Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 6 of 10

Steven Chubak: So, Scott and Lindsey, I wanted to try and set out some guidance on how we should be thinking about the FVA business. And now this was a business that was growing at a relatively consistent, let’s call it, like mid single, high single-digit type clip up until COVID and then you saw this meaningful step function higher, where you have been running somewhere in like the $75 million plus or minus type per quarter zone and this is the first quarter where we have actually seen like a decent step down, even more acute than what we saw in Corp Fin, which was merely a bit surprising. You have been gaining share in that business fairly steadily. You talked about some of those things on the last quarter’s call. I was hoping to get some perspective on how we should think about the jumping off point for this year, recognizing the M&A environment remains challenged, but your franchise continues to gain pretty strong momentum.

What’s a reasonable expectation for revenues for that business?

Scott Beiser: It is historically the most steady of our businesses. You are correct, statistically, it took a bigger drop than some of our other business segments over time. Occasionally, this group does end up with some, for its business, some sizable projects just didn’t have many of those in this particular quarter. So you will occasionally get a little bit of a lumpiness. I think the diversification that we have in the service lines is still the right mix that we have. But it is being impacted negatively to some extent, like, Corporate Finance and at least in the public M&A space, which has come down from where it was a year ago. But we think the ultimate trend lines in terms of growth potential is still there. We have got more senior bankers in there as we ever have.

We have the biggest staff that we have ever had there. We are more global in our reach than we have done in the past. We continue to introduce kind of some sector expertise into what historically was probably much more just service line oriented and kind of would just chalk it up things didn’t fall into place in that December quarter and would expect to continue to see some growth from that standpoint. What is a normalized level? Probably be a little better now after another quarter or two recognizing, like you said, that we did have a decline this quarter. I think we will all know a little bit more in the next quarter or two on how those quarters shape up to be able to give you a little more guidance on what should be the normalized level and running off from there.

Steven Chubak: No. That’s great color, Scott. And just one follow-up on the comments regarding the myriad of factors impacting deal activity. What I wanted to suss out is whether you still expect to see the inflection in M&A activity sooner relative to peers? I know, historically, your franchise tends to feel the pain first when the environment slows, but also typically recovers more quickly as activity picks up?

Page 6 of 10