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Text: I'm Hallie Miller, Evercore's Head of Investor Relations.
Joining me on the call today are Ralph Schlosstein, and John Weinberg, our Co-Chairman and Co-CEOs; and Bob Walsh, our CFO.
At this time, it is uncertain how long our business will be negatively affected by COVID-19 and the associated economic and market downturn.
These factors include, but are not limited to, those discussed in Evercore's filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K.
We continue to believe that it is important to evaluate Evercore's performance on an annual basis.
As we've noted previously, our results for any particular quarter are influenced by the timing of transaction closings.
Let me start by saying that it is a pleasure to be doing my first call with John as Co-Chairman and Co-CEOs of Evercore.
Our new titles formalize what we have been doing for several years already, and along with Roger, whose role has not changed at all, contrary to some reports in the press, we greatly look forward to a very successful future for Evercore.
I am sure you will agree that the challenges of the past quarter have been myriad and significant.
First, the rapid spread of COVID-19 pandemic drove lockdowns around the world and has inspired a race to develop diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
The pandemic and lockdown then gave rise to an unprecedented global economic downturn, record levels of unemployment and in response, fiscal and monetary stimulus that has been applied with unprecedented size and rapidity.
Financial markets became predictably volatile, first down and then up, but they currently are reasonably healthy, in stark contrast to the health of the real economy.
And in the midst of all this, a much needed call for a higher level of equality and social justice in our society, and a significantly greater commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
My partnership with John and Roger, and more broadly the culture within our Firm, has helped us navigate this challenging environment and to stay focused on both our clients and our people.
Before I comment on our results, I want to provide an update on how, we as a Firm, have responded to these events in the first half from both an operational and a business standpoint.
The vast majority of our team continues to work remotely that we are beginning to return to working in some of our offices.
This transition back to the office, in contrast to our move to working remotely, is happening at a measured pace consistent with local government directives designed to protect the communities in which we work, and our own policies to protect our people and their families.
We have embraced new technologies that allow us to communicate with our clients and our colleagues, despite our physical distance and we remain focused on the needs of our clients, helping them by leveraging our broad and diverse capabilities.
This focus has resulted in a number of things.
First, M&A assignments that made strategic sense before the downturn have continued to be announced, or if announced, have been completed.
Capital raising and assignments, both in the equity and debt markets have been occurring at levels dramatically higher than that at any time in our history.
And we have seen an unprecedented surge of restructuring and refinancing transactions often on a highly expedited basis.
And finally, on our invest -- on our research and in our Wealth Management business, a greater engagement with investing clients than at any time in our history.
John will cover our performance in greater detail in his remarks.
Following the tragic events in Minnesota, we also saw a much needed call for a higher level of social justice and more extensive commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, in the US and elsewhere, a call that we strongly embrace.
We have taken the time to reflect on calls for social justice and have thought hard about racism and prejudice that's still persist in our society today.
We have come away with the awareness and commitment that we need to strengthen our own diversity and inclusion efforts here at Evercore.
We are a market leader for our business accomplishments and we will expand the same energy and focus on our diversity and inclusion initiatives, not just to make ourselves better, but to try and have a more positive impact on our communities and the world in which we live.
As we look to the second half of the year, we are following a set of operating principles that are very similar to those that we discussed with you three months ago.
First, we remain committed to ensuring the health, wellness and safety of our team and their families, and to achieving our diversity and inclusion goals.
Second, our teams are focused on addressing the immediate needs of our corporate, institutional investor and wealth management clients, while helping them be better positioned for the eventual economic recovery.
Third, we are sustaining our operating infrastructure to support flexible and efficient working arrangements as we plan and implement our return to office on a thoughtful and disciplined basis.
And finally, we remain committed to maintaining our strong and liquid balance sheet.
Our results for the second quarter and the first half reflect both the momentum that we had in M&A before the onset of the pandemic, and our ability to pivot to meet our clients' changing needs in currently challenging economic and financial markets.
As a general matter, previously announced M&A transactions continued toward completion and the broader advisory capabilities that we have built and strengthened over the last several years have allowed us to continue to serve our clients on their most pressing financial and strategic issues.
Let me turn specifically to the numbers.
Second quarter adjusted net revenues of $513.9 million, decreased 4% versus the second quarter of 2019.
For the first six months of 2020, adjusted net revenues of $948.9 million, decreased 1% versus the prior year.
Although our revenues from Investment Banking, that is advisory fees, underwriting fees and commissions, increased by 2% versus the prior period.
Second quarter advisory fees of $336.5 million declined 24%, compared to the second quarter of 2019, which was an unusually strong quarter.
In fact, our third best quarter for advisory fees in our history.
Advisory fees for the six months of 2020 were $695.6 million, a decline of 10%, compared to the prior year period.
We expect our market advisory share -- our market share in advisory fees, among all publicly reported firms, on a trailing 12-month basis to be 8.2%, compared to 8.3% at year-end 2019.
Second quarter underwriting fees of $93.6 million, increased more than 450%, compared to the second quarter of 2019.
Underwriting fees in the second quarter were higher than our underwriting fees for all of 2019, which was a record year in underwriting fees for us.
For the first six months of the year, underwriting fees were $114.7 million, an increase of more than 160% versus the prior year period.
Third quarter underwriting fees are already off to a strong start and we are working hard to sustain this momentum.
Commissions and related fees of $54.1 million, increased 11% versus the second quarter of 2019.
For the first six months of 2020, commissions and related fees of $109.5 million, increased 21% versus the prior year period.
Asset management and administration fees from our consolidated businesses were $15.2 million, an increase of 4%, compared to the second quarter of 2019.
For the first six months of 2020, asset management and administration fees from our consolidated businesses were $30.5 million, an increase of 5% from the prior year period.
Turning to expenses, our compensation ratio for the second quarter is 65%, and our compensation ratio for the first six months of 2020 is 63.6%.
A word of explanation about the compensation ratio, the 63.6% accrual in the first half reflects, as it has in past years, an estimate for the full-year compensation ratio, which includes an estimate for 2020 incentive compensation.
Given the uncertainty about revenues for the remainder of the year and the uncertainty about the level of market compensation for our younger employees in 2020, we have significantly more uncertainty about the full-year compensation ratio than at this time in prior years.
Our intention is to pay our younger employees at market rates as we always have, and to pay our more senior employees in a way that fairly balances the short-term and longer-term interests of our shareholders.
The short-term interest being higher earnings this year and the longer-term interest being keeping the team together that has produced more than $2 billion of revenue in 2018 and 2019 and investing in new talent for our future growth.
So, we are doing our best to have our six-month compensation ratio be within the range of possible outcomes for the full-year, although the uncertainty about both revenues and market compensation for our employees is considerably higher than in prior years.
Non-compensation costs of $77.1 million in the second quarter declined 11% from the second quarter of 2019.
For the first six months, non-compensation costs of $159.9 million, declined 4%.
Bob will comment on this further in his remarks.
Adjusted operating income and adjusted net income of $102.7 million and $71.8 million, declined 26% and 29%, respectively, and adjusted earnings per share of $1.53, declined 26%, all versus the second quarter of 2019.
For the first six months of 2020, adjusted operating income, and adjusted net income of $185.3 million and $129.6 million, declined 21% and 29%, respectively, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.74, declined 27% versus the prior six-month period.
We remain focused on our capital return and management strategy.
Year-to-date, we returned $206 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchase of 1.9 million shares at an average price of $76.22.
We have offset the dilution associated with equity grants for the year.
So any additional share repurchases in 2020 will be dependent on our second half revenues and earnings, balanced by our intention to maintain our strong liquidity position.
Our Board declared a dividend of $0.58, consistent with prior quarters, and reflective of our results for the quarter.
Our Board and management will continue to evaluate the dividend on a quarterly basis, as the effect of the pandemic on revenues becomes more clear.
Although the current expectation, absent any extraordinary steep decline in revenues and a significant reduction in our cash position, is that our current dividend will be maintained.
The volatile market environment has created opportunities across products, geographic regions, and industry sectors.
As the quarter began, merger activity was muted as clients managed through the dislocation of the sudden impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We were fortunate to have the opportunity to assist our clients with broad-based debt advisory assignments, equity issuance, as well as advising them on restructuring challenges.
Our restructuring group has been especially busy.
We believe opportunities to assist our clients will continue as accommodative credit markets are giving companies time to address their liquidity needs and recover.
We believe there is significant opportunity in several sectors, including energy, consumer, retail and industrials.
In the capital markets, there has been extensive opportunity to assist clients in raising capital in both the debt and equity markets, in both the private and public arenas.
We had our strongest period ever in equity underwritings, and while we do not participate materially in public debt capital raises, we had the opportunity to assist clients on a number of innovative liability management assignments.
The momentum in our debt advisory and equity capital markets businesses has continued into the third quarter.
Private capital transactions for sponsors slowed considerably in the beginning of the quarter, but it's picked up more recently as issuers have become comfortable conducting diligence virtually.
Activism assignments similarly slowed early in the quarter, but the pace of business has started to recover more recently.
Investor clients remains focused on financial markets throughout the quarter, both institutional and wealth management, and trading activity remained high.
Significantly, during the quarter, the level of announced M&A activity slowed dramatically, as clients appropriately turned inward driving many of the activities I just summarized.
Announced M&A volumes were down 41% in the first six months of 2020, and the number of announced transactions is down 15%.
The second quarter was particularly weak, announced global M&A volumes were down more than 50%, compared to last year's second quarter and the number of announced transactions declined 29%.
Several of the key conditions necessary for a healthy M&A market were absent in the most -- in most sectors of the economy during the quarter and remain generally absent today.
However, the basis of recovery may be forming.
The equity markets are currently strong for many sectors.
Access to financing and readily available capital and credit began to improve throughout the quarter.
And CEO confidence began to slightly improve as the quarter closed, but granted from a low pace.
Dialogues and discussions with clients around strategic opportunities have begun to slowly pick up during the last few weeks and processes involving financial sponsors are beginning anew.
I am, for the moment, guardedly optimistic about the merger market overall.
When the markets began to show sustained stability, CEO confidence will grow, which will drive an increase in strategic activity.
Until then, we will continue to actively communicate and engage with our clients to help them navigate the current challenges and to be there with them during the eventual recovery.
Let me now turn to our performance in Investment Banking.
Our revenues during the second quarter and first six months of 2020 held up well despite increasingly challenging conditions.
We sustained our number one ranking for volume of announced M&A transactions over the last 12 months, both globally and in the US among independent firms.
Among all firms, we are once again number four in the US in announced volume over the last 12 months, and we ranked number three among all firms in the US based on number of transactions for the first six months of 2020.
We continue to work hard to increase our share of the market.
We were pleased to continue to advise on some of the most important M&A assignments of the first half, including three of the 10 largest global M&A transactions, and four of the five largest M&A transactions in the United States.
Our restructuring and debt advisory teams are extremely busy.
Our US restructuring team has worked on the same number of assignments in this first half as it did for the entire year of 2019.
We are pleased that we ranked number one among all firms in number of announced restructuring deals and number of completed restructuring deals in the US in the league tables for the first half of the year, and we've been involved in seven of the 10 largest bankruptcies by total actual liabilities year-to-date.
These accomplishments stem from our model of integrating our restructuring and debt experts, and our industry-focused bankers.
Our deep expertise in restructuring and debt matters was central to our ability to work with a number of large new client.
Two recent examples include we were an advisor to Boeing on a $25 billion offering of senior notes, and an advisor to Ford on its $8 billion debt financing.
Deep expertise was also a catalyst for our work in specialized markets, for example, PIPEs, where we advised on four of five announced PIPE deals before the financing markets reopened.
Our underwriting business has performed extremely well in the market.
We served as an active bookrunner or co-manager on six of the 10 largest IPOs in the first half of 2020.
We completed our largest ever active bookrun transaction when we advised PNC on the secondary offering of its 22% stake in BlackRock.
At the time of the announcement, this deal was the largest deal year-to-date.
We advised Danaher on its upsized $3.1 billion offering which was split between common stock, and convertible preferred stock.
And we were an active bookrunner on select quote [Phonetic], the first non-healthcare IPO in the COVID environment.
While these large assignments contributed meaningfully to our quarterly results, we also participated in many more transactions across a broad range of sectors, demonstrating our ability to work in diverse areas and markets.
And while issuance is up across the board, we also more than doubled our overall share in the first six months, compared to the same period last year.
Our shareholder advisory and activism defense and our private capital advisory businesses and assignments are already in progress and we move toward completion in many.
We are proud to advise on the first-ever proxy contest, to have decided in a virtual annual meeting.
It was a successful outcome for our client, and our Private Funds Group completed the first fully virtual fund-raise, which was oversubscribed and attracted both current and new investors.
In our equities business, our connectivity with investor and advisory assignment remains elevated as they have become to rely on us for valuable insights during a period of significant market dislocation and our traders continue to help our clients execute in volatile markets.
Our people have responded to the challenges of the current environment and have served our clients with distinction.
The results I just summarized are testament to their teamwork and their commitment to our clients and to one another.
We will remain open to opportunistically adding other high-quality individuals who can bring value to our clients.
Finally, as we look toward the second half of the year, we are aware of the many headwinds and uncertainties ahead.
Despite the challenges of working apart, our results so far in 2020 demonstrate the power of a team working extremely well together with a consistent focus on clients.
It is this kind of collaboration that defines us.
And it's a key ingredient to our ongoing success.
I very much and looking forward to continuing to lead Evercore through this downturn and eventual recovery in partnership with Ralph, and of course, Roger.
I truly believe that our best opportunities are ahead of us, and I'm excited by the prospects and direction of our Firm.
Starting with our GAAP results.
For the second quarter of 2020, net revenues, net income and earnings per share on a GAAP basis were $507.1 million, $56.4 million, and $1.35, respectively.
For the first half of 2020, net revenues, net income and earnings per share on a GAAP basis were $934 million, $87.6 million, and $2.08, respectively.
Consistent with prior periods, our adjusted results exclude certain items that principally relate to our acquisitions and dispositions and also include the full share count associated with those acquisitions.
Specifically, we adjusted for costs associated with the vesting of Class J LP Units, granted in conjunction with the ISI acquisition.
For the first half, we expensed $1.1 million related to the Class J LP units.
The Class J LP units have been fully expensed.
Our adjusted results for the quarter also exclude certain items related to the realignment strategy that began in the fourth quarter of 2019.
As we noted last quarter, we expect to incur separation and transition benefits and related costs of approximately $38 million, $8.2 million of which was recorded as special charges in the second quarter of 2020.
These charges are excluded from our adjusted results.
Year-to-date, we have recorded $30.3 million as special charges related to the realignment initiative.
As we mentioned on our last call, we have entered into an agreement with the leaders of our business in Mexico to purchase our broker-dealer there, which principally provides investment management services.
Completion of this sale is subject to regulatory approval.
We have requested that approval in June and closing is expected to occur shortly after approval is granted.
We continue to review additional opportunities in smaller markets.
These opportunities could result in further charges in 2020 if pursued to completion.
And separately, we completed the sale of a Trust business, which was part of the ECB during the second quarter.
Our adjusted results for the quarter and first six months also excluded special charges of $0.4 million and $1.9 million, respectively, related to accelerated depreciation expenses.
Turning to other revenues.
Second quarter other revenue increased compared to the prior-year period, primarily as a result of gains of $15.5 million in the investment funds portfolio, which is used as an economic hedge against a portion of our deferred cash compensation program.
Other revenues for the first six months of 2020 decreased versus the prior year, primarily reflecting a net loss of $6.8 million on this investment fund portfolio.
This amount will, of course, fluctuate and a significant market rebound during the quarter drove the quarterly gains.
While the quarter gain -- though the quarter gains were not enough to more than offset the first quarter market decline.
With regard to non-compensation costs.
Firmwide non-compensation costs per employee were approximately $43,000 for the second quarter, down 13% on a year-over-year basis.
The decrease in non-compensation costs per employee versus last year primarily reflects lower travel and related expenses and professional fees.
As we mentioned on our last call, we began a thorough review of our non-compensation costs before the COVID-19 pandemic.
We continue to adapt our operations in response to the current downturn and remain focused on reducing our non-compensation costs, including cutting non-essential costs related to travel, research and subscriptions, and deferring certain capital projects, so we are well positioned throughout the downturn, as well as into the inevitable recovery.
Our GAAP tax rate for the second quarter was 24.5%, compared to 24.8% in the prior-year period.
On a GAAP basis, the share count was 41.9 million for the second quarter.
Our share count for our adjusted earnings per share was 47 million shares, down versus the prior-year period, driven by share repurchases and a lower average share price.
Finally, with regard to our financial position, we hold $1 billion of cash and cash equivalents, and approximately $100 million in investment securities as of the end of the quarter, as we had transitioned nearly all liquid assets to cash and cash equivalents in the first half.
Our current assets exceed current liabilities by approximately $950 million.
As Ralph noted, we continue to monitor our cash levels, liquidity, regulatory capital requirements, debt covenants and all of our other contractual obligations regularly and carefully.
We'd now be pleased to answer any questions.

user
compname reports quarterly dividend of $0.58 per share.
compname reports second quarter 2020 results; quarterly dividend of $0.58 per share.
qtrly net revenues of $507.1 million decreased 5%.
qtrly diluted earnings per share $1.35.
qtrly adjusted earnings per share $1.53.
evercore - m&a activity remains limited, uncertainty and market volatility have led to delays or, in some cases, terminations of transactions in quarter.
in conjunction with employment reductions, expects to incur separation & transition benefits and related costs of about $38 million.
$30.3 million of separation and transition costs has been recorded as special charges in first six months of 2020.
observed initial decline in equity underwriting activity during early stages of covid-19 pandemic.
restructuring, debt advisory and capital markets advisory businesses remain very active.

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