Craig Larson
Analyst · Credit Suisse
Thanks, Janine. Welcome to our first quarter 2013 earnings call. Thank you for joining us. As usual, this morning, I'm with Bill Janetschek, our CFO; and Scott Nuttall, Global Head of Capital and Asset Management. We'd like to remind everyone that this call will contain forward-looking statements, which do not guarantee future events or performance. Please refer to our SEC filings for cautionary factors related to these statements. And we'll also refer to non-GAAP measures on the call, which are reconciled to GAAP figures in our press release. This morning, we reported after-tax economic net income per unit of $0.88, which compares to the $0.99 that we reported in the first quarter 2012. Total distributable earnings were $291 million for the quarter, up sharply from the $164 million reported for the first quarter last year. This increase was driven by the realized gains from our balance sheet, which went from the $53 million we reported in the first quarter of 2012 to the $153 million that we reported this quarter. Importantly, these realized balance sheet gains will now directly impact our first quarter distribution given the change we've announced to our distribution policy. Beginning with this quarter, in addition to the fee related earnings and realized cash carry that we've always distributed in the quarter in which they're earned, we're changing our distribution policy to include 40% of the realized balance sheet income earned each quarter. This 40% is comprised of realized balance sheet gains, dividends and interest income, less realized balance sheet losses and interest expense. This realized balance sheet income component of our distribution will be paid out on a quarterly basis and replaces the annual additional distribution that we have historically announced in the fourth quarter of each year. With this change in our policy, we've announced a first quarter distribution of $0.27 per unit. This has the traditional fee related earnings and cash carry components, which are $0.10 and $0.08, respectively, as well as $0.09 of realized balance sheet income. And finally, before we move on, I'd like to remind you of our second Investor Day to be held in New York on Thursday, May 23. We will issue a press release in the coming weeks with information on the live webcast, but we'd like to invite you to attend in person. If you haven't already registered, please follow up with either Sarah or with me after the call. We all look forward to seeing you there. And with that, I will now turn it over to Bill to walk you through the drivers of our performance and give you an update on netting, and then Scott will discuss the environment and what we've been focused on across our different segments. Bill?