Cohen & Company Inc (COHN) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Cohen's Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Maria, and I'll be your operator for today.

Before we begin, Cohen & Company would like to remind everyone that some of the statements the company makes during this call may contain forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that would cause the company's actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made during this call are made only as of the date of this call and the company undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Cohen & Company advises you to read the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements in its earnings release and in its most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Lester Brafman, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen & Company. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Maria, and thank you, everyone, for joining us for our third quarter 2022 earnings call. With me on the call is Joe Pooler, our CFO.

Our company navigated difficult market conditions and continue to successfully execute our strategy, generating $2.2 million of adjusted pretax income in the third quarter. We are pleased that both our investment banking and U.S. insurance origination teams closed key transactions and generated new issue and advisory revenue. Although our reported financial results continue to be impacted by unrealized negative mark-to-market adjustments on our principal investing portfolio, we remain focused on our strategic objectives, and we are confident that the expansion of our investment banking and commercial real estate teams will continue to translate into higher revenues in the future. As we move forward, we are committed to enhancing stockholder value, and in the third quarter, we continued to pay our quarterly dividend.

Now I will turn the call over to Joe to walk through this quarter's financial highlights in more detail.

Thank you, Lester. We'll start with our statement of operations. Our net loss attributable to Cohen & Company Inc. was $900,000 for the quarter or $0.64 per fully diluted share compared to net loss of $1.9 million for the prior quarter or $1.53 per fully diluted share, and net loss of $3.4 million for the prior year quarter were $3.46 per fully diluted share. Our adjusted pretax income was $2.2 million for the quarter compared to adjusted pretax loss of $8.1 million for the prior quarter, an adjusted pretax loss of $14.9 million for the prior year quarter. Note that adjusted pretax income and loss is not a measure recognized under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. See our disclosures, calculations and reconciliations surrounding adjusted pretax income and loss in our earnings release.

Third quarter 2022 principal transactions and other revenue was negative $1.2 million for the quarter. The negative principal transactions and other revenue was primarily due to mark-to-market adjustments on our principal investments related to our involvement in the SPAC market as a sponsor, asset manager and investor, which has resulted in increased holdings of public equity positions in post-business combination companies. Principal transactions revenue includes all gains and losses and income earned on our $37.7 million investment portfolio classified as other investments at fair value on our balance sheet.

Net trading revenue came in at $8 million in the third quarter, down $2.4 million from the second quarter and down $8.6 million from the third quarter of '21. The current quarter's net trading revenue includes a $4.6 million loss incurred during the liquidation of reverse repo collateral related to a mortgage originator client's bankruptcy filing.

New issue and advisory revenue was $13.2 million in the third quarter, an increase of $9.8 million from the second quarter and an increase of $4.4 million from the year ago quarter. During the third quarter, our investment banking group, Cohen & Company Capital Markets generated $10.5 million in advisory revenue, and our U.S. insurance team generated $2.7 million of origination revenue. Our asset management revenue totaled $3.5 million in the quarter, which was up $1.6 million from both the prior quarter and the prior year quarter.

During September of '22, one of our Alesco CDOs had a successful auction, and $1.6 million of subordinated management fees and arrears was recorded. As a result of the CDO liquidation, our AUM decreased by approximately $100 million, and we will earn no additional asset management fees from this CDO.

Compensation and benefits expense for the third quarter of '22 was $15.2 million, which was up from the prior quarter and down from the prior year quarter, primarily due to fluctuations in revenue and the related variable incentive compensation.

The number of company employees was 122 as of September 30 of '22 compared to 121 as of June 30 of '22, and 115 as of the end of the third quarter last year. Net interest expense for the third quarter of '22 was $1.3 million, including $921,000 on our 2 trust preferred debt instruments, $113,000 on our senior notes, $244,000 on our redeemable financial instruments and $67,000 on our credit line.

Income from equity method affiliates during the third quarter totaled $600,000 of income. Income and loss from equity method affiliates generally fluctuates depending on the timing of the closing of business combinations by our equity method investees that are sponsors of SPACs, which typically result in increased value of founder shares allocable to us by the sponsors.

During the third quarter, income tax expense was $1.8 million compared to income tax benefit of $60,000 in the prior quarter and income tax benefit of $248,000 in the prior year quarter. We will continue to evaluate our operations on a quarterly basis and may make adjustments to our valuation allowances applied against our net operating loss and net capital loss tax assets going forward. In terms of our balance sheet, at the end of the quarter, total equity was $105.6 million compared to $151.4 million at the end of the year. The nonconvertible, noncontrolling interest component of total equity was $4.2 million at the end of the quarter and $31.8 million at the end of the year. Thus, the total equity, excluding the nonconvertible, noncontrolling interest component, was $101.4 million at the end of the quarter, an $18.2 million decrease from $119.6 million at the end of the year.

At quarter end, consolidated corporate indebtedness was carried at $28.9 million, and our redeemable financial instruments were carried at $8 million.

As Lester mentioned, we've declared a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share payable on December 2 to stockholders of record as of November 18 of '22. The Board of Directors will continue to evaluate the dividend policy each quarter, and future decisions regarding dividends may be impacted by quarterly operating results and the company's capital needs.

With that, I'll turn it back over to Lester for closing comments.

Thanks, Joe. Please direct any off-line investor questions to Joe Pooler at (215) 701-8952 or via e-mail to investorrelations@cohen&company.com. The contact information can also be found at the bottom of our earnings release.

Operator, you can now open the call lines for questions. And thank everyone for joining us on our call today.

(Operator Instructions) It appears that we have no questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Brafman for closing comments.

Thank you, operator, and thanks, everyone, for joining our call. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter. So have a nice rest of the week. Thank you.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.