Canaccord Genuity Group Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Canaccord Community Group in fiscal 2026 third quarter results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Following the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press the pound key. If you have any difficulties here in the conference, please press star then zero for the operator assistance at any time. As a reminder, this conference call is being broadcast live online and recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Deodavio. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to everyone joining today's call. As always, I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Nadine Ahn. Our remarks today are complementary to the earnings release, ND&A, and supplemental financials, copies of which have been made available for download on CDAR Plus and on the investor relations section of our website at cgf.com. Within our update, certain reported information has been adjusted to exclude significant items to provide a transparent and comparative view of our operating performance. These adjusted items are non-IFRS measures. please refer to our notice regarding forward-looking statements and the description of non-IFRS financial measures that appear in our MDMA. And with that, let's discuss the third quarter fiscal 2026 results. Supportive monetary policy, lower interest rates, and elevated fiscal spending helped lift broader markets during the third quarter, and this contributed to a continued improvement across our wealth management and capital markets businesses. Firm-wide revenue of $616 million for the three-month period increased by 37% year-over-year and by 16% sequentially, representing our second-highest quarterly revenue on record. Contributions were evenly split between our wealth management and capital markets divisions, which recorded year-over-year increases of 30% and 43% respectively. Most notably, our third quarter financial performance benefited from an excellent environment for mining sector activity, driven by record gold prices and solid demand for industrial metals. On an adjusted basis, capital markets revenue increased by 43% year-over-year to $301 million, mostly from new issue activity. This translated into a substantial growth in corporate financing revenue across all regions, led by an exceptional quarter from our Australia operations, which accounted for almost 50% of total investment banking revenues for the three-month period. More than 80% of this amount was linked to natural resource sector activity. Approximately 13% of investment banking revenue in our Australian operations was attributed to realized and unrealized gains on inventory positions, which are an important component of doing business in the market. We do employ a disciplined execution strategy to monetize these positions while preserving capital and continuing to meet client needs. Although we are pleased with the current and prior quarter's activity levels, I would caution against assuming these activity levels represent a normalized run rate. Certain sector-driven revenues are benefiting from unusually strong conditions that we would not expect to persist at the same levels, and they're more likely to moderate in the future. Revenue growth from our wealth management division was driven primarily by a 32% year-over-year increase in commission and fees, along with a 154% year-over-year increase in investment banking revenue. largely reflecting higher new issue activity in our Canadian and Australian businesses and bolstered by contributions from our acquisition of Wilson Advisory, which was completed on October 1st. We entered the quarter with client assets of $145 billion and new records set in each of our geographies. Excluding significant items, Firm-wide pre-tax net income for the third fiscal quarter doubled when compared to the same period of the prior year to $81 million, which translated to diluted earnings per share of $0.36. I will note that our Australian business contributed $0.09 to the adjusted EPS in the third quarter, with $0.08 coming in the capital markets divisions. As disclosed in our quarterly filings, our beneficial ownership in this business will decline beginning in the fourth fiscal quarter. We continue to advance our strategic priorities during the quarter. On November 7th, we completed the sale of our U.S. wholesale market-making business. allowing us to sharpen our focus on our integrated M&A and investment banking capital markets capabilities while reducing the cost base and risk profile of our U.S. capital markets operations. We also completed our acquisition of the leading renewable energy advisory firm, CRCIB, which has enabled the formation of a new energy transformation group. deepening our commitment to the sustainability sector clients in all geographies. Finally, we completed our acquisition of Wilson Advisories in Australia, adding meaningful scale and establishing a truly national footprint in our wealth management business in the region. Before handing things over to Nadine to discuss our financial results in more detail, I'd like to briefly highlight a few additional disclosures from our quarterly report. results press release. Firstly, we continue to engage with our US regulators on the content and substance of a potential unified resolution of our previously disclosed regulatory enforcement matters. However, the timing of the resolution of these matters remains uncertain. Secondly, At the request of regulators, on October 17th, the company issued a statement in response to media coverage speculating about a potential transaction involving our UK wealth management business, which has contributed to increased volatility in our stock price. The company continues to assess options for this business in the context of, among other things, the rights of its strategic and financial minority partner and that partner's investment horizon, as noted in prior company disclosures. prevailing market and execution conditions, and other relevant industry factors. At this time, there can be no assurance that any discussion will result in a transaction or that such transaction would occur at valuations implied by recent market and transaction activity. With that in mind, we do not intend to comment further on these matters except as required under applicable regulatory obligations. And with that, I'll turn things over to Nadine.

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. As Dan mentioned, we delivered exceptionally strong revenue in the quarter, which resulted in meaningful earnings growth. Firm-wide pre-tax net income for our third fiscal quarter rose 103% year-over-year to $81 million, bringing our fiscal year-to-date net income to $174 million, up 49% year-over-year. This translated to adjusted diluted earnings per share of 36 cents, up 112% year-over-year, reflecting strong revenue growth across all businesses and lower non-compensation expenses as a percentage of revenue. We continue to focus on cost-efficiency initiatives to drive firm-wide margin expansion. While certain costs increased in connection with higher revenue generation, our total expenses as the percentage of revenue declined by 4.3 percentage points compared to the same period of last year. Firm-wide non-compensation expenses, excluding significant items, decreased by $5 million, or 3.2% year-over-year, to $152 million, representing 25% of third-quarter revenue. This decline was largely driven by lower interest trading and general and administrative expenses, Trading settlement and technology costs decreased by $2.5 million, or 5% year-over-year, to $48 million, primarily reflecting a $6.5 million reduction following the sale of the U.S. wholesale market-making business, which was completed during the third fiscal quarter. This was partially offset by higher trading costs in our Australian wealth operations, driven by increased commissions and fees activity. Interest expense declined by $5.2 million or 16.8% year-over-year to $26 million, reflecting lower interest rates and the sale of the U.S. wholesale market-making business. General and administrative expenses also declined by $2.5 million or 6% year-over-year due to one-time items in the prior period. Firm-wide compensation ratio on an adjusted basis for the fiscal year to date with 61.1%. The timing of bonus accruals, as well as the impact of changes in the value of certain unvested stock-based compensation awards, negatively impacted the compensation ratio in the third quarter. Turning to business unit performance, capital markets contributed pre-tax net income of $51 million, representing a 248% improvement from the same period last year. the adjusted pre-tax profit margin improved by 10 percentage points year-over-year to 17%, with the most notable increases in Australian and U.S. businesses. On a consolidated basis, capital markets revenue increased by 43% year-over-year to $301 million, and as Dan had mentioned, the primary driver of this increase was the 170% increase in investment banking revenue. In connection with higher investment banking activities, commissions and fees revenue also increased by 42% year over year to $54 million, the highest level since Q4 fiscal 2021. Advisory revenue of $65 million declined by $6 million or 9% year over year. Our U.S. operations contributed $43 million, representing a 38% year over year increase which was partially offset by declines in our Canadian and UK businesses, where results reflected a more challenging year-over-year comparison period due to several significant mandates completed in the prior year period. Trading revenue declined by 48% year-over-year, primarily due to the sale of the U.S. market-making business, which was completed on November 7th. Contributions from this business reflect approximately five weeks of activity prior to the completion of the transaction. With the sale of the U.S. market-making business and the acquisition of CRCI being now complete, the revenue mix, cost base, and risk profile of our U.S. capital markets business will shift meaningfully, and we expect this will drive a sustained improvement in operating margins in this business. Turning to our wealth management businesses, revenue of $304 million, an adjusted pre-tax net income of $57 million, increased by 30% and 57% respectively. Included in these amounts are contributions from Wilson's advisory of $16.1 million in revenue and $1.8 million in adjusted net income before tax. The key drivers of revenue growth during the quarter were a 32% year-over-year increase in commissions and fees revenue to $240 million, driven primarily by higher contributions from our Australian and Canadian operations, and a 154% increase in investment banking revenue to $25 million, with 64% of that amount contributed by our Canadian operations and the remainder from Australia. While our UK business remained the largest contributor to pre-tax net income, our Canadian and Australian businesses delivered substantial increases as stronger revenue translated into improved operating leverage. Our Canadian business contributed $23 million in adjusted pre-tax net income, representing a 155% year-over-year increase, while Australia more than tripled its contribution to $7 million. Client assets at the end of the quarter reached a new record of $145 billion in representing a 26% year-over-year increase, driven primarily by market appreciation, acquisitions, and supported by positive net flows. Measured in local currency, assets in our UK wealth management business grew 13% year-over-year to £40 billion. This translated into £75 billion in Canadian dollars, representing a 16% increase compared with the prior year, driven primarily by market appreciation, acquisitions, and foreign exchange movements. Client assets in Canada increased 25% year-over-year to $53 billion, largely reflecting higher market values with additional contributions from recruiting. While the business experienced positive net flows during the quarter, fee-generating accounts represented a lower proportion of total client assets reflecting the higher level of commission-based assets in connection with the increased investment banking activity in this business during the three-month period. Assets in our Australian business also reached a new record, increasing to $17 billion from $8 billion a year ago. Approximately $6.7 billion of this increase was attributable to the acquisition of Wilson's Advisory. Strong revenue performance in the current quarter together with our continued focus on organic and inorganic growth initiatives, has strengthened profit margins across the business and positioned us well relative to our targeted single-digit growth objectives. Our nine-month year-to-date performance has exceeded this target, and we remain well positioned relative to our single-digit growth objective for the full fiscal year. According to the balance sheet, we maintain sufficient working capital to meet our regulatory commitments support our strategic priorities and expanded business activity, while preserving the flexibility to reallocate capital as market conditions evolve. Reflecting this confidence, our Board of Directors has approved a quarterly common share dividend of $0.085. With that, I will turn things back to Dan.