B. Riley Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:RILY) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 28, 2022 4:30 PM ET

Company Participants

Bryant Riley - Chairman and Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Tom Kelleher - Co-Founder and Co-CEO

Phillip Ahn - CFO and COO

Conference Call Participants

Sean Haydon - Charles Lane Capital

Anthony Perrella - Punch & Associates

Brett Hendrickson - Nokomis

Disclaimer*: This transcript is designed to be used alongside the freely available audio recording on this page. Timestamps within the transcript are designed to help you navigate the audio should the corresponding text be unclear. The machine-assisted output provided is partly edited and is designed as a guide.

Operator

00:04 Good afternoon, and welcome to B. Riley Financial's First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Earlier today, B. Riley issued a press release and presentation detailing its financial results for the first three months of 2022. Copies are available in the Investors section of the company's website at ir.brileyfin.com. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and the audio replay will be available on the company's Investor Relations website later today.

00:34 Joining us today from B. Riley are Bryant Riley, Chairman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO; Tom Kelleher Co-Founder and Co-CEO; and Phillip Ahn, CFO and COO. After management's remarks, we will open the line for questions. And before we conclude today's call, I will provide the necessary cautions regarding forward-looking statements.

00:57 I will now turn the call over to Mr. Bryant Riley. Please proceed.

Bryant Riley

01:03 Thanks. Welcome everyone. In many ways, our first quarter is personally as gratifying as any quarter we have reported since going public in 2014. To generate over $84 million in operating EBITDA in an environment in which our historically biggest profit drivers revenue were down almost 75%, I'm speaking of investment banking, which declined from $128 million to $34.2 million year-over-year in revenues, illustrates the steps we have taken over the last 10 years to insulate our overall business from a large market volatility.

01:37 Additionally, generating operating EBITDA of over $10 million in our brokerage business despite this large slowdown, while aggressively continuing our investment in M&A and fixed income personnel illustrates the commitment we have maintained towards expense management.

01:51 Given the slowdown in capital markets and the overall decline in the equity markets, I thought it would make sense to reiterate our dividend and business strategy and Tom and Phil will speak more specifically to the business units later in the call.