 2026 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. The year-to-date highlights. A lot's happened since we spoke last time. It's hard to believe it's only four months into this year. First quarter was an exceptionally volatile quarter for precious metals. After a powerful rally to all-time new highs in January, positioning and momentum in gold became increasingly stretched. On January 29th, the market tipped, triggering gold's largest one-day decline in over four decades as systemic strategies, CTAs, and leveraged investors rapidly unwound crowded positions. The correction proved brief. Gold rebounded sharply through February, rising from 46%. 63 to over 5,300 by early March. That recovery, however, was abruptly interrupted by the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. The U.S.-Israel strike on Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz triggered a global liquidity event rather than a conventional risk-off response. In a scrambled raise cash and its surging cross-asset volatility, investors sold their most liquid and successful holdings, and gold was no exception. Compounding the move, central bank and sovereign demand, particularly from the Gulf states, temporarily stalled amid disruptions to oil revenue. In some cases, reserves were drawn down to fund fiscal and defense needs. As a result, gold fell sharply in March, briefly breaking below $4,100 in thin periods. illiquid markets, but has since stabilized. Importantly, the decline reflected a liquidity-driven deleveraging and a pause in reserve flow demand, not a failure of gold's underlying investment thesis. While near-term volatility remains elevated, the structural foundation of gold's bull market remained firmly intact. Gold has since stabilized and is currently trading around $4,700. Silver followed a similar, although more dramatic, trajectory to gold during the quarter. After spending the first half of 2025 trading in the mid $30 range an ounce, silver broke out in the second half of the year to close at $71.47 at year end. Rather than slowing down in January, silver's ascent continued as speculators piled into the trade. When the precious metals corrected in late January, silver gave back most of its 2026 gains, falling 38% peak to truck. While prices have recovered somewhat and silver is currently trading around $77 per ounce, silver has not bounced back as well as gold. Silver is both a precious metal and a critical material, which is entering its sixth year of structural supply deficit. We are optimistic about its long-term prospects as it has come way off its highs and is a long way from an inflation-adjusted peak. Despite the volatility in precious metals, Sprott managed to deliver another strong quarter, largely due to the continued growth of our critical materials strategies. Our assets under management increased by $5.5 billion to $65.1 billion, and we reported $1.7 billion in net sales, 96% of which came to our critical materials segment. These flows were broad-based with 21 separate strategies generating positive sales during the quarter. We continue to expand our critical materials suite with a recent launch of the Sprott Rare Earth X China ETF, REXC. This new fund was launched on April 15th and has already exceeded $30 million in assets, making it our most successful ETF launch to date. John will give you more details on this in a few minutes. Our managed equities business delivered solid relative performance during the quarter despite the challenging precious metals market. And finally, we recorded $52 million in performance fees and carried interest in our private strategies. With that, I'll pass it over to Kevin for a review of our financial results. Kevin?

Thanks, Whitney, and good morning, everyone. I'll start on slide five, which provides a summary of our historical AUM. AUM finished the quarter at $65.1 billion, up 9% from $59.6 billion as at December 31st, 2025. On a three-month ended basis, we benefited from market value appreciation across a majority of our fund products and positive net inflows to our exchange-listed products. Slide six provides a brief look at our three-month earnings. Net income this quarter was $29.2 million, up $17.3 million from $12 million over the same three-month period last year. Our net income performance was primarily due to higher average AUM in our exchange-listed product segment, managed equity segment, and carried interest crystallization in our private strategy segment. These increases were partially offset by higher stock-based compensation expense, primarily due to our stock price appreciating 46% in the quarter compared to only 6% in the first quarter of last year. Consistent with my comment last year that the rising stock price would lead to a materially lower amount of RSUs being granted in 2026, our total RSU issuance for 2026 was 276,943 units, down 72% from 976,550 units granted last year. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes quarterly volatility from items like stock-based compensation and intermittent carried interest and performance fee crystallizations, was $57.9 million for the quarter up $36 million from $21.9 million over the same three-month period last year. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter benefited from higher average AUM on market value appreciation and inflows to our physical trusts and ETFs, as well as higher average AUM in our managed equities products. Finally, slide seven provides a few treasury and balance sheet management highlights. And as you can see here, our cash and liquidity profile continues to be quite strong. For more information on our revenues, expenses, net earnings, adjusted EBITDA, and balance sheet metrics, you can refer, as always, 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.