ONEX Corporation

Welcome to ONIC's fourth quarter and full year 2020 conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session with pre-qualified analysts. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator, please press star then 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Jill Hominick. Managing Director, Shareholder Relations and Communication at Onyx. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. We're broadcasting this call on our website. Hosting the call today are Jerry Schwartz, our founder and CEO, Bobby LeBlanc, Onyx's president and head of Onyx Partners, and Chris Govan, our chief financial officer. Earlier this morning, we issued our fourth quarter and full year 2020 press release, MD&A and Consolidated Financial Statements, which are available on the shareholder section of our website and have also been filed on CDAR. Our supplemental information package is also available on our website. As a reminder, all references to dollar amounts on this call are in U.S., unless otherwise stated. I must also point everyone to our webcast presentation for our usual disclaimer and cautionary factors relating to any forward-looking statements contained in today's presentation and remarks. I want to let everyone know that ONIX is planning to host an Investor Day this fall. We'll provide more information in the coming months. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jerry.

Thank you, Jill, and good morning, everybody. Year-end is always a natural time for reflection. As I think back to this time last year, it would have been hard to imagine the events that followed. In fact, I simply couldn't have. Even with those challenging conditions, the one constant for Onyx has been our discipline as a long-term investor. We've endured cycles and disruptions by remaining focused on our core principles, grow meaningful relationships, dive deep into the industries we cover, and build a diversified portfolio. A year like 2020 highlighted the importance of maintaining that discipline. Bobby and Chris will provide more details on our results, but first I'll comment on highlights for the year. 2020 was indeed an active year for ONIX, with each of our platforms executing on value creation strategies, and I must say long-term value creation strategies. In private equity, We had a successful year of realizations and deployments, and overall fund performance is tracking quite well. Our portfolio companies have, for the most part, weathered the pandemic thanks to strong, proactive management. Many are seeing benefits even in this new environment. Those more adversely affected, often businesses dealing with the direct impact of government-imposed lockdowns, continue to have strong value propositions that will support their success as the recovery accelerates. Generating gross private equity returns of 24% in a year like 2020 is plenty of evidence of our ability to create value in all environments. Throughout last year, Onyx Credit, and I'll now talk a bit about Onyx Credit, continued to build out its platform and product offering, positioning it for future growth. Credit attracted strong talent to its team and has had early success with new strategies. With the acquisition of Falcon Investment Advisors, we now have capabilities and a proven track record across our entire credit platform. as well as comprehensive, integrated, go-to-market strategy. I am confident in the credit team's ability to deliver positive returns on the investments we have made and will continue to make this year. At Gluskin Chef, Onyx products continue to drive interest from their clients. With close to $800 million in allocated to ONIX credit and private equity strategies at year end. The benefit of being able to offer a more diverse product range was a core assumption behind our acquisition, and we've been pleased with the response. At ONIX itself, our people have always been the driving factor of our success. Throughout 2020, we added to our team in strategic and growth areas, strengthening the breadth of our experience and the depth of our talent. We've worked hard and delivered a year of results and achievements that we can all be proud of. The appointment of Bobby to president of Onyx was also a major milestone in 2020. Bobby has the leadership, financial, and operational acumen to continue to drive our organization forward. I'm incredibly pleased with what he's accomplished so far. Finally, I would like to thank you, our shareholders, for your continued support, especially in a difficult year. One of ONIX's other founding principles, which is core to our culture, is the alignment that our team has with you. We continue to see incredible value in ONIX as an investment and great potential in the businesses we've built to drive long-term, sustainable earnings, creating value for all of us for years to come. With that, let me now turn it over to Bobby.