Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc. Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-07-29 18:15:53.0

Tags: Revenue, Call Transcript, Earnings, Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc., Real Estate, Business Operations, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Joel Jeffrey of KBW.

Joel Jeffrey - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

On the expense side, in terms of the headcount cuts that you guys have made, are you guys reaching a point of where you really can’t cut any further or is there more ability to cut on the non-revenue side?

Lionel Conacher

On the non-revenue producing side, I think we’re now at a point where we’ve got the IT admin ops department down to a bare minimum and I think at this stage we’re pretty comfortable when we look at our competitors and the number of people that we have in those functions supporting revenue producers that we’re probably close to at the most efficient or leanest relative to everybody else out there.

I’d say on the non-compensation side of things, I hope the work that we’ve done is being noticed by the market. Our non-comp expenses are down quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. In particular, I’d like to point out that on the real estate side of things, our real estate costs on an annualized basis in 2008 were up around $22 million. With the work that we’ve done and the consolidation of our real estate that we’ve done over the course of the past year and with looking forward out to 2010 and 2011, our real estate expenses should get down to about $14 million in 2010 and as low as 10 and a half in 2011.

So we’ve made some significant strides right across the board.

Joel Jeffrey - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

On the non-comp side, in terms of the marketing spend that you’ve had, is that something you’d see picking up again when the revenue side picks up again?

Thomas Weisel

Joel, I think what you’re seeing in Q2 is a lesser amount than what we expect in the second part of the year. It’s a little bit like during Q2, one of the conference we historically had, has been combined with the conference we’re now having in November. So you’ll see a slight pickup in the fourth quarter.

Joel Jeffrey - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Did you guys give the breakdown between equity capital market assignments between US and Canada?

Lionel Conacher

We didn’t break it out, but I can give you that information. In the US, we did 12 transactions, which represent about 61% of the revenues. In Canada, we did 12 transactions representing about 34% of the revenues. In the UK, we did four transactions representing about 5% in Q2.

 

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