Canaccord Genuity Group Inc.

Canaccord Genuity Group Inc.

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Q1 FY2027 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 7, 2026

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by.

I'd like to welcome everyone to the Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. Fiscal 2027 First Quarter Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being broadcast live online and recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr.

Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, Mr.

Daviau.

Daniel Daviau

Thank you, operator, and welcome to everyone joining today's call. As always, I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Nadine Ahn.

Our remarks today are complementary to the earnings release, MD&A, and supplemental financials, copies of which have been made available for download on SEDAR+ and on the Investor Relations section of our website at cgf.com. Within our update, certain reported information has been adjusted to exclude significant items to provide a transparent and comparative view of our operating performance.

These adjusted items are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to our notice regarding forward-looking statements and our description of non-IFRS financial measures that appear in our MD&A.

And with that, let's discuss our first quarter fiscal 2027 results. Global equity markets performed well during our first fiscal quarter even as the economic backdrop remained mixed.

Strength was broad-based with particularly strong gains in emerging markets and continued enthusiasm around artificial intelligence. Commodity markets were less consistent as expectations for deescalation in the Middle East weighed on crude oil and gold prices during the 3-month period, although the broader environment for our mining activities remained constructive.

Against this backdrop, we delivered a strong first fiscal quarter results with increased year-over-year contributions from both wealth management and capital markets. Firm-wide revenue rose 29% year-over-year to $577 million, reflecting solid growth across our businesses.

Our wealth management division contributed 53% of total revenue, increasing by 26% year-over-year with broad-based growth in each of our 3 geographies. Canada delivered strong growth as higher client activity and new issue revenue, combined with improved scale and expense discipline drove stronger operating leverage.

Notably, the average book per adviser in this business has increased by 37% year-over-year to a record of $428 million, with many of our advisers reaching new milestones during the 3-month period. In the U.K., revenue growth was supported by strong market performance, increased client activity and continued progress against our organic growth initiatives.

Performance from our Australian business has continued to strengthen following the Wilsons Advisory integration, demonstrating the benefits of increased scale, broader capabilities and a more competitive national platform. We ended the quarter with record client assets of $160 billion, a 28% increase from a year ago, driven by favorable market conditions, the addition of Wilsons Advisory in Australia, and positive net inflows.

Revenue from our Capital Markets division represented 45% of firm-wide revenue and increased 30% year-over-year. Both corporate financing and advisory activities improved meaningfully year-over-year, although they moderated from the exceptional levels in our fourth quarter.

Advisory activity was broad-based, led by technology, with meaningful contributions from metals and mining, consumer and retail and sustainability. Since completing the CRC acquisition last quarter, this team has exceeded expectations across all measures.

Sustainability-related activity represented 13% of combined investment banking and advisory revenue during the quarter, driven primarily by our U.S. business.

I will note that this measure understates the sector's broader contribution as sustainability-related mandates are also captured within several of our other core industry groups. Corporate financing activity continued to be led by metals and mining, which accounted for 50% of global investment banking revenues with the strongest contributions coming from Australia and Canada.

We also saw improving activity in technology, sustainability, and other core sectors during this quarter. Turning to profitability.

Our firm-wide adjusted net income increased by 120% year-over-year to $57 million, while adjusted diluted earnings per share increased by 177% to $0.36 per share. Strong revenue growth, combined with disciplined expense management, continued to improve firm-wide margins despite the impact of an elevated compensation ratio, which Nadine will address in more detail.

Our deeply entrenched partnership culture remains central to attracting and retaining talented professionals across all regions. In June, we completed a third round of employee partnership subscriptions with strong participation from both new and existing employees.

As part of the transaction, the employee partnership also acquired $12 million principal of our outstanding convertible debentures from a third party. As a result, the employee ownership in the limited partnership increased to 14.31% of our common shares at quarter end or 15.33% on an as-converted basis, further strengthening alignment between our employees and shareholders.

With that, I'll now turn things over to Nadine for a more detailed review of our financial performance.

Nadine Ahn

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. We delivered strong year-over-year growth in our first fiscal quarter with profitability growth outpacing revenue growth.

Firm-wide pretax net income for the 3-month period increased by 128% year-over-year against revenue growth of 29%, and our pretax operating margin improved by 5.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year. We maintained strong discipline for non-compensation costs across the organization as revenue and the scale of our business increased.

Total non-compensation expenses, excluding significant items, decreased by $4 million or 3% year-over-year to $142 million, representing 25% of first quarter revenue compared with 33% of revenue in the same period last year. As Dan mentioned, our firm-wide compensation ratio was elevated at 62% for the quarter.

The increase reflects the impact related to the fair value of share-based payment awards associated with strong EPS growth and share price appreciation during the 3-month period. Excluding this charge, the firm-wide compensation ratio would have been 59.5%.

Turning to wealth management. First quarter revenue increased 26% year-over-year to $305 million, while adjusted pretax net income increased 40% to $57 million.

The adjusted pretax profit margin improved by 1.9 percentage points year-over-year to 18.7%. Starting with our largest wealth management business in the U.K.

and Crown Dependencies, revenue increased 4% year-over-year to $131 million, while adjusted pretax net income of $29 million was broadly in line with the prior year and up 26% sequentially as project-related spending began to normalize. The adjusted pretax profit margin was 22.3%, down 1.3 percentage points year-over-year, but up 4.2 percentage points sequentially.

Client assets in this business reached a record $82 billion or GBP 43 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 14% and 13%, respectively. Growth was driven by a combination of market appreciation and positive net inflows, which represented 0.7% of opening first quarter client assets, equivalent to a 4.3% on an annualized basis.

In Canada, first quarter revenue increased 29% year-over-year to $121 million, driven by higher commissions and fees and investment banking revenue, which increased by 29% and 77%, respectively. Adjusted pretax net income more than doubled to $21 million, resulting in a 7.4 percentage point improvement in the pretax profit margin to 17.2%.

Client assets grew to a record $60 billion, up 33% from a year ago, supported by strong market appreciation and positive inflows with net inflows representing approximately 1.5% of opening client assets for the quarter. Fee-generating assets represented 53% of total client assets, reflecting the continued strength of our recurring revenue base even as participation in new issues increased.

Australia generated record revenue of $53 million, an increase of 131% year-over-year. Adjusted pretax net income more than tripled to $7 million, while the pretax profit margin increased by 5.2 percentage points to 13.4%.

Client assets in our Australian business increased 113% year-over-year to a record $19 billion, reflecting the addition of Wilsons Advisory, together with robust client activity and the onboarding of client assets from recruited advisers. Higher asset levels and greater scale supported improved profitability across our wealth management businesses.

Margins increased in all regions, although the pace of improvement may vary from quarter-to-quarter based on business mix and stage of growth. Turning to global capital markets.

First quarter revenue of $261 million increased 30% year-over-year. Adjusted pretax net income was $37 million compared with approximately $6 million in the prior year period.

And the adjusted pretax profit margin improved by 11.5 percentage points to 14.3%. The year-over-year improvement was driven by significantly stronger advisory revenue, complemented by growth in investment banking and commissions and fees revenue.

A more favorable business mix, together with higher activity levels also contributed to improved profitability, particularly in our U.S. business.

Investment banking revenue increased 40% year-over-year. Canada was the largest contributor, with revenue increasing 25% to $33 million, followed by Australia, where revenue increased 72% to $30 million, and the U.S.

where revenue increased 34% to $25 million. Our U.S.

business also delivered a notable sequential increase in investment banking revenue. Advisory revenue increased 123% year-over-year, led by the technology, mining, and consumer sectors, while contributions became more broadly distributed across our global platform.

The U.S. was the largest contributor, generating $57 million in advisory revenue, up 162% year-over-year.

Revenue in Canada increased 45% year-over-year, although it moderated from the exceptional level recorded in the prior quarter. Australia delivered record advisory revenue of $17 million as the business continues to build its capabilities, while advisory revenue in the U.K.

more than doubled year-over-year. Pipelines remain strong across all regions, although the timing of completions will continue to vary with transaction activity and broader market dynamics.

Commissions and fees revenue increased 22% year-over-year to $50 million. Our U.S.

business was the largest contributor with revenue increasing 12% to $21 million. The U.K.

generated $11 million, up 30%, while Australia delivered record commissions and fees revenue of $10 million, up 63%, supported by increased client activity and a higher share of ASX turnover. And finally, the year-over-year decline in principal trading revenue primarily reflected lower revenue following the divestiture of our U.S.

wholesale market-making business. This was partially offset by a 36% increase in U.K.

principal trading revenue to $5 million, supported by recent investments in our market-making and investment trust desks, which has improved flow across existing desks in the region. Turning to the balance sheet.

We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $1.2 billion and working capital of $817 million, providing ample liquidity to meet our regulatory requirements, pursue strategic priorities, and support ongoing business activity. The quarter end decline in cash and cash equivalents primarily reflected payment of accrued bonuses from the prior quarter, together with normal timing differences in business activity and related movements in other financial assets and receivables.

These movements did not materially affect our underlying liquidity position. We have started the fiscal year comfortably on track to deliver the low single-digit improvement in firm-wide pretax operating margin that we articulated last quarter.

Continued progress against our strategic priorities, disciplined expense management and improving operating leverage support this outlook, although the pace of improvement will remain sensitive to market conditions. With that, I will turn things back to Dan.

Daniel Daviau

Thanks, Nadine. In all, we are pleased with the strong start to fiscal 2027 and the broader contributions across our global platform.

In wealth management, stable interest rates and stronger equity markets should continue to support client assets and engagement. We remain focused on generating positive net inflows, increasing fee-based assets, and leveraging the greater scale of our Canadian, U.K., and Australian businesses to support continued growth.

In capital markets, the backdrop remains constructive, supported by active client engagement, and gradually improving financing and advisory activity across our core mid-market sectors. Mining continued to be a significant contributor during the quarter.

While underlying demand remains constructive, the pace of financing activity may moderate from recent levels as market conditions evolve. Activity in other sectors is beginning to broaden, although the recovery remains gradual.

Our advisory and corporate finance pipelines remain healthy, but the timing and mix of transaction activity are inherently difficult to predict. Next week, we'll be hosting our 46th Annual Growth Conference in Boston, which will be our largest ever.

Record registrations and a strong mix of public and private companies and investors from our 4 continents underscores our differentiated offering for growth companies and investors. This extraordinary level of engagement also gives us a valuable perspective on emerging opportunities and evolving investor priorities across the sectors and regions that we serve.

Although market conditions are inherently difficult to predict, we are focused on the factors we can control. Stronger operating leverage, disciplined execution, and continued progress against our strategic priorities positions us well to respond as opportunities emerge and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.

Reflecting this confidence, the Board has approved a quarterly common share dividend of $0.10 per common share. With that, Nadine and I would be pleased to take your questions.

Operator, you may now open the lines.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Jeff Fenwick with ATB Cormark.

Jeffrey Fenwick

So Dan, just a first question here, or maybe, Nadine, you referred to the net working capital position of the business, obviously, going through a period of real strength here, but I do find it hard sometimes to discern the actual sort of financial position of the firm or the available capital that might be sitting there for Canaccord to invest in growth initiatives. Any way to characterize if we were to look at that net working capital balance or what sort of amount of that would be available for you to deploy versus being tied up in the balance sheets of the various units?

Nadine Ahn

Yes. I think if you look at it from a -- it really has to be done at a regional level because we're regulated on a regional level.

So what you've seen is the strength, particularly in Canada with our growth in our wealth management business and also capital markets strong results over the last few quarters. It's really building up that operating working capital within our regulated Canadian entity.

So unfortunately, yes, you don't see it on an individual basis. But I think you just want to look at where you're starting to see overall the growth in the balance sheet and from a year-over-year basis, that growth in working capital is where you're seeing the ability to deploy.

I think that's really where we're seeing surplus. We've seen obviously a return to strength in the U.S.

with some growing profitability there, opportunities to continue to invest. But it is a bit difficult to see.

But I think if you just look at, kind of, where the year-over-year changes, that's really the buildup that we're seeing, recognizing that we maintain appropriate buffers within our regulated entities.

Jeffrey Fenwick

And I asked that question just in the context of strategic opportunities that you might see in the marketplace where you're active today, Dan. Like, are there -- it feels like you could be in a position to do some larger investments if the opportunity presented itself.

Like, how are you thinking about it from that standpoint?

Daniel Daviau

I wouldn't consider ourselves balance sheet-constrained because whether we have the capital or we've raised the capital, and I don't mean dilutive capital, I mean debt, we're not going to be constrained on acquisitions we want to do, Jeff. Like, we're going to do what makes sense for us.

We don't have on the capital markets side of the business, we haven't outside of buying the odd M&A firm, that happens every couple of years. And it's hard to find the right firm and the right fit in the right sector at the right time with partners that you want to long-term partner with.

But outside of that in capital markets, we're not doing a lot of strategic activity in the capital markets side of the business. I don't foresee that changing.

On the wealth side of the business, we have done lots of acquisitions in the U.K. and in Australia.

And I wouldn't see ourselves capital-constrained. We could do anything we wanted to do when we would raise the capital or have the capital to do that.

So it's not -- the balance sheet isn't a constraining factor in that.

Jeffrey Fenwick

Okay. And maybe just your appetite for that.

I mean, when I look at, for example, your platform has done exceptionally well on the wealth management side of things as your numbers are showing us. At the same time, we've seen some transactions in the Canadian market with strategic investors that are paying seemingly some very high multiples.

So I mean, how you put the context there in terms of your capacity versus what you're seeing price-wise?

Daniel Daviau

Yes. I mean, we are -- I guess if there was a constraint, it's our valuation, right?

Things have to be accretive to us and makes sense. We're a strategic acquirer, not a financial acquirer.

So we have the benefit of synergies in anything we would look at. There isn't a lot of assets, material assets in this market to buy.

I think you can -- you know what they are, but certainly, we'd be in the market on anything and looking at everything. Nothing is happening without us knowing about it.

So if we're not there, there's a reason we're not there. We chose not to be there.

But yes, we would continue to look at buying in Canada and buying in Australia and buying in the U.K. in our core wealth verticals.

And as I said, I don't perceive ourselves constrained by that. Right now, the cheapest way to grow wealth is have -- give your advisers the tools they need to grow assets organically.

That's by far the highest return on capital. The second highest return on capital is hiring people, and we're aggressively recruiting in all of our key geographies.

That's the best -- that's the second best way to make money in growing wealth. And the third way to do it and still accretive is buy stock.

So we're looking at all of those paths all the time. I mean, our wealth management business now is $160 billion.

I think it was what it was $60 billion when we started, like it's a much, much bigger business than it used to be, and we certainly have the financial capacity to continue to grow it. And we think we should be growing it, certainly in Canada and Australia, and arguably in the U.K., we should be growing our wealth business.

It will result in better margins.

Jeffrey Fenwick

And maybe one last one here for me. As you highlighted in your deck, HPS and your partner in the U.K., they have the right to ask you to look for an exit for them from that investment as of the end of this month.

Any update there in terms of communication with them? Is that something you have to wait for the formal notice to come across your desk?

Or any color you can offer there?

Daniel Daviau

No. I mean, like -- yes, I know what the paper says, but we obviously talk to HPS every week.

So there's no formal anything to talk about it. I mean, our investor presentation outlines where we stand today.

We've really got nothing incrementally to disclose at this point with respect to U.K. wealth.

And we continue to assess a whole bunch of different strategic options there and really don't have anything incremental to add to our public disclosure, Jeff.

Operator

Your next question comes from Stephen Boland with Raymond James.

Stephen Boland

Dan, maybe you can just talk a little bit about U.K. capital markets?

I'm just trying to understand the plan for that division. It seems like you get to that $30 million in revenue, and you kind of get to the breakeven to a little bit of profitability.

How do you make that profitability more sustainable going forward? Like what's the -- I would say, the medium- to long-term plan, but, like, what do you do to make sure that you're getting your cost of capital out of that division?

Daniel Daviau

Good news is we don't have a lot of capital in that division. But it's -- the U.K.

is a tough new issue market. As we all know, new issues depend on companies wanting to raise money and investors wanting to write checks.

And unfortunately, in the U.K., they've been in an outflow position for several years between Brexit and foreign capital not going into the U.K. and a number of other factors in that market, including the government.

It just hasn't been an attractive market for foreign investors to invest in. Expat tax, they took away that.

So all the expats left the U.K. It's just not -- Canada, every market, maybe with the exception of the United States and India and a couple of others have a problem with a number of public companies in the U.K.

is right at the top of the list. U.K.

last year, I think we listed 22nd in the markets where IPOs happened. I don't know 21 other markets where IPOs happened.

So it's a tough -- to rank 22nd is pretty bad. So the new issue market in London is difficult because there's not a lot of investors out there.

But it continues to be a good domestic market for us. So what we've done in London strategically is aligned it with the rest of our business.

It does a lot of tech. It does a lot of mining.

It does a lot of health care, sustainability, the sectors we're good at otherwise globally. So that's what it's meant to do.

And as a result, it doesn't carry a lot of incremental cost. So it's very easy for us to not lose money in a difficult new issue market.

And where we've been investing there is in our M&A and strategic business. It is important both to our global franchise and the U.K.

that it's aligned from an M&A perspective with the rest of our markets. So I wouldn't envision us making material investments in the U.K.

or de-vestments in the U.K. -- divestitures in the U.K.

It's fine right now. It doesn't burn a hole in our pocket, and it's strategically important to the rest of our franchise.

And it really -- and I'll say this, and I'll get proven wrong down the road, it really can't hurt us. And as a result, it really can't help us a lot either.

It's not structured that way.

Stephen Boland

Okay. That's great.

Maybe 2 small questions on Australia. When I look at the compensation formula comp to revenue, it seems elevated compared to the rest of the business.

Is there a change or a difference in how the compensation works in Australia?

Daniel Daviau

No, I think you're referring to the wealth side of the business there as opposed to the capital markets side of the business because I think our capital markets comp ratios are pretty much in line. So maybe the broader business.

And the wealth business, it's just a scale game at the end of the day. I mean, that -- right now, the business has $20 billion in assets, but it was running at $13 billion the quarter before, pre the Wilsons acquisition.

And what you tend to find is there's a lot of comp in back office and support and infrastructure that doesn't go up when the business gets bigger. So just like our U.K.

business went from mid-teens margins, EBITDA margins to approaching even 30% at one point and our Canadian margins are improving as the business scales. That's what's going to happen with the Australian business over time.

You will see -- you will see the margins improve. And part of that is compensation because a big chunk of compensation goes to -- is not variable.

It is relatively fixed in terms of back-office support, I think compliance, infrastructure, all that kind of stuff won't go up as the business increases. On the capital markets side of the business, the comp ratio is more or less in line.

All of our comp ratios are elevated a little this quarter in capital markets because of our PSU charge. We have a comp-based scheme that's tied to the performance of our stock and our results.

So when our stock goes up and when our results are stronger, you will see compensation go up. It's noncash.

It's an accrual. But our overall comp ratio is probably just over 2%, Nadine, higher this quarter --

Nadine Ahn

Yes.

Daniel Daviau

-- because of PSU charges. So on an apples-to-apples basis, our comp would have been 59.5% across the firm.

It was elevated this quarter. That was all because of PSU charges and just Nadine having fun with accounting.

Stephen Boland

Okay. Yes, I might correct that.

And just on Australia as well, there was a big jump in advisory fees. So I'm not sure if this is just a one-off or is it addition like a team [indiscernible] you brought in.

Daniel Daviau

Yes.

Stephen Boland

I'm just trying to get an idea of how sustainable [indiscernible]?

Daniel Daviau

Yes. One-off -- if I had to classify it as one-off or continual, I would go more towards the one-off spectrum.

We did have a large advisory fee close in Australia in the quarter. I don't expect that to continue.

Although we have invested in advisory in Australia, like, 2 years ago, we did no advisory in Australia. We've hired some people and we continue to grow that platform.

But no, I wouldn't -- I think we, what $16 million, what we put up in Australia advisories. That isn't going to happen again next quarter.

So I think it's kind of going up slowly over time. Occasionally, you get hit by a pitch, which is what happened the last quarter.

Operator

Your next question comes from Graham Ryding with TD Securities.

Graham Ryding

Maybe I could just touch on the employee partnership side. It looks like in June, you did a third round here of this program of share purchases.

Can you just give us some context on how that program works in terms of, like, the size of loans that Canaccord is providing and then how much of that gets repaid throughout the year before you, sort of, move on and do the next round of repurchases?

Daniel Daviau

So it started at -- these are rough numbers, Graham, and Nadine, you can correct me when I get them wrong. It started at an $80 million program.

$80 million program was reflective of about 100 people at the beginning, so you can kind of do the math as to how much per person. It really was meant to match about 1x what somebody got paid.

The reason why it was 1x that someone got paid is because we take 20% of what they get paid every year and repay the loan. So the loan is structured to repay over 5 years.

Sometimes it repays quicker, sometimes it repays slower, depends on the level of compensation and what we take away. They're fully recourse loans.

In other words, if you leave, I can steal your house. They pay -- they're interest-bearing loans.

Interest more or less matches the dividend on the stock. So it's not a big cash outlay, but that's the plan on these things.

And remember that employees to participate in the employee partnership, yes, they'll get a $1 loan, but they've got to -- they have to come up with $0.20 in cash and actually buy some stock as well. So there's good coverage on the loan.

There's no exposure on the loan. Right now, the loan balance in the employee partnership is roughly $65 million.

I'll tell you why it's still $65 million in a minute. And the underlying interest in the partnership at 15% of fully diluted shares outstanding is like $250 million.

So there's all kinds of coverage between what the partnership owns and the loans outstanding versus that 4:1 or certainly over 3:1. So very, very little company exposure or risk in the underlying loan amount to the employees.

And there's really no cost to the company. As you can tell, we put this loan program in place for the last 3 years, and you haven't seen our comp ratio move.

So no matter how you flow the money in and out, there hasn't really been a cost to the company. So what a great program where now we've got the employees owning over 15% of the business as not as stockholders, as stockholders, like that stock has gone forever.

It's in the employee partnership and it's never coming out. So it's been a really good program in terms of aligning the employees' long-term interest with our shareholders' long-term interest.

So we're delighted that take-up has been so strong and good. What the Board has mandated us to do, and ISS doesn't love it, to be honest, but what the Board has mandated us to do is as the loans repay in a year, we take 20% of that compensation.

We repay loans. That loan repayment in the first year was $15 million because it was a bad year.

Last year, I think it was $23 million. I'm making up these numbers, but I'm not too far off.

We can recycle the loans and invite new people into the partnership or top up people as they mature in the business. And that's all Board-approved on an individual-by-individual basis.

They say, okay, that's a good person. You can give them a loan to come into the employee partnership.

So we did another 2% or 3% last year. So every year, it's like another $20 million.

And as a result, you've seen the ownership go from 10% up to 15-plus percent over the last 3 years. And we expect that to continue another 2% or so every year.

I guess it will depend ultimately on where the stock price is and what the loan repayment amounts. We're not taking the loan balances up.

It is what it is. And it's been a really, really good program.

I think we've got maybe 150 participants now in the employee partnership. There was, I think, close to 30 new participants this year we invited in.

So it's been a really good program for everybody. Did I answer all your questions on that?

Graham?

Graham Ryding

Sorry, I was on mute. So roughly -- that was helpful.

So you're saying the $65 million has roughly been steady over the last few years?

Daniel Daviau

Yes, not roughly. It's been exactly steady.

We literally -- whatever the loan repayment comes in is that's what the Board has given us permission to issue a new one. So it's dead steady.

Graham Ryding

Okay. Understood.

And then maybe I could just jump to U.K. wealth.

It looked like the organic flows rate picked up this quarter, I think sort of 3% annualized, just over 3% annualized, if I'm reading that correctly. Anything to call out that drove the improvement there?

And is this a reasonable run rate for this platform?

Daniel Daviau

Yes, I think it's a reasonable run rate for the platform. I actually think it's stronger than that between you and I.

But because what we really track is the managed flow run rate. And we reported 3%.

There is a small element of execution-only business in the U.K., which was relatively flat. So the managed flows were actually a little stronger than 3%.

And yes, lots of things to point out. I mean, it's been a 3-year Herculean effort by David Esfandi and the team there in terms of getting net organic assets.

Remember, we buy a lot of companies in the U.K. Every time you buy something, it kind of distracts you a little bit away from growing the business organically because you lose assets when you buy things and you're busy integrating and all that.

But between our new Chief Commercial Officer over there that's got a robust pipeline, we've been recruiting into that business. There's been other acquisitions in that market.

We've been hiring advisers that aren't happy with whoever bought them. We've got a restricted product offering there that's working well.

We've been converting assets from other platforms onto our platforms there. That's worked out really well.

So it's a really multipronged attack. And then we're using a lot of AI in the business, not only for lead generation, attracting new assets, but also to prevent asset outflows.

Remember, you're measuring net new assets. So if you can keep $1, it's like getting $1.

And then -- so right across the board, the business has been good. And then a lot of integrated financial planning, investment advice, that's been a big growth driver for us as well.

So it's really a 5, 6-pronged attack, and these things are starting to work. And we're seeing this is the second quarter now where we've had really good growth, and we don't see a reason for it to stop.

You never know. But right now, it seems like it's working well, and the team seems like they're executing well on that plan.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr.

Daviau for closing remarks.

Daniel Daviau

Okay. Well, thanks, everyone.

Those are really good questions. And as always, we're available to answer more if you'd like.

I'd like to thank everyone for joining us. Certainly appreciate your continued interest and support.

We have our AGM today. It will begin at 10:00 a.m.

So we'll be on that shortly. Details are available in our information circular and on our website.

Otherwise, we look forward to updating you again on our second quarter results, which will be in November. And with that, operator, we can close the lines.

Thank you very much.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. Thank you for participating.

You can now please disconnect your lines.