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

Chad Abraham: Yeah. I mean, I’ll let Deb comment on the fixed income side. I mean, obviously, relative to the regulatory side, I’ve said this on the call last time. I think everybody was so excited with sort of what happened, was there going to be a lot more consolidation and depositories, and we sort of said that, yes, eventually that will happen, but it came to a screeching halt until people get some clarity. This is the first week we announced a couple of very significant transactions in the depository space. We are definitely seeing activity pickup. Obviously, there is a long closed cycle on that, and whether that’s a slow build or it starts to pick up and really accelerate at the beginning of next year, what we do know is we’re going to be — it’s difficult for everybody. We’re still gaining market share in depository, so eventually it’s going to be very good for us. And, I’ll let Deb talk about some of the rules relative to balance sheet.

Deb Schoneman: Yeah. And what I would say relative to the fixed income business, depositories are a large part of our business. It’s actually the primary reason why we’re seeing the softness in our fixed income results right now, because there is such a lack of clarity on interest rates, etc. So, as we think about our business, I would think about it much more as advisory in nature, working with banks across their asset and liability management. Right now, we’re doing a lot of work with banks on helping them manage interest rates through our derivative product, creating liquidity by selling loans. So, it’s not a use our balance sheet to drive business, it’s much different and much more advisory based.

James Yaro: Okay. That’s very clear. Thank you so much.

Deb Schoneman: Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] We’ll go next to Steven Chubak with Wolfe Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Brendan O’Brien: Good morning. This is Brendan O’Brien filling in for Steven. I guess, to start, I want to ask a bigger picture question. Last year, you outlined a target of growing the corporate and investment banking business to over $2 billion. At that time, you obviously were not anticipating the slowdown that we have endured. But at the same time, these types of environments do tend to offer better opportunities to both recruit and acquire new talent and platforms. I was hoping you could discuss some of the areas that you have been investing in and are looking to invest in further to hit this target, and whether there’s any interest in doing a more meaningful acquisition in the current market, and maybe you could speak to your confidence in being able to hit that $2 billion number, I believe, it was by 2026?

Chad Abraham: Yes. What I would say is, I mean, when we did that, we had a lot of analysis, sort of, by industry team on what the opportunity was. And frankly, even in our two biggest sectors in healthcare, we’ve always been traditionally really good in med tech and biotech, and we thought services could be a third leg on the stool. We’ve continued to invest there. Absolutely still believe that, even in financial services where it’s a very significant business and in the middle market, we’re the leader. There was a huge opportunity for us in terms of outside of depositories and we’ve significantly done that, invested in our insurance business, asset management business, the real estate business. And so, we think that opportunity is significant.