Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Chad Abraham: Yeah. I would just say the signals for us is a bunch of the larger deal announcements and fees that we sort of announced the last couple of months that haven’t closed, obviously that gives us visibility into the second half. I would definitely say on our sponsor business, anything of size that needed credit was very difficult. I wouldn’t say it’s great in the credit markets. But we’re definitely getting financing packages. Some of those seller expectations are common in line. So with some financing package, some seller expectations coming in line, we’re able to get more transactions done obviously in some of our industry groups, industrials and consumer and some of the ones that are heavy sponsor focus. We’ve launched quite a few deals in the last couple of months and those are six-month processes.

So, we’ll see what closes. What I would say is, we’re getting — you get plenty of bids at the beginning, and at the end of the process, there’s not as many buyers standing as there certainly were a year or two. But we’re getting more and more of those over the finish line. So, I would say there is financing. And then, I guess, I would also add certain sectors are obviously easier than others in the sponsor space, but really across the board in industrials and healthcare and consumer and energy, we’re definitely seeing private equity get more active.

Devin Ryan: Okay, got it. That’s great. And then, just if I can sneak one more in here for Tim. Just on the write-off of the receivable. I’m assuming that’s just a complete one-off here with a one-off client to make sure understand that and make sure there is nothing else kind of to note there on the expenses? Thanks.

Tim Carter: Yeah. Devin, you’re thinking about that right. I mean, it’s a specific client who had a pretty unique situation, we’ve determined we should write-off that receivable, so we’ve fully written that off, there is no more exposure there.

Devin Ryan: Okay, great. Good stuff. All right. Thank you. I’ll leave it there. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Our next question comes from James Yaro with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open, sir. Please go ahead.

James Yaro: Good morning, and thank you so much for taking my questions.

Deb Schoneman: Good morning.

Tim Carter: Hey, James.

James Yaro: Hey, maybe just start with the muni finance business. I appreciate your comments, Deb, but maybe just thinking about the longer-term trajectory of that business. What’s the timeline over which you think the business fully normalizes? And then, I guess, with higher terminal rates, is there any reason to expect it can’t fully return to the previous revenue run rate?

Deb Schoneman: Yeah. So, first of all, just thinking about the path here. It’s a little hard to predict exactly, because one of the bigger drivers for us, for our business, is our specialty businesses, meaning the biggest driver of the improvement. And we need to see more inflows into high yield funds. And while that stabilizes here and there has been some modest inflows, it’s less than 10% of the outflows that we saw last year. So, that’s something to watch, I guess, I would say, as it relates to how soon the recovery comes in that business. And I would say, relative to your comment on overall rates and where those are, so the refinancing side of our public finance business, that obviously is impacted, and I would say as we move forward, you look back to the peak in 2021 that was driving part of it, so I would say we are focused on continuing to recruit and add to be able to build a business that’s bigger than that, but you’re accurate in that interest rates will impact the ability to get back to that sort of level.