Evercore Inc. (EVR) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. For important disclosures, please see the Morgan Stanley research disclosure website at www.morganstanley.com/researchdisclosures. The use of photography is not permitted. If you have any questions, please reach out to your Morgan Stanley sales representative. All right. So we are pleased to have with us John Weinberg, Chairman and CEO of Evercore. John, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Great. So let's talk about firm growth strategy and culture. So Evercore today, it's the fourth largest investment bank by advisory revenues. Growth has clearly been substantial over the years. How do you keep that momentum going? And where are the biggest drivers of your long-term growth strategy going forward?

Well, thanks for the questions. We have really been focused a great deal on our growth and really making sure that we grow in the right ways. We really believe that the way to drive the strategic growth of our firm is through really strong focus on areas that we think are the places where we can add the most value and also adding really strong people to do that. We have, I think, a really strong group of people in place now but we continue to look to grow that. Last year, we had our largest class of incoming lateral senior managing directors, and we continue to have a very strong pipeline. Our philosophy is to make sure that we have really strong people in each of our sectors. And so we're really watching those sectors carefully and making sure that as there is growth in those sectors, we're there. We've looked at our own footprint strategically and we've really made the judgments that we have a tremendous amount of white space. And so we continue to build out that white space. I think that one of the interesting things is that we already have continued to ramp. So we have 30 plus SMDs ramping right now from the lateral hires that we've made and also the promotes that we have. And we're really seeing an impact on the organization right now. We have really strong performance right now, and our momentum is good. Three out of the 6 largest M&A transactions we are in and 2 out of the 4 largest sponsor deals we've been in also. We have a strategy which we've stayed with and stayed very focused on which really has several underpinning pillars. And let me go through a couple of those right now. One is we are looking to expand and enhance our client coverage base. And what that really means is looking across our client base and across the world and looking at the places where we think there is white space. And so we've been adding to those white space by either taking strong people in other areas and focusing them or bringing in laterals. And we have added 2 areas such as building services, real estate, financials, and we continue to focus on that and build that out. The second very important piece of our strategy and with respect to expanding our client footprint is that we have several initiatives that are critically important to us, one being sponsor coverage. We've really added to our sponsor coverage over the last couple of years, and we're really seeing the fruits of that, in that we are really building our sponsor business and our coverage of those sponsors is leading to more and more revenue, certainly more activity and lots of really strong dialogues. We also are building out our client -- our product base, but we are trying to deepen and expand our client our product base. And so we're looking at our products across the board, and we are trying to really add to those products, we add to the product so that we can really cover our clients better, serve our clients better and really have more to give them. And for every client, there's more for Evercore to provide, that leads to better revenue, but even more importantly, it leads to better service. And then finally, we continue to stay very focused on the places around the world that are really growth areas such as financial technology regular technology and software, clean tech, biotech. And so we really have taken those areas. And we have really doubled down in terms of our coverage of those areas. And so we're really looking at those growth areas. So expanding and enhancing our clients, deepening and broadening our product base and then focusing on the areas that can be growing and be growing with them. And finally, the last thing is we're looking at our footprint geographically and figuring out where we can grow and where we can enhance our impact on clients.

Right. So a lot of different growth areas, a lot of white space. As you grow and higher, how do you maintain Evercore's differentiated culture?

Well, culture is something that you have to live and you have to think about it every day. And I think that it starts with that we -- when we're hiring people we have culture as a very important piece of what we're looking for. So we're not just going to hire someone who we think might be a spectacular superstar, but really would be countercultural. We want people who really want to be part of the team and want to buy in. And so it starts with that. But then I think it's something that senior leadership lives every day. It's something that we care deeply about and we work together to make sure that we listen to people, we communicate the important tenets of the culture and that we follow that. I think it's really one of the most important things that any firm could have, which is a unified culture, a culture where people believe in it and that really makes them feel better about the firm and better working together. So I think it's an everyday thing. And I literally spend probably every week, I go out to dinner with several of our partners, and we talk about just that.

Great. So I want to spend a little bit of time on the non-M&A businesses, such as private capital advisory and private capital fundraising. It's been a focus for Evercore and a focus for investors. Can you speak a bit to the opportunities here, anything on market share or growth opportunities in those businesses?

Well, I think that private capital advisory businesses are really in secular growth. I think there's a tremendous amount of opportunity with those. And our secondaries business, where we cover and buy and sell LP interests and as well as doing continuation funds is a huge growth area. We have a very strong business. We've been in that business a long time. It's really part of our diversification strategy. And we have a really strong group of people doing that. And I think that we are really a very strong market participant. I think we have a very high market share, and we continue to invest there. We're even -- and we also build out products there. For example, collateralized fund obligations is a product that we've just started to embrace, and we have really hired someone in to do that. And it's really part of the fact that we're saying very current. We're staying very much on top of it. It's a really important business for us. In terms of fundraising for sponsors, we have a very strong business there. We -- I think we're very proud of the fact that we are very, very thoughtful and selective about who we actually raise money for. And as a result of that, we have very high-quality funds that we represent. And frankly, one of the very interesting things about what this year was, it was a very difficult year in raising funds and yet it was our private fund group, our fundraising group's second best year ever. So really, the strategy is to be very selective, but whatever you take on, you do it really well. And I think it's really built a very strong business and reputation.

What about ECM? Can you talk about the next steps for your ECM business? And how do you plan to continue growing that over time?

We are broadening our ECM business. We've basically always been good in health care, and it's been a big emphasis for us. But we've also built out into energy, consumer. We have financials. So really, we're broadening where we cover and what we do on equity capital markets. We are adding capabilities. We're adding products like converts. And I think that with respect to the equity capital markets business, we continue to focus our attention on really the places where we can add a great deal of value. We've got a very strong asset in ISI. ISI is a very respected provider of research. And many companies really want to be part of really that life of that. And when we do take a company public or when we're involved, often our equity research becomes a part of that and I think that really helps companies. It's -- what's really important, I think, is that in terms of equity call markets, capital markets, we have a real ambition to be in the top 10. And I think that we're driving hard for that. And I think that we're really following a philosophy where what we want to do is we really want to add value an intellectual capital in every equity offering that we are involved in.

On the geographic side, that was one of the areas you pointed to in the first question of growth. Evercore has been very intentional building out a presence in Europe. What inning are you in, in that journey?

I would say third inning, maybe fourth. I think it's an area that we think we have real potential in. We've just -- we've been talking for a long time, many of you who know us -- we've been talking for a long time about Paris and we can finally really engaged in Paris and we've added 3 senior people from the outside. And we've taken a national from France, who was in the United States and moved them over. And we have a real office there now, and we are growing and we're feeling really good about that. And I think there's any number of areas in Europe that we actually could grow. We're going to grow in a very careful way, we're not going to go in and just go in and just do a big number of countries. We're doing it one by one. We're finding the right person and hiring. But I think there's real opportunity, both in terms of sectors as well as in terms of countries. We're building out our health care effort in Europe, and we're also building out our technology effort in Europe, 2 very traditional strongholds for us in the United States and worldwide. And we're very excited about what the European market can be for Evercore. We're going to grow it. And I think as I said, it's third inning. So I mean, we could easily double our revenues there over a reasonable period of time.

Great. That was a very thorough overview of the strategy. Let's go through the business environment. So M&A hits one of the biggest pieces of revenue for you. When we had you here last year, M&A relative to GDP was at 30-year lows, and we've seen some improvements since then. How would you describe the current environment?

I think it's a slow build. I think that what's going to happen is that over the balance of this year and next year, you're going to see a recovery and a build. We have a number of factors that are better than they were, but we certainly don't have the perfect set of factors to drive a big time revenue -- a big time merger market. You obviously -- CEO confidence is solid. There is access to capital. The markets are relatively stable and sponsors are getting a little more lively. But I think in every one of those categories, I think there is some reservation. And so you're seeing the market hold back. And I think that it's going to take time. I think sponsors is a critical part of that. I think when sponsors really do enter the market, what that does is it provides a level of activity, which really also puts liquidity into the market and also makes people feel like there is there's real opportunity and to run. Interestingly, the merger market is doing better. As you know, it's up 30% first 4 months of this year versus last year at this time. And we see that there is real activity across the board. That 30% is on a volume basis. But very importantly, the number of deals is actually down 5%, which one could argue is really a very important part of the merger market. And that really would be a big part of how people think about the market. I think that what will happen is that everything will begin to pick up, if you -- just anecdotally, inside Evercore, we're seeing our backlogs and our engagement letters and our conflict checks, they're all going up, and we're at quite high levels, very robust. And so I would say that from the standpoint of our activity levels and what we see inside we're feeling quite optimistic that really the markets are ramping and getting ready. But as I said, I think one of the most important things is that it's going to take time. I mean we all want this to happen quickly, but it will take through the balance of this year and probably into next year before we really see things in full force. And we hope that it builds faster, but I think that's really what the reality is right now.

And on the sponsor point that you made, sponsors are very critical to getting this cycle going. What will it take? Can you help level set with us where we are with sponsor activity you have high levels of dry powder, you have the need to return cash to LPs. So sponsors are still lagging strategic at the industry level. So what will it really take to move that forward?

Well, I think part of it actually is the pressure from LPs is going to help. Right now, LP capital is -- in many respects, is frozen and that LPs really want to actually get capital back so they can put capital back out or return -- or somehow find some returns. And so there's a lot of pressure on the LP side. I think the other aspect of that I think is really important is rates. I think to the extent that rates start to go down, I think you're going to see sponsor activity actually really pick up very quickly. I think there's a level of reticence to actually get portfolio companies in the market for the simple reason that people don't really want to sell at below the markets that they have. And I think that one of the things that would really help in terms of valuations is if rates go down and other sponsors can pay more money to buy in. But I think what you'll see is that there is a growing pressure in the sponsor community to actually really start to sell companies so that they can put -- so that they can, in effect, bring some money and then go back out and raise money. And I think there's just so much dry powder. It's going to have to all go to work and everybody is kind of look at really the competition and they're all going to say that they're all going to try and move things as quickly as they can, so they can get ahead of what I think could be a real tsunami because of the $3 trillion of capital that's out there, a lot of it is going to have to go to work relatively soon.

And so if we get rate cuts this year, how quickly can sponsors move? Is that something we could see this year? Or is that more of an...

Well, I think sponsors can move quite quickly. I mean they have -- as we've said, they have the dry powder, they have the capability. They've all been working really hard about what their investment thesis are in different sectors, different areas, different companies. They all have, I think, lined up. I think it will be quite quick in terms of how sponsor capital goes back to work.

And then a higher-for-longer scenario that we don't get any rate cuts this year. How are your clients thinking through that scenario?

I think clients for -- I mean with sponsors, I think that it's -- what it's really done is put a chilling effect on sponsors. There is some activity, but it's not broad and it's certainly not accelerated at this point. In terms of big companies, I think that people are quite comfortable with their balance sheets. They're quite comfortable with their cash positions. They're quite comfortable. And I think they're just waiting higher for longer. I think what that's going to do is people are just going to watch and wait. It will chill the merger environment a little bit. That and the regulatory environment. Those 2 things, I think, will chill things. But in effect, I think that what's happening right now is everybody is just waiting. And I think everybody, listen, I think it's just a question of when rates come down, it's going to take time, but the rates will come down. I think there will -- those who want to act and really have something strategic they want to do, they will do it even if rates are higher, but those who don't have to might wait. The other part of it, I think, is just thinking about the presidential elections. And I think that does create some uncertainty in the market also.

On regulation, that ties to collections. It's clearly tough. It's been tough for a few years. The track record in the courts have not been great. Are you seeing any change in client willingness to do larger deals given you now have some clarity on that track record and what type of deals are being challenged?

I think that there is a -- there continues to be a view that big deals can get done and in the courts companies who want to do deals can win. But I don't think there's a big appetite for right now. I don't think there's a big appetite for taking on the antitrust discussions. I think that clearly, the mid-market or the smaller deals get done quite easily. The bigger deals, especially in health care and tech are harder. And I think that there is a chilling effect by this regulatory regime. And I think the closer we get to an election, the more people are going to hold back and wait and see what happens.

Got it. So then on the restructuring side, any color on the restructuring environment?

The restructuring environment is quite healthy. And one thing we said that we continue to believe, which is that a good merger environment and a good restructuring environment actually can coexist, that we could have both actually quite healthy at the same time. In the restructuring side, there's a lot of liability management. There's a tremendous amount of activity in restructuring. And I think that our restructuring business is actually quite healthy right now. They're very busy. They have a lot of really interesting new assignments as well as things that are ongoing. I think it's a very good restructuring environment.

How long can that persist?

We think it can persist at least a couple of more 3 years, a couple, 3 years more. I mean we think that there is a -- the rates are high. Companies need to deal with that. There is -- their capitalizations need to be thought through. And what we're seeing is opportunities that continue to pop up, and those will extend. So I think the restructuring environment could extend itself for at least a couple more years at least.

On the expenses side, it's definitely a debate for the industry, comp ratio hiring. On hiring last year was a really strong hiring year, you hired a large class of SMDs. How should we think about the pace of hiring this year? And any impact that might have on the expense side?

Well, this year, we have 6 people who will be starting. I think we have 2 who have started, and we have 4 who are in the process of beginning to start who've already signed up. And our backlog of hiring is quite good. We have a very good lineup of people that we're talking to. We obviously won't land all of them. I don't know whether we'll get to where we were last year. But we're actually in a good place. We have some very strong dialogues going on. And I think that our ambition is that if there are really good people out there, we're going to hire them. There is a trade-off, obviously, between being very aggressive about growth and hiring and building your business and your comp ratio. And we're trying to balance that. So on the one hand, our comp ratio is we're focusing on bringing it down, and it's a target of ours to really keep it going down. On the other hand, we're trying to balance that with the fact that growth is really important, and I think shareholders want us to grow. And so we're navigating that. So I think what our shareholders should really expect of us is that we're going to try to very responsibly manage the comp expense, but at the same time, continue to grow where we think we can really have impact on our ability to make the business a value-creating business.

And can the comp ratio over time, return to historical levels? And if we get revenues picking up this year into next year, should we start to see that leverage?

I think you rightfully actually pointed to revenues. Revenues is the key. If -- as revenues go up, our comp ratio will go down, in terms of where it goes, it will come down over time, especially if revenues go up. I don't really feel comfortable projecting exactly where that -- where it will all end up. But I do think that what shareholders will see is that the comp ratio will continue to come down as revenues go up, and that is our intention. And we're going to really as careful as we can about managing that expense. But as I said, trading off to the fact that growth is a really important part of what we're trying to do for these -- for the company. We think we have a real opportunity if we grow with really high-quality people. And we think this is really a point in time where we have real opportunity to do that.

Great. Are there any final points you want to highlight before you wrap up?

I think the only thing I would say is that we've worked really hard to put ourselves in position to really drive value for shareholders. We think that we're covering more clients with more products that we are a place where people want to come and work. And I think that we are trying to make sure that we are very open-minded about opportunities where we could really add value. At the end of the day, I think we've never been stronger. We've never had better people. I think we've never been more focused on how the business we can do or how we can serve clients.

Great. John, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.