CEO.CA Chairman's Briefing

TORONTO, Aug. 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sprott Inc. (NYSE/TSX: SII) (“Sprott” or the “Company”) today announced its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022.

Management commentary
“Assets Under Management (“AUM”) were $21.9 billion as at June 30, 2022, down $1.7 billion (7%) from March 31, 2022 and up $1.5 billion (7%) from December 31, 2021. While our AUM was negatively impacted on both a three and six months ended basis by market value depreciation across our fund products, we are pleased to have maintained strong sales momentum, reporting approximately $0.8 billion in net sales during the second quarter, and $2.2 billion in net sales for the first half of 2022," said Whitney George, CEO of Sprott.

“Our resilient business model allows us to invest through the cycles irrespective of market conditions. We are actively developing new products in all of our asset management businesses. Notably, we continue to build scale in our ETF business through the completion of the previously announced acquisition of the North Shore Global Uranium Miners ETF (“URNM”) and, the recently announced launch of the Sprott ESG Gold ETF, the world’s first ETF to exclusively source and refine gold from globally recognized leaders in ESG based on special criteria developed by Sprott. Sprott is pleased to have partnered with Agnico Eagle, Yamana Gold and the Royal Canadian Mint on this new initiative," concluded Mr. George.

Financial highlights¹

Key AUM highlights

• AUM was $21.9 billion as at June 30, 2022, down $1.7 billion (7%) from March 31, 2022 and up $1.5 billion (7%) from December 31, 2021. Our AUM was negatively impacted on both a three and six months ended basis by market value depreciation across our fund products. However, on a six months ended basis, our cumulative market value declines were offset by strong inflows to our physical trusts, private strategies and the onboarding of AUM from the URNM acquisition that added over $1 billion to our AUM in the quarter.
  

Key revenue highlights

• Management fees were $30.6 million in the quarter, up $5.6 million (22%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $57.8 million on a year-to-date basis, up $10.3 million (22%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. Carried interest and performance fees were nil in the quarter and $2 million on a year-to-date basis, down $5.9 million (74%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. Net fees were $28.1 million in the quarter, up $4.9 million (21%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $53.6 million on a year-to-date basis, up $6.7 million (14%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. Our revenue performance was primarily due to strong net inflows to our exchange listed products segment (primarily our physical uranium and gold trusts) and higher average AUM from the URNM acquisition. We also benefited from inflows to our private strategies segment. These increases were partially offset by lower carried interest crystallization in our private strategies segment on a year-to-date basis.
• Commission revenues were $6.5 million in the quarter, down $0.9 million (12%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $19.5 million on a year-to-date basis, down $0.3 million (2%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. Net commissions were $3.4 million in the quarter, down $0.8 million (20%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $10.1 million on a year-to-date basis, down $1.1 million (10%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. Lower commissions were due to weaker mining equity origination activity in our brokerage segment that was partially offset by commissions earned on the purchase of uranium in our exchange listed products segment.
• Finance income was $1.2 million in the quarter, up $0.3 million (27%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $2.6 million on a year to date basis, up $0.4 million (20%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. Our results were primarily driven by higher income generation in co-investment positions we hold in LPs managed in our private strategies segment.
  

Key expense highlights

• Net compensation expense was $13.9 million in the quarter, up $3.1 million (29%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $29.7 million on a year-to-date basis, up $7 million (31%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. The increase was primarily due to higher long-term incentive plan ("LTIP") amortization and higher salaries on new hires that were partially offset by lower annual incentive compensation ("AIP").
• SG&A was $4.2 million in the quarter, up $0.7 million (21%) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $7.7 million on a year-to-date basis, up $0.8 million (12%) from the six months ended June 30, 2021. The increase was mainly due to higher marketing and technology costs.

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

Earnings summary

• Net income was $0.8 million ($0.03 per share) in the quarter, down 93%, or $10.3 million ($0.41 per share) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $7.2 million on a year-to-date basis ($0.29 per share), down 49%, or $7.1 million ($0.28 per share) from the six months ended June 30, 2021.
  
  Adjusted base EBITDA was $17.9 million ($0.71 per share) in the quarter, up 19%, or $2.9 million ($0.11 per share) from the quarter ended June 30, 2021 and $36.1 million ($1.44 per share) on a year-to-date basis up 22%, or $6.4 million ($0.25 per share) from the six months ended June 30, 2021.
  
  Net income on both a three and six months ended basis was negatively impacted by net market value depreciation of our co-investments as a result of the recent pull back in market valuations across most global asset classes as well as unrealized market value declines on the mark-to-market of certain digital gold strategies. On a quarterly and year-to-date basis, Adjusted base EBITDA benefited from strong net inflows into our physical trusts (primarily our physical uranium and gold trusts), the URNM acquisition and inflows to our private strategies products. These increases were only partially offset by weaker mining equity origination activity in our brokerage segment.

Subsequent events

• On August 1, 2022, the Sprott Board of Directors announced a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share.
  

Supplemental financial information

Please refer to the June 30, 2022 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, 2022 and the company's financial performance for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022.

Schedule 1 - AUM continuity

Schedule 2 - Summary financial information

Schedule 3 - EBITDA reconciliation

⁽¹⁾ This adjustment removes the income effects of certain gains or losses on short-term investments, co-investments, and digital gold strategies to ensure the reporting objectives of our EBITDA metric as described below are met.

⁽²⁾ In addition to the items outlined in Note 5 of the interim financial statements, this reconciliation line also includes $2.1 million severance, new hire accruals and other for the three months ended June 30, 2022 (three months ended June 30, 2021 - $0.3 million) and $2.6 million for the six months ended (six months ended June 30, 2021 - $0.3 million). This reconciliation line excludes income (loss) attributable to non-controlling interest of ($0.1) million for the three months ended June 30, 2022 and a nominal loss for the six months ended June 30, 2022 (three and six months ended June 30, 2021 - $0.1 million).

⁽³⁾ Calculated as adjusted base EBITDA inclusive of depreciation and amortization. This figure is then divided by revenues before gains (losses) on investments, net of direct costs as applicable.

Conference Call and Webcast

A webcast will be held today, August 2, 2022 at 10:00 am ET to discuss the Company's financial results. To listen to the webcast, please register at

https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/nnm2fbz4.

Please note, analysts who cover the company should register at https://register.vevent.com/register/BI3a8f92db523d446294ec50bcf3e57349 to participate in the live Q&A session.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

This press release includes financial terms (including AUM, net revenues, net commissions, net fees, expenses, adjusted base EBITDA, net compensation) that the Company utilizes to assess the financial performance of its business that are not measures recognized under International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). These non-IFRS measures should not be considered alternatives to performance measures determined in accordance with IFRS and may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Non-IFRS financial measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Our key performance indicators and non-IFRS and other financial measures are discussed below. For quantitative reconciliations of non-IFRS financial measures to their most directly comparable IFRS financial measures please see schedule 2 and schedule 3 of the "Supplemental financial information" section of this press release.

Net fees

Management fees, net of trailer, sub-advisor, fund expenses and direct payouts, and carried interest and performance fees, net of carried interest and performance fee payouts (internal and external), are key revenue indicators as they represent the net revenue contribution after directly associated costs that we generate from our AUM.

Net commissions

Commissions, net of commission expenses (internal and external), arise primarily from transaction-based service offerings of our brokerage segment and purchases and sales of uranium in our exchange listed products segment.

Net compensation

Net compensation excludes commission expenses paid to employees, other direct payouts to employees, carried interest and performance fee payouts to employees, which are all presented net of their related revenues in the MD&A, and severance, new hire accruals and other which are non-recurring.

EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted base EBITDA

EBITDA in its most basic form is defined as earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is a measure commonly used in the investment industry by management, investors and investment analysts in understanding and comparing results by factoring out the impact of different financing methods, capital structures, amortization techniques and income tax rates between companies in the same industry. While other companies, investors or investment analysts may not utilize the same method of calculating EBITDA (or adjustments thereto), the Company believes its adjusted base EBITDA metric, in particular, results in a better comparison of the Company's underlying operations against its peers and a better indicator of recurring results from operations as compared to other non-IFRS financial measures.

Forward Looking Statements
Although the Company believes that the Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future results, performance or achievements. A number of factors or assumptions have been used to develop the Forward-Looking Statements, including: (i) the impact of increasing competition in each business in which the Company operates will not be material; (ii) quality management will be available; (iii) the effects of regulation and tax laws of governmental agencies will be consistent with the current environment; (iv) the impact of COVID-19; and (v) those assumptions disclosed under the heading "Critical Accounting Estimates, Judgments and Changes in Accounting Policies" in the Company’s MD&A for the period ended June 30, 2022. Actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Statements should assumptions underlying the Forward-Looking Statements prove incorrect or should one or more risks or other factors materialize, including: (i) difficult market conditions; (ii) poor investment performance; (iii) failure to continue to retain and attract quality staff; (iv) employee errors or misconduct resulting in regulatory sanctions or reputational harm; (v) performance fee fluctuations; (vi) a business segment or another counterparty failing to pay its financial obligation; (vii) failure of the Company to meet its demand for cash or fund obligations as they come due; (viii) changes in the investment management industry; (ix) failure to implement effective information security policies, procedures and capabilities; (x) lack of investment opportunities; (xi) risks related to regulatory compliance; (xii) failure to manage risks appropriately; (xiii) failure to deal appropriately with conflicts of interest; (xiv) competitive pressures; (xv) corporate growth which may be difficult to sustain and may place significant demands on existing administrative, operational and financial resources; (xvi) failure to comply with privacy laws; (xvii) failure to successfully implement succession planning; (xviii) foreign exchange risk relating to the relative value of the U.S. dollar; (xix) litigation risk; (xx) failure to develop effective business resiliency plans; (xxi) failure to obtain or maintain sufficient insurance coverage on favourable economic terms; (xxii) historical financial information being not necessarily indicative of future performance; (xxiii) the market price of common shares of the Company may fluctuate widely and rapidly; (xxiv) risks relating to the Company’s investment products; (xxv) risks relating to the Company's proprietary investments; (xxvi) risks relating to the Company's lending business; (xxvii) risks relating to the Company’s brokerage business; (xxviii) those risks described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company’s annual information form dated February 24, 2022; and (xxix) those risks described under the headings "Managing Financial Risks" and "Managing Non-Financial Risks" in the Company’s MD&A for the period ended June 30, 2022. In addition, the payment of dividends is not guaranteed and the amount and timing of any dividends payable by the Company will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors of the Company and will be established on the basis of the Company’s earnings, the satisfaction of solvency tests imposed by applicable corporate law for the declaration and payment of dividends, and other relevant factors. The Forward-Looking Statements speak only as of the date hereof, unless otherwise specifically noted, and the Company does not assume any obligation to publicly update any Forward-Looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws.

About Sprott

Sprott is a global leader in precious metal and real asset investments. We are specialists. Our in-depth knowledge, experience and relationships separate us from the generalists. Our investment strategies include Exchange Listed Products, Managed Equities, Private Strategies and Brokerage. Sprott has offices in Toronto, New York and London and the company’s common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol (SII). For more information, please visit www.sprott.com.

Investor contact information:

Glen Williams
Managing Director
Investor and Institutional Client Relations;
Head of Corporate Communications
(416) 943-4394
gwilliams@sprott.com