Sprott Announces Second Quarter 2023 Results

TORONTO, Aug. 09, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sprott Inc. (/TSX: SII) (“Sprott” or the “Company”) today announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023.

Management commentary
"Sprott's Assets Under Management ("AUM") declined slightly during the second quarter, as precious metal prices pulled back following strong performance in April," said Whitney George, CEO of Sprott. "Despite the challenging market conditions, we continued to record strong sales in our Exchange Listed Products and Private Strategies segments, with $199 million in net sales and new fee earning committed capital during the second quarter and $1.1 billion in net sales and new fee earning committed capital during the first half of 2023. Our Private Lending team closed the third vintage of Sprott's Private Resource Lending Strategy during the second quarter and our Streaming and Royalty team closed a new partnership in July, subsequent to quarter end."

"The outlook for precious metals and energy transition investments continues to improve and we expect our positioning in these core areas to be rewarded in the second half of 2023," added Mr. George. "Our product pipeline is robust and we intend to launch new public and private strategies before the end of the year."

Key Assets Under Management ("AUM") highlights

• AUM was $25.1 billion as at June 30, 2023, down $0.2 billion (1%) from March 31, 2023 and up $1.7 billion (7%) from December 31, 2022. On a three months ended basis, we were impacted by market value depreciation across the majority of our fund products, partially offset by inflows to our exchange listed products and new fee earning capital commitments into our private strategies funds. On a six months ended basis, we benefited from new capital raises and net capital calls to our private strategies funds and strong inflows to our exchange listed products, as well as market value appreciation across the majority of our fund products.
  

Key revenue highlights

• Management fees were $33.2 million in the quarter, up $2.6 million (8%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $64.7 million on a year-to-date basis, up $6.9 million (12%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Carried interest and performance fees were $0.4 million in the quarter and on a year-to-date basis, up $0.4 million from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and down $1.7 million (81%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Net fees were $30.4 million in the quarter, up $2.3 million (8%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $59.1 million on a year-to-date basis, up $5.5 million (10%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Our revenue performance was due to higher average AUM in our exchange listed products (primarily our uranium, gold and silver trusts) and private strategies segments. These increases were partially offset by lower average AUM in our managed equities segment and lower carried interest crystallization in our private strategies segment on a year-to-date basis.
• Commission revenues were $1.6 million in the quarter, down $4.8 million (74%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $6.4 million on a year-to-date basis, down $13.1 million (67%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Net commissions were $1.1 million in the quarter, down $2.3 million (67%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $3.5 million on a year-to-date basis, down $6.5 million (65%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Lower commissions were due to the sale of our former Canadian broker-dealer and slower at-the-market ("ATM") activity in our physical uranium trust.
• Finance income was $1.3 million in the quarter, up $0.1 million (8%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $2.5 million on a year-to-date basis, down $0.2 million (6%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Our quarterly and year-to-date results were driven by income generation in co-investment positions we hold in LPs managed in our private strategies segment.
  

Key expense highlights

• Net compensation expense was $15.5 million in the quarter, up $1.5 million (11%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $30.4 million on a year-to-date basis, up $0.7 million (2%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. The increase in the quarter and on a year-to-date basis was due to the reversal of salary, AIP and LTIP entitlements of the former CEO out of net compensation in the second quarter of 2022 on the successful completion of the former CEO’s transition agreement. The transition agreement exchanged the former CEO's salary, AIP and LTIP entitlements for a 3-year LTIP transition payment. The 3-year LTIP transition payment is reported on the severance line and was accelerated upon successful completion of the SCP sale during the second quarter of the year. We also saw a general increase in base salaries in the current quarter relating to new hires.
• SG&A was $5 million in the quarter, up $0.8 million (18%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $9.3 million on a year-to-date basis, up $1.6 million (21%) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. The increase was due to higher technology and marketing costs.

Earnings summary

• Net income was $17.7 million ($0.70 per share) in the quarter, up $17 million ($0.67 per share) from the quarter ended June 30, 2022 and $25.4 million on a year-to-date basis ($1.00 per share), up $18.1 million ($0.71 per share) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. Net income on both a three and six months ended basis benefited from the receipt of shares on the realization of a previously unrecorded contingent asset from a historical acquisition. We also benefited from higher net fees on improved average AUM in our exchange listed and private strategies segments.
• Adjusted base EBITDA was $18 million ($0.71 per share) in the quarter, up slightly from the same three month period ended last year. The increase in the quarter was due to higher average AUM in our exchange listed products and private strategies segments more than offsetting lower commission income in the quarter due to the sale of our former Canadian broker-dealer.
• Adjusted base EBITDA was $35.3 million ($1.40 per share) on a year-to-date basis, down 2% or $0.8 million ($0.04 per share) from the six months ended June 30, 2022. The decrease on a year-to-date basis was due to lower commission income on the sale of our former Canadian broker-dealer and slower ATM activity in our uranium trust. The lower commission income on a year-to-date basis was nearly offset by growth in net fees on improved AUM. We expect net fee levels to increase even further in the second half of the year, leading to the eventual replacement of low margin commission income from our former Canadian broker-dealer with higher margin fees from our exchange listed products and private strategies segments.

Subsequent events

• During the quarter, the Company paid down $20 million, or 37% of its outstanding debt facility. Subsequent to quarter end, the Company completed a review of our current and near-term funding and borrowing needs and determined that we no longer require a $120 million credit facility. Consequently, management decided to lower the maximum borrowing capacity under the credit facility by $45 million to $75 million. Offsetting the reduction in borrowing capacity is the release of capital restrictions on the sale of our former Canadian broker-dealer that closed earlier this quarter and the eventual monetization of shares received on the realization of a previously unrecorded contingent asset from a historical acquisition.
• On August 8, 2023, the Sprott Board of Directors announced a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share.

^{1 See “non-IFRS financial measures” section in this press release and schedule 2 and 3 of "Supplemental financial information"}

Supplemental financial information

Please refer to the June 30, 2023 interim financial statements of the Company and the related management discussion and analysis filed earlier this morning for further details into the Company's financial position as at June 30, 2023 and the company's financial performance for the three and six months ended June 30, 2023.

Schedule 1 - AUM continuity

Schedule 2 - Summary financial information