Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cohen & Company's Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. My name is Nicole, and I'll be your operator for today. Before we begin, Cohen & Company would like to remind everyone that some of the statements the company makes during this call may contain forward-looking statements under the applicable securities laws. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made during this call are made only as of the date of the call, and the company undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Cohen & Company advises you to read the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements in its earnings release in its most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Lester Brafman, Chief Executive Officer of Cohen & Company.

Thank you, Nicole, and thank you, everybody, for joining us for our Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. With me on the call is Joe Pooler, our CFO. We are pleased with our second quarter results and extremely excited about the development on some of our longer-term strategic initiatives across our SPAC franchise as well as our broker-dealer and asset management businesses. We are active in the multiple aspects of the SPAC market including a sponsor, asset manager and investor. Our company-sponsored insurance SPAC, Insurance Acquisition Corp., entered into a merger agreement with Shift Technologies, and we are now also the sponsor of a second special acquisition company, which intends to raise $175 million in an initial public offering of its units. Our Vellar Funds, which focus on investing in SPAC opportunities, raised an additional capital during the quarter. Cohen's involvement in the SPAC market, both as a sponsor and as an asset manager, has given the firm access to unique investment opportunities, one of which drove the revenue in our principal investing segment this past period. We've a long history in the SPAC space, and we intend to continue building our SPAC franchise and capitalizing on opportunities in this area. On the broker-dealer side, we continue to grow our mortgage complex, specifically our Gestational Repo business, where our balances increased to $2.3 billion by the end of the quarter. Our European investment and advisory subsidiary successfully launched another series of closed-end investment vehicles at this point totaling in excess of EUR 375 million. I am proud of our company's ability to drive initiatives forward, while navigating this uniquely challenging environment. We are optimistic that the strategic investments we have made in these businesses will continue to pay off, and we remain committed to executing on our objectives and a continued focus for enhancing stockholder value. Now I will return the call over to Joe to walk through this quarter's financial highlights in more detail.

Thank you, Lester. We will start with our statement of operations. Our net income was $3.3 million for the quarter or $0.69 per diluted share compared to net loss of $11.8 million for the prior quarter or $2.70 loss per diluted share and net loss of $1 million for the prior year quarter or $0.36 loss per diluted share. The prior quarter results included a $7.9 million goodwill impairment charge. Excluding the goodwill impairment charge from the prior quarter's loss, net income still improved a robust $7.2 million from the prior quarter. Our adjusted net income was $4 million for the quarter compared to adjusted net loss of $3.7 million for the prior quarter and adjusted net loss of $900,000 for the prior year quarter. Again, the quarter-over-quarter comparison saw a strong $7.8 million improvement in adjusted net income. Note that adjusted net income is not a measure recognized under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. See our disclosures, calculations and reconciliations surrounding adjusted net income in our earnings release. Net trading revenue came in at $20 million in the second quarter, up $1.4 million from the first quarter and up $11.3 million from the second quarter of '19. The increase from the first quarter was primarily the result of increased trading from our Gestation Repo group and from our wholesale trading desks. Our Gestation Repo balances have grown to $2.3 billion as of June 30, '20. The increase from the second quarter of '19 was primarily the result of increased trading across all the broker-dealers' trading desks including our Gestation Repo and our GCF Repo groups. Our asset management revenue totaled $1.7 million in the quarter, up slightly from the prior quarter and down slightly from the year ago quarter. Second quarter 2020 principal transactions revenue was $2.3 million compared…

Thanks, Joe. Please direct any off-line investor questions to Joe Pooler at (215) 701-8952 or via e-mail to investorrelations@cohanandcompany.com. The contact information can also be found at the bottom of our earnings release. Operator, you can now open up the call lines for questions, and thank you everyone for joining us today.

Okay. Thank you, Nicole. And again, thanks, everyone, for joining us today.

This does conclude today's conference call. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.