Scott Yessner
Analyst · Imperial Capital
Thank you. I'm pleased to share an update on our 2025 financial performance, investment holdings and liquidity. To start, I'd like to walk through our financial performance for the fourth quarter and full year 2025. Year-over-year, fourth quarter revenues were $279 million compared to $179 million and full year revenues were $968 million compared to $746 million. The increase in fourth quarter year-over-year revenue was driven by $68 million on higher trading gains on investments, primarily in Babcock & Wilcox common stock and by a loss of $72 million in fair value adjustments on loans receivable in 2024, which were offset by lower service and fee income of $33 million, which was comprised of $15 million in lower investment banking revenue and $20 million in revenues related to exited businesses. These fee declines were partially offset by higher net investment advisory fees related to a fund that holds SpaceX. The full year 2025 revenue increase was driven by $183 million in higher trading gains due to $126 million in investment appreciation, primarily in Babcock & Wilcox and a loss of $325 million on fair value adjustments on loans in 2024. The year-over-year revenue increase was offset by $150 million of lower service and fee revenues and $64 million in lower interest income from securities lending. The components of lower service and fee revenue decline were $66 million lower revenue from exited businesses of Revel, Noggin and the Stifel Wealth sale, partially offset by higher net investment advisory fees related to a fund that holds SpaceX. Further, $44 million lower Communication Business Group subscription revenue, driven by subscriber attrition and a divestiture of a Lingo wholesale business, and finally, $22 million of lower investment banking revenue. Fourth quarter operating expenses were $218 million compared to $345 million in 2024 and full year operating expenses in 2025 were $892 million compared to $1.24 billion in 2024. The $128 million fourth quarter year-over-year reduction of operating expenses was primarily due to costs from exited businesses and a $78 million goodwill impairment in 2024. The $352 million full year reduction of operating expenses was due to $186 million from exited businesses and lower cost of sales linked to revenue declines. $61 million lower interest expense from securities lending and a $104 million goodwill impairment in 2024. Our administrative costs have been elevated in the past 2 years, particularly on professional fees. As we return to a normalized operating cadence, we expect to reduce these costs and will update in the future calls. Continuing down the income statement. Fourth quarter other income, excluding interest expense, was $38 million compared to a loss of $59 million in 2024. And full year other income excluding interest expense was $247 million compared to a loss of $270 million. The $98 million fourth quarter year-over-year increase was primarily driven by fair value total markups of $66 million on Babcock & Wilcox stock and double down Interactive Holdings. The $516 million full year year-over-year increase was due to gains of $86 million on gain on sale of deconsolidation businesses, $76 million in Babcock & Wilcox stock value increase $67 million on senior note exchanges, $34 million in equity gains on the JOANN's GA Group liquidation deal and $273 million in investment markdowns in 2024. Fourth quarter interest expense was $20 million compared to $31 million in 2024 and interest expense for the full year of 2025 was $93 million compared to $133 million in 2024, which was driven by debt reduction of $347 million during 2025. These details culminate with fourth quarter net income attributable to common shareholders in 2025 of $85 million compared to $900,000 in 2024 and full year net income attributable to common shareholders in 2025 of $299 million compared to a net loss of $772 million in 2024. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA in 2025 was $104 million compared to a loss of $114 million in 2024 and full year adjusted EBITDA in 2025 was $231 million compared to a loss of $568 million in 2024. Please refer to the reconciliation tables in our earnings press release for the adjusted EBITDA calculations. Next, I'll review our segment operating performance. Our segment presentation has been revised with the following changes. Our former Communications segment has been separated into 4 reportable segments, which we aggregate and described as the Communications Business Group. The Capital Markets segment had a few investment entities reclassified as nonreportable segments. These NAs are now captured in Corporate and Other. The Capital Markets segment, which is comprised solely of B. Riley Securities, had fourth quarter and full year revenues of $93 million and $265 million and segment income of $53 million and $89 million. The revenue and segment income increases are primarily due to a fair value increase in Babcock & Wilcox in trading gains. Core Investment Banking revenues were lower by approximately $222 million in 2025, which was a result of lower banker headcount, reduced client engagement from among things, late SEC filings at the corporate parent. The Wealth segment had fourth quarter and full year revenues of $47 million and $176 million and operating segment income of $8 million and $15 million. After completing the sale of $4 billion in assets under management in April 2025, the wealth segment completed a back-office integration and cost reduction program. Wealth ended 2025 with $13 billion in assets under management and 197 registered representatives. The Communications Business Group is the aggregate results of Lingo, MagicJack, Marconi and United Online Reportable segments. The Communications Business Group had fourth quarter and full year aggregate revenues of $63 million and $250 million and aggregate income for the fourth quarter and full year of $13 million and $47 million. The results exceeded our expectations in 2025. While the Communication Services have a declining customer base, we have a strong team who does a very good job of servicing our customers and offering a very profitable and strong cash flow business. We will continue to evaluate opportunities to leverage this business model. The Targus business, which comprises the Consumer Products segment had fourth quarter and full year revenues of $49 million and $182 million and operating segment loss of $4 million and $16 million. Lower revenues, inventory write-downs, goodwill impairments and tariff costs led to the 2025 operating loss. Tariff costs were approximately $4 million, which have been submitted for reimbursement. We'll update if the reimbursement is realized. Tariffs, complex, chip shortages remain risk to the business in 2026. After several years of declining sales from the consumer product surge around the time of COVID, sales revenues have stabilized year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025 and into the first quarter of 2026. We are evaluating options to refine our pricing model and cost structure as key opportunities in 2026. Next, I would like to provide an update on the company's Investment Holdings portfolio. which are reported in our balance sheet in Securities and Other investments, Loans Receivable at fair value and Equity Investments. Investments are held across the consolidated entities where valuation changes are booked as revenue and either trading gains or realized and unrealized gains, depending on the entity. Securities and other investments increased by $165 million to $447 million at year-end 2025. The increase was primarily driven by a $129 million value increase in Babcock & Wilcox and a $28 million increase in partnership interest and other related to our carried interest in funds that own SpaceX. At 12/31 2025, the Babcock & Wilcox stock price used in the valuation was $6.34. The company owned approximately 27.5 million shares at December 31, 2025, and at March 31, 2026. The SpaceX carried value was marked at $421 per share at 12/31 2025. Securities and other investments are reported in the 10-K table with subtotals, including public equities, private equities, corporate bonds and other fixed income securities, along with partnership interest and other. In the public equities in addition to the Babcock & Wilcox valuation change, DoubleDown Interactive and Synchronoss were lower primarily from selling a portion of the holdings with small changes in price. The private equities subtotal amount, which has over 60 investments, including the Venture Capital portfolio, had $34 million in new investments, $10 million in liquidations and the balance of the year-over-year change due to valuation updates. The venture capital portfolio has a few maturing investments that may be realized in the next 12 to 24 months. Corporate bonds increased $2.7 million, primarily due to an increase in value, partnerships and other investments increased primarily due to the SpaceX security interest value increase identified earlier. We operate the securities and investment portfolio to maximize shareholder returns and to support operational funding and liquidity requirements. Continuing with investment holdings loans receivable at fair value declined $64 million in 2025 to an ending balance of $26 million at 12/31 2025. Loan lending activity included approximately $110 million of fundings and $170 million of repayments, primarily driving the balance decline. Exela Technologies represents $21 million of the remaining balance, of which approximately $15 million is due in 2026. We expect to continue to fund loan and credit structures for our clients in 2026. For the last balance sheet line item in our investment holdings, equity method investments were $90 million at 12/31 2025, increasing $5 million from December 31, 2024, increase was primarily due to $4 million of investments transferred from partnerships. The GA Group investment formerly Great American, comprises $83 million of the 12/31/25 balance. In 2025, the GA Group had good financial performance and hired new executives to support their expansion, including a new CEO. Due to the GA Group capital structure, we've recorded the investment using the hypothetical liquidation at book value method. Well, we don't anticipate this booking method will result in a significant movement in our balance sheet valuation periodically, we believe the value will grow over the next few years. Having grown GA Group since 2014, we know this business well. We'll continue to update business performance periodically and seek to participate in equity and debt deals as partners to GA Group, as we did in 2025 with a $34 million equity gain in the JOANN's liquidation equity earnings and the lending we provided to GA Group in 2025. Next, I'll provide an update and remarks on our liquidity and capital. At year-end December 31, 2025, cash, restricted cash and cash equivalents balance was $229 million compared to $247 million at December 31, 2024. In 2025, BRC Group produced total debt by $347 million, which included a $147 million RILYN bond redemption on February 28, 2025, $127 million in bond exchanges and $98 million in pay downs of term loans offset by $23 million of other increases in debt borrowings. Net debt declined $437 million in 2025 to $627 million at December 31, 2025. As we enter 2026, we have 3 senior note series maturing in 2026 for a total principal amount of $457 million with an additional $16 million in scheduled paydowns on a subsidiary lending facility. On March 30, 2026. The Riley K senior notes were fully redeemed for approximately $96 million, inclusive of accrued interest. Remaining in 2026 and based on the balances at 12/31 2025 we have $178 million in principal amount of RILYN in senior notes due September 30 and $177 million in principal amount of Riley G notes due December 31, maturing. On March 12, we announced $30 million in senior note reductions through Section 39 exchanges and buybacks, which are across the senior note series, including all 3 series in 2026. We will continue to use capital actions and also use cash generated from operations and investment liquidations to fund the scheduled senior note paydowns and support our operations. Continuing interest expense in 2025 totaled $93 million. In 2026, interest expense based on scheduled paydowns is estimated to be approximately $81 million expected to be lower due to the debt exchanges already announced in our anticipation of continuing these capital actions. To conclude, our capital and liquidity plan in 2026 is to fund our emerging credit market opportunities, support our clients with capital and advisory services, support holding investments to their optimal assets, while funding the remaining senior note redemptions in 2026. Thank you for the opportunity to share this update today. We look forward to answering your questions. I'll turn the call back to the operator for a Q&A session.