Canaccord Genuity Group Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. fiscal 2027 first quarter results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Following the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star two. If you have any difficulties here in the conference, please press star then zero for 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 over to Mr. Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, Mr. Daviau.

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, MD&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 our description of non-IFRS financial measures that appear in our MD&A. And with that, let's discuss our first quarter fiscal 2027 results. Global equity markets performed well during our first fiscal quarter, even as the economic backdrop remained mixed. Strength was broad-based, with particularly strong gains in emerging markets and continued enthusiasm around artificial intelligence. Commodity markets were less consistent, as expectations for de-escalation in the Middle East weighed on crude oil and gold prices during the three-month period, although the broader environment for our mining activities remained constructive. Against this backdrop, we delivered strong first fiscal quarter results, with increased year-over-year contributions from both wealth management and capital markets. Firm-wide revenue rose 29% year-over-year to $577 million, reflecting solid growth across our businesses. Our wealth management division contributed 53% of total revenue, increasing by 26% year-over-year, with broad-based growth in each of our three geographies. Canada delivered strong growth as higher client activity and new issue revenue combined with improved scale and expense discipline drove stronger operating leverage. Notably, the average book per advisor in this business has increased by 37% year over year to a record of $428 million, with many of our advisors reaching new milestones during the three-month period. In the UK, revenue growth was supported by strong market performance, Increased client activity and continued progress against our organic growth initiatives. Performance from our Australian business has continued to strengthen following the Wilson's advisory integration, demonstrating the benefits of increased scale, broader capabilities, and a more competitive national platform. We ended the quarter with record client assets of $160 billion, a 28% increase from a year ago. Driven by favorable market conditions, the addition of Wilson's Advisory in Australia, and positive net inflows. Revenue from our Capital Markets Division represented 45% of firm-wide revenue and increased 30% year-over-year. Both corporate financing and advisory activities improved meaningfully year-over-year, although they moderated from the exceptional levels in our fourth quarter. Advisory activity was broad-based, led by technology, with meaningful contributions from metals and mining, consumer and retail, and sustainability. Since completing the CRC acquisition last quarter, this team has exceeded expectations across all measures. Sustainability-related activity represented 13% of combined investment banking and advisory revenue during the quarter, driven primarily by our U.S. business. I will note that this measure understates the sector's broader contribution as sustainability related mandates are also captured within several of our other core industry groups. Corporate financing activity continued to be led by metals and mining, which accounted for 50% of global investment banking revenues with the strongest contributions coming from Australia and Canada. We also saw improving activity in technology, sustainability, and other core sectors during this quarter. Turning to profitability, our firm-wide adjusted net income increased by 120% year-over-year to $57 million, while adjusted diluted earnings per share increased by 177% to 36 cents per share. Strong revenue growth combined with disciplined expense management continue to improve firm-wide margins despite the impact of an elevated compensation ratio, which Nadine will address in more detail. Our deeply entrenched partnership culture remains central to attracting and retaining talented professionals across all regions. In June, we completed a third round of employee partnership subscriptions with strong participation from both new and existing employees. As part of the transaction, the employee partnership also acquired $12 million principal of our outstanding convertible to ventures from a third party. As a result, the employee ownership in the limited partnership increased to 14.31% of our common shares at quarter end, or 15.33% on an as-converted basis, further strengthening alignment between our employees and shareholders. With that, I'll now turn things over to Nadine for a more detailed review of our financial performance.

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. We delivered strong year-over-year growth in our first fiscal quarter, with profitability growth outpacing revenue growth. Firm-wide pre-tax net income for the three-month period increased by 128% year-over-year against revenue growth of 29%, and our pre-tax operating margin improved by 5.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year. We maintained strong discipline for non-compensation costs across the organization as revenue and the scale of our business increased. Total non-compensation expenses, excluding significant items, decreased by $4 million or 3% year-over-year to $142 million, Representing 25% of first quarter revenue compared with 33% of revenue in the same period last year. As Dan mentioned, our firm-wide compensation ratio was elevated at 62% for the quarter. The increase reflects the impact related to the fair value of share-based payment awards associated with strong EPS growth and share price appreciation during the three-month period. Excluding this charge, The first quarter revenue increased 26% year-over-year to $305 million, while adjusted pre-tax net income increased 40% to $57 million. The adjusted pre-tax profit margin improved by 1.9 percentage points year-over-year to 18.7%. Starting with our largest wealth management business in the UK and crown dependencies, revenue increased 4% year-over-year to $131 million, while adjusted pre-tax net income of $29 million was broadly in line with the prior year and up 26% sequentially as project-related spending began to normalize. The adjusted pre-tax profit margin was 22.3%, Down 1.3 percentage points year-over-year, but up 4.2 percentage points sequentially. Client assets in this business reached a record $82 billion, or £43 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 14% and 13% respectively. Growth was driven by a combination of market appreciation and positive net inflows, which represented 0.7% of opening first quarter client assets, Equivalent to a 4.3% on an annualized basis. In Canada, first quarter revenue increased 29% year-over-year to $121 million, driven by higher commissions and fees and investment banking revenue, which increased by 29% and 77% respectively. Adjusted pre-tax net income more than doubled to $21 million, resulting in a 7.4 percentage point improvement in the pre-tax profit margin to 17.2%. Client assets grew to a record $60 billion up 33% from a year ago supported by strong market appreciation and positive inflows with net inflows representing approximately 1.5% of opening client assets for the quarter. Fee generating assets represented 53% of total client assets, reflecting the continued strength of our recurring revenue base even as participation in new issues increased. Australia generated record revenue of $53 million, an increase of 131% year over year. Adjusted pre-tax net income more than tripled to $7 million, while the pre-tax profit margin increased by 5.2 percentage points to 13.4%. Client assets in our Australian business increased 113% year-over-year to a record $19 billion, reflecting the addition of Wilson's Advisory, together with robust client activity and the onboarding of client assets from recruited advisors. Higher asset levels and greater scale supported improved profitability across our wealth management businesses. Margins increased in all regions, although the pace of improvement may vary from quarter to quarter based on business mix and stage of growth. Turning to global capital markets, first quarter revenue of $261 million increased 30% year over year. Adjusted pre-tax net income was $37 million, compared with approximately $6 million in the prior year period. And the adjusted pre-tax profit margin improved by 11.5 percentage points to 14.3%. The year-over-year improvement was driven by significantly stronger advisory revenue complemented by growth in investment banking and commissions and fees revenue. A more favorable business mix, together with higher activity levels, also contributed to improved profitability, particularly in our U.S. business. Investment banking revenue increased 40% year over year. Canada was the largest contributor, with revenue increasing 25% to $33 million, followed by Australia, where revenue increased 72% to $30 million, and the U.S., where revenue increased 34% to $25 million. Our U.S. business also delivered a notable sequential increase in investment banking revenue. Advisory revenue increased 123% year over year, led by the technology, mining, and consumer sectors, while contributions became more broadly distributed across our global platform. The U.S. was the largest contributor, generating $57 million in advisory revenue, up 162% year over year. Revenue in Canada increased 45% year over year, Although it moderated from the exceptional level recorded in the prior quarter. Australia delivered record advisory revenue of $17 million as the business continues to build its capabilities, while advisory revenue in the UK more than doubled year over year. Pipelines remain strong across all regions, although the timing of completions will continue to vary with transaction activity and broader market dynamics. Commissions and fees revenue increased 22% year-over-year to $50 million. Our US business was the largest contributor with revenue increasing 12% to $21 million. The UK generated $11 million, up 30%, while Australia delivered record commissions and fees revenue of $10 million, up 63%, supported by increased client activity and a higher share of ASX Turnover. And finally, the year-over-year decline in principal trading revenue primarily reflected lower revenue following the divestiture of our US wholesale market-making business. This was partially offset by a 36% increase in UK principal trading revenue to $5 million, supported by recent investments in our market-making and investment trust desks, which has improved flow across existing desks in the region. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1.2 billion and working capital of $817 million, providing ample liquidity to meet our regulatory requirements, pursue strategic priorities, and support ongoing business activity. The quarter end decline in cash and cash equivalents primarily reflected payment of accrued bonuses from the quarter quarter, together with normal timing differences in business activity and related movements in other financial assets and receivables. These movements did not materially affect our underlying liquidity position. We have started the fiscal year comfortably on track to deliver the lowest single-digit improvement in firm-wide pre-tax operating margin that we articulated last quarter. Continued progress against our strategic priorities, disciplined expense management, and Improving Operating Leverage support this outlook, although the pace of improvement will remain sensitive to market conditions. With that, I will turn things back to Dan.