Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. Fiscal 2022 fourth quarter results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by the two. If you have any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance at any time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded, broadcast live on the Internet. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Dan Daviau, President and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator, and thanks to everyone joining us for today's call. As always, I'm joined by Don MacFayden, our Chief Financial Officer. Following the overview of our fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 results, both Don and I will be pleased to answer questions from analysts and institutional investors. Today's remarks are complementary to our 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 in order to provide a transparent and comparative view of our operating performance. These adjusted items are non-IFRS financial measures. Please refer to our notice regarding forward-looking statements and the description of non-IFRS financial measures that appears in our investor presentation and also in our MD&A.
Despite the abrupt broad market downturn that began in January, we delivered a solid financial performance in both our fourth quarter and fiscal year, driven by continued growth from our wealth management divisions, very strong activity levels in our advisory segment, and a strong performance from our Australian business, driven by mining sector financings. With the benefit of our clear strategy and targeted investments to strengthen recurring revenue streams while increasing contribution from higher-margin activities, we achieved our sixth consecutive year of revenue and earnings per share growth. Revenue for the three-month period amounted to CAD 500 million, bringing our full fiscal year revenue to a new record of CAD 2 billion, a year-over-year increase of 2%. Excluding significant items, fourth quarter diluted earnings per share was CAD 0.52, which contributed to a new record for our full fiscal year diluted EPS of CAD 2.51.
Looking at expenses, we continue to benefit from enhanced cost savings driven by pandemic-related restrictions on travel and entertainment. We are maintaining a strong focus on cost discipline measures as in-person meetings and client events resume. On an adjusted basis, fourth quarter non-compensation expenses as a percentage of revenue increased by 4 percentage points to 21%. Despite this modest increase, our full-year ratio was lower on a year-over-year basis at 18%, which is relatively consistent. Adjusted compensation expenses as a percentage of revenue amounted to 61% for the fiscal year. Turning to capital allocation, our board of directors has approved a quarterly common share dividend of CAD 0.085 for the fourth fiscal quarter, contributing to a full-year dividend payout increase of 28%.
Through our capital deployment initiatives, which include common share dividends and share buybacks, we returned CAD 176 million to our shareholders over the fiscal year, which represents an amount equal to over 57% of our adjusted net income for the 12-month period. With that, let's turn to the performance of our operating businesses. Our combined global capital markets business earned revenue of CAD 312 million for the fourth quarter and CAD 1.3 billion for the fiscal year. Over fiscal 2022, we helped raise CAD 61 billion for growth companies, our second highest performance on record. The broad market decline in ECM activity that had been anticipated for some time began in our fourth quarter, and we expect it will persist for several more months.
Investment banking revenue of CAD 95 million for the three-month period represents a 64% decrease from the unprecedented record level in the same period a year ago, driven by contraction in M&A activity. I will note that this is still a strong result when compared to historical averages and reflects our enhanced market position in our chosen focus areas. Our Australian business was an outlier in this segment, with fourth quarter revenue increasing 29% year-over-year to AUD 62 million, driven by a 25% increase in investment banking revenue. This was the strongest quarter on record for this business.
Partially offsetting the decline in investment banking revenue that impacted all the other geographies, total advisory revenue for the three- and twelve-month period increased by 86% and 153% year-over-year to CAD 122 million and CAD 489 million, which is a full year record for this segment. This compares favorably to industry-wide global completed advisory fees, which over the three-month period increased by 8% versus the same period a year ago. The most substantial contribution came from our U.S. Business, which increased advisory revenue by 195% for the fourth quarter and 219% for the fiscal year to a record $317 million.
I will note that the adjusted pre-tax net income contribution from our U.S. business has grown substantially, amounting to a new record of $158 million for fiscal 2022. For context, prior to our initial investment to grow our advisory business in 2019, this business was operating near breakeven. Looking forward, we expect further enhanced contribution from our recent acquisition of Sawaya Partners, which has been performing in accordance with our expectations. Our Canadian and UK and Europe capital markets business also increased advisory revenues for the fiscal year by 66% and 118% respectively. Finally, fourth quarter revenue from our combined trading business was down 36% year-over-year, but increased 24% sequentially, reflecting increased volumes in the three-month period.
While new market realities point to a difficult period ahead for our industry, we see no reason to retrench from our commitment to fully supporting both companies and investors. Regardless of the market backdrop, we are driven to identify the clients who need us most and do everything to support them. Despite difficult market conditions, client engagement continues to be very strong by historical standards. Our investment banking pipelines are healthy across sectors and regions, but the conversion from pipeline to realized will be largely dependent on market conditions. Similarly, M&A activity remains strong, but advisory completions are likely to be extended as we navigate bouts of market volatility. Finally, our trading businesses are positioned for excellence in the face of any broad market volatility. We will execute for our clients just as we did through the unprecedented volatility at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our global wealth management businesses continued to deliver an impressive financial performance. Client assets at the end of the fiscal year amounted to CAD 96.1 billion, a year-over-year increase of 8% but a modest decrease from the high reached in our third fiscal quarter, reflecting lower market valuations at the end of the twelve-month period. Our combined wealth management operations earned revenue of CAD 174 million for the fourth fiscal quarter, a year-over-year decrease of 13%. This was primarily due to the anticipated reduction in new issue activity which flows through our North American wealth business. Revenue for the fiscal year amounted to CAD 720 million, an increase of 9% compared to the prior year.
Notably, commission and fees increased by 12% to a new record of CAD 587 million for the fiscal year, reflecting record contributions from all geographies. Excluding significant items, our combined global wealth management business recorded pre-tax net income of CAD 149 million, a year-over-year increase of 10%. In the UK and Crown dependencies, our integration of Adam & Company is progressing nicely, and we recently completed the acquisition of Punter Southall Wealth. This supports our priority of increasing the scale of both our financial planning and investment management businesses. Revenue for this business amounted to CAD 80 million for the fourth quarter and CAD 310 million for the fiscal year, increases of 7% and 12% respectively, primarily due to higher commissions and fee revenue and interest income attributable to the higher interest rate environment.
Following the completion of the PSW acquisition, HPS increased their investment through the purchase of a new series of convertible preferred shares of this business in the amount of CAD 110.5 million. With this investment, and with the small equity component to be issued in connection with the acquisition, the company will hold an approximate 67% equity equivalent interest in CGWM UK. Despite this modestly lower interest, we expect the benefits of increased scale in combination with organic growth initiatives will drive continued growth of the financial contributions from this business. While lower new issue activity led to softer revenue and net income contributions from our Canadian business, client assets have continued to strengthen, amounting to CAD 38 billion for the end of the fiscal year, an increase of 18% from the same period last year.
Over fiscal 2022, the average book per advisory team grew 17% year-over-year to CAD 260 million. This team also continued to grow discretionary assets under management by 35% compared to last year. The recruiting environment in Canada has become increasingly competitive, but we've continued to attract talented teams who see differentiated opportunities to grow their business with CG. This business was also recently recognized as a top-ranked Canadian wealth management firm in a national survey of investment advisors. Finally, our Australian wealth business continues to grow client assets and related revenue, benefiting from its alignment with a leading capital markets business in the region. This business earned revenue of AUD 18 million in the fourth quarter and AUD 75 million for the fiscal year-over-year increases of 3% and 20% respectively.
Commission and fee revenues for the fiscal year reached a new record of CAD 58 million, an increase of 12% compared to the prior year. The number of investment advisors in this business increased by 5% year-over-year, reflecting strong recruiting momentum. Whether through acquisitions or recruiting, the businesses and professionals that join CG Wealth Management have been able to unlock greater value on our platform, which is driving organic growth opportunities in all our regions. Looking ahead, we will continue to explore a range of opportunities for profitable growth in this important segment. In closing, while M&A pipelines have continued to deliver and our wealth businesses continue to provide a source of stable recurring revenue, we do not expect fiscal 2023 to resemble 2022 or 2021.
Alongside our clients, we are navigating a challenging and uncertain backdrop, which includes rising interest rates, inflation, a continuing tightening of monetary policy, and ongoing market and trade disruptions driven by the devastating war in Ukraine. Having said that, we begin fiscal 2023 with the confidence that our business has stronger downside protection than at any time in our history. Just as our recent successes were many years in the making, we've spent years shaping our business to deliver predictable performance for our shareholders in uncertain times. Our strong and properly managed balance sheet supports our ability to deliver market-leading services for our clients while maintaining ample liquidity and flexibility.
Consistent with what we've done in the past, we are using this challenging period productively to further entrench our position as the leading independent wealth management and capital markets business dedicated to the needs of growth companies and investors. We see several opportunities to increase our relevance in our core focus areas, and we are seizing opportunities for targeted and disciplined growth. With that, Don and I would be pleased to take your questions. Operator, could you please open the lines?
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by the number two. One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from Jeff Fenwick of Cormark. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everybody.
Good morning.
Dan, just wanted to start the questions here with Australia. I mean, it's been a nice bright spot for Canaccord on both aspects of the business, wealth and capital markets. Can you just remind us in the capital markets group there. I know a pretty significant amount of the revenue is driven from broker warrants and some equity awards that you get when you do work with the different issuers down there.
Yeah.
What does that mix kinda look like? Are you tending to crystallize on that revenue, or is there some risk of mark-to-market here if you know, some of these things sell off in future quarters? Like, how should we think about that?
Yeah. I mean, we've managed through a similar scenario in Canada in the past, as you know, like with broker warrants bouncing around. We do tend to try and monetize them as quickly as rationally possible. Often you're restricted on them. From time to time, you'll have insider information on them, and you just can't trade them, so but you don't have perfect liquidity. This last year was better than the year before. Hard to look at it quarter to quarter, but in terms of, you know, cash fees versus stock fees, so to speak, unrealized stock fees, you know we don't pay out on stock fees until they're sold, but they do get, you know, there's obviously provisions for compensation on them as well, and we mark them down substantially, you know, as much as, you know, the auditors will let Don do.
We do take big provisions for them regardless. Hopefully the volatility is muted. No, it's not gonna be zero, but it's muted relative to what the actual volatility is. You know, in busy markets, those positions expand. In busy, you know, markets that are going up, they expand and become more valuable. There is volatility in those results. We can't avoid it. We are actively monetizing them both, you know, pre the quarter and certainly post this last quarter, we monetized a bunch more of them. That's kind of the. You know, I'd give you a split. I wouldn't really give you splits, Jeff, but I can't give you splits because it bounces around all the time. Some quarters it's zero, some quarters it's 30%, right? It kind of moves around a lot.
Yeah. I guess that was kind of what I was driving at too, because it was such a strong quarter on the revenue line there. I wasn't sure if you were able to.
In fairness, we did 27 mining deals in Australia in the quarter. Like, remember that market is, you know, a very, very active resource financing market. We dominate the lithium trade. We're the number one mining underwriter worldwide. You know, it was a busy time, you know, 27 equity deals there. We're the number one underwriter by dollar volume, not by deal number, in Australia in calendar Q1 this year.
Great. Okay. Why don't we talk about the wealth management growth there as well? I mean, that's you referred to it in your opening remarks. What's the mix of the growth coming from? Is it bringing in some new advisor or teams into the platform? I know you're trying to capture more of the.
Yep
Assets that are being managed elsewhere within the business. How's that been progressing?
I think we're doing all of the above, and it's all gonna take time and has been taking time, which is what we expected. We brought on 20 teams of advisors, you know, and most of them have worked out pretty well. We've also been converting those assets, for lack of a better term, the non-fee-paying assets to fee-paying assets. That takes a long time. You effectively gotta, you know, bring a whole new team involved to do that. There's an active effort in place to do that, but that will take time. On balance, we're doing both things. I'd say it's probably more recruiting these days, less converting, but, you know, both are impacting it.
Okay. Maybe we could speak a bit about wealth management in Canada. I mean, your comments mentioned a range of opportunities for profitable growth. I know recruiting's been front and center for you. I imagine that gets a little more sticky through market volatility, but you know, what's the outlook for the pipeline? I'm guessing there's maybe the prospect of a platform add in there beyond just advisor teams, or how do we think of it now?
Yeah. Yeah. Again, I don't want to, you know, speculate as to the different things we can do. To be clear, we're continuing to hire advisors. I mean, we brought on, you know, a couple of huge teams in the quarter. We brought on another two, you know, two weeks ago. You know, great additions to the team. That's continuing. That pace of activity is continuing even with the volatile markets. You know, we don't, you know, more of the same is not a bad thing. That being said, we do have a fair amount of capital. We continue to believe in the Canadian wealth management space, and we are looking at other ways of, you know, related to our business, but other ways to grow our business there.
Hopefully in the next couple of quarters, that'll start becoming a little more tangible to people. Yeah, we'll continue to commit capital towards growing that.
Okay, great. Maybe one on the UK wealth. I mean, the assets under in there dipped a bit more than maybe might have expected. Is it a portfolio mix? Is it FX changes or, you know, that.
Yeah. I think.
was sort of an 11% dip there.
Great observation. If you look at the currency, we report that number, our assets in pounds as well as dollars, and you'll see most of that or all of that is pounds.
Yeah.
It's just the Canadian dollar rallying against the pound. The business continues to grow. In fact, you know, obviously, the market will impact it. You know, when the market was down, for sure it'll impact it. We do have organic growth, aggressive program on creating organic growth. We're actually cautiously optimistic that that's really working. You know, that's where our money's being spent, and that's where efforts are being spent now that we've got all these acquisitions done. It's organically growing that business, and we've had really good progress in our first year of kinda doing that.
Great. Okay, thank you. Thank you for that overview.
Great. Great questions. Thanks.
Your next question comes from Rob Goff of Echelon. Please go ahead.
Rob.
Thank you for taking my question. My first question would be on your outlook for inorganic growth in terms of could you talk to your priorities referencing advisory, or geographically Australia versus the UK? Have you seen private market values adjust as we've all seen capital or public market values adjust?
In wealth assets, potential wealth acquisitions?
Yes.
To your question, Rob?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, no. Unfortunately, no. You know, there's still lofty expectations. That being said, where are we really buying? The place historically we bought has been in the UK, right? Like, we've done a couple little things in Australia, but nothing really in Canada on the acquisition front. But in the UK business, even the valuations haven't adjusted. I mean, literally, the ink is still fresh on the deal we signed, you know, we closed on, you know, three days ago or two days ago, where we spent, you know, GBP 200 million to buy Punter Southall Wealth. We're not in the market at this second. I mean, there could be the odd little tuck-in thing, but, you know, that's a big acquisition for us and one that we wanna make sure is right. That's where the management team is focused, is on integrating that in.
You know, never say never, but it's not like we're buying something tomorrow morning, I can tell you that. By that point, who knows? Valuations may or may not adjust. I think what you'll see. You saw it in RBC's acquisition, obviously, in that market. I mean, even though the public market valuation was down, they paid a 60% premium. The price they paid was the same prices that we pay in the private market. It's easy to say it's trading poorly, but they're not, they're not trading wholesale poorly. You know, they're being bought at, you know, the same or better prices than the private companies.
As a follow-up, this may be more for Don, could you talk to how we might look at the profit margins going ahead, the impact of non-compensation expenses, you know, as we all go back to work and travel, et cetera, do creep back up?
Well, I think in terms of the non-comp expenses, a large part of that is fixed. If there is, you know, in a challenging revenue environment that will creep up just because of the fixed nature of those costs. T&E is a variable component to that. I think we're coming off of extremely depressed levels in particularly 2020, but obviously in 2021 as well. I think we're getting back to more natural levels, and there's a natural, you know, we have controls and policies and things to sort of not let them get out of control or get excessive. You know, it's an essential part of the business to be doing some promo and travel activity, and it's just natural that it's going to sort of be higher this coming year than it was last year.
Although I think our run rate, you know, towards the end of this last fiscal year is probably a steady-state kind of level for this coming year.
Very good. Thank you.
Those are quick and easy. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Rasib Bansal of TD Securities. Please go ahead.
Morning. Thanks very much. I guess the first question would be on the comp ratio. Like, more like a two-part question. The comp ratio this quarter at 60%, lower versus last quarter. First part is the lower comp ratio just a reflection of lower share-based comp, given the lower share price in the first calendar quarter? Secondly, how should we think about the comp ratio going forward, if you go through a period of potentially softer capital markets activity and given the really tight labor markets, would it be fair to say that the comp ratio might move in slightly higher this year?
I think on the comp ratio, I mean, yes, stock price does have some effect on it, but it's not totally attributable to stock price in terms of the stock component of our compensation programs. I think quarter-over-quarter fluctuation in comp ratio will always contain a little bit of bumps and bruises as we go from quarter to quarter. I think the better way to look at it is really annual, because you sort of smooth out those quarterly bumps that naturally occur. I think if you look at the annual comp ratio, we're just about pretty much on par or a little bit down from last year. I think that's the right way to think about the comp ratio.
I think it's been held pretty steady at that 61% level year-over-year for several years now, and we've managed to make sure that it stays within that range. A large part of the compensation is discretionary bonus-based, so it can have some pressure on that as revenues decline or if revenues decline. Because the variable nature of the bonus compensation part of that, it will be less impactful than if it were some sort of a really high fixed cost base.
You know, the comp ratio in our markets, even in a lower revenue in each individual market won't become problematic. They'll be the same. You know, we manage to those comp ratios, so that's pretty easy. The only time we get in trouble as an organization that our comp ratio can go up beyond our range is if a jurisdiction just falls completely out of bed. In other words, there's not enough revenue to even cover people's fixed salaries. You know, that's kind of where you get in trouble. Occasionally you'll. It'll be very understandable to you. You know, I won't mention a jurisdiction, but let's say we have a jurisdiction.
The comp ratio in that jurisdiction will go to 90%, not because there's a bonus pool, because the salary is going to eat into a very low revenue environment in an anomaly in a particular quarter. Overall, you know, people shouldn't be planning that our comp ratio will go up. That's, you know, a covenant with our shareholders.
Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. If I could switch gears to capital markets then. Could you speak to the pipeline and your outlook for the different geographies related to investment banking engagements and advisory engagements? How would you say it's shaping up like relative to the last maybe one or two quarters?
The pipeline is enormous. That's not the problem. Yeah, we've got lots of people who want capital. It's a question of whether we can sell it. The new issue revenue is down. I mean, obviously, you know, that's not gonna catch anyone's surprise. There are market windows. Like last week in Canada, our Canadian team, you know, popped in four or five deals in a, you know, the one week where the market was just, you know, accepting deals. Obviously from a new issue perspective, last year our, you know, M&A revenue was up CAD 300 million. Our new issue revenue was down CAD 200 million. Don't quote me on those numbers, but it's close enough. Right now in M&A, we're doing in a quarter what we used to do in a year.
Now that's not just because the M&A market's up, it's because we made a material investment in, you know, M&A boutiques and changed the culture of the organization over the last several years, so which is good. Our M&A pipeline continues to be incredibly robust, and we're executing upon it. Absent, you know, something happening to the M&A market, liquidity falling away, massive volatility in the market, we continue to think we will execute. Not probably at the exact same level we were executing before because that was massive, but it continues to be a pretty robust environment. The issue on pipeline comes down to the new issue business, obviously, and that really isn't a function of do we have customers, we have lots of companies that want to raise money in our core verticals. It's a question of whether the market will open up.
It's not even so much price. They'll even issue it at these prices. It's a matter of do we have buyers, and is that a smart decision, long-term decision for those companies? Not a perfect answer to your question, but, you know, that's the beauty and the, you know, the beast of capital markets is it's very hard to predict, you know, three months ahead.
Yeah, no, I appreciate the honesty. That's helpful. I guess just one last question then. If we potentially do go through a period of softer capital market earnings, how are you feeling about your level of excess capital currency and your ability to buy back shares if we go through that scenario?
Well, our capital position will continue to remain strong, and we're not worried about that in a risk-reduced capital markets environment. The NCIB, we continue to manage, you know, appropriately from time to time. That gets adjusted as we go forward. We've been active buyers, but it's not been huge amounts. I'd make a couple additional points on that. Number one, we've always said we're gonna pay our dividend commensurate with our wealth earnings. As our wealth earnings go up, we'll increase our dividend. We've increased it 5 times. We're up 25% year-over-year. As our wealth earnings recover and continue to go up, we will use our capital for that.
We've also said that we're gonna use our excess capital and money that we made in capital markets to buy back our shares. That hasn't changed. You know, query what our excess capital, which is the nature of your question, it will be to buy back shares. The only proviso I'd make on that in the current market is not that we need to keep capital because maybe the market will be volatile. Opportunities change. To Rob Goff's question, you know, maybe valuations will change. Maybe all of a sudden there's a better use of our capital than, you know, doing CAD 100 million substantial issuer bids. So we'll have to see. We'll have to assess. We're gonna be flexible.
We're obviously in an immensely strong position, having earned, you know, CAD 270 million last year and with a similar number the year before. We obviously have a pretty good balance sheet here to manage through any, you know, business transitions and opportunities that arise.
Thank you. That's helpful. Those are all the questions. Thank you.
Great questions. Thanks.
Your next question comes from Stephen Boland of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe, Dan Daviau, just talk about, you mentioned you're focusing on the UK and the wealth management practice, its integration, so obviously no, you know, no acquisitions over the next little while. I'm just wondering about your ownership level at 67%. What level are you comfortable at keeping that ownership level if you continue to think about further acquisitions down the road?
There's no magic number there. As you think about it, take the last acquisition we did of PSW. I think it's illustrative in that we bought PSW. It cost us GBP 160 million, roughly. We raised GBP 100 million of incremental debt from UK, you know, normal lenders. Then the GBP 65 million came from HPS, our financial partner in the transaction through a preferred share, which would have valued our interest in that company at, I don't know, $8-$9 a share. That type of, you know, when you do all the translations of pounds back and our minority interest. The point that I'm trying to make is we didn't spend a penny of our own.
If you think about it as a public company, we didn't spend a penny of our own capital to do that acquisition. We used debt, and we used HPS equity, which values the business at, you know, 17-18x earnings. It's by definition gonna be accretive to us. Even though our ownership interest came down, we didn't write a check, and it was an accretive acquisition, so therefore our earnings go up. No capital, our earnings go up. We'll continue to do that type of transaction as it comes up. We, there's no magic of 50% or any other number. You know, that being said, to dilute us below 50%, we'd be pretty aggressive on the acquisition front to require that kind of capital to continue to grow that business. Certainly no magic.
Prepare to get further diluted in that business, accretively further diluted, if that makes any sense at all. You know, we'll continue to do that activity. That being said, you pointed out at the start of your question, we don't have anything on the horizon right at this moment. We are busy focused on integrating a very large acquisition.
Okay. That's helpful. Maybe just a more general question, you know, on your energy practice. You know, past cycles, we've seen oil and gas when we're at these prices, the banking being pretty robust. We haven't seen that, I believe. I'm just wondering, in your mind, is this like a permanent structural change, you know, on the buy side in terms of, you know, demand for oil and gas products?
You know, you gotta think about where we operate in the nature of oil and gas products. I don't wanna be too bearish on it, but, you know, our biggest capital markets businesses are, you know, in resource-oriented sectors tend to be Canada and Australia. In Canada, that's not an attractive market from an oil and gas perspective, simply because the companies that are there are making lots of money, and they tend to have strong relationships with balance sheet participants. It's a, you know, we tend to excel where people don't make lots and lots of money. They need lots of money, and they don't tend to have strong banking relationships, you know, commercial banking relationships. We don't necessarily see the oil and gas market. The domestic oil and gas market is a very active market.
Plus, we have a political environment in this country which, you know, isn't really susceptible to attracting foreign capital to the oil and gas sector because, you know, difficult to get that to market, so to speak. That being said, we led a CAD 70 million deal last week. You know, like, we're going to continue to be active in the sector. We do have a presence in the sector. We continue to be, you know, focused on it. It'll mainly be on the energy transition sector as opposed to the energy sector. We've had an incredibly strong sustainability practice, globally, and that's important for us in the UK, That's important for us in Canada, the U.S., obviously, and Australia. I'd argue we're more focused on energy transition than we are on pure oil and gas, and your question was pure oil and gas.
Okay. All right. That's all I have. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
There are no further questions from the phone lines. I would like to turn the conference back to Mr. Daviau for closing remarks.
Okay, thanks. Those were all great questions. Operator, I really appreciate it and everyone appreciate joining today. This was our year-end results, so obviously it took us a little longer to report. We'll be reporting again in early August, so look forward to speaking to everyone then. Of course, Don and I and Christina and others are available for questions. Thanks so much. Operator, if you just wanna close the lines, that'll be great.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference call for this morning. We would like to thank you all for participating, ask you to please disconnect your lines, and hope everybody has a great weekend.