Canaccord Genuity Group Q4 2026 Earnings Report

Canaccord Genuity Group EPS Results

• Actual EPS: C$0.48
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Canaccord Genuity Group Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $612.69 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Canaccord Genuity Group Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2026
• Date: 6/3/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, June 4, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

Canaccord Genuity Group (TSE:CF), a full-service financial services company, provides investment products, and investment banking and brokerage services to institutional, corporate, and private clients. It operates in two segments, Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets and Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management. The Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets segment offers investment banking, advisory, research, merger and acquisition, sales, and trading services. The Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management segment provides wealth management solutions, and brokerage and financial planning services to individual investors, private clients, charities, and intermediaries. The company operates in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Canaccord Genuity Group Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Record fiscal 2026 results were driven by strong execution, with firm-wide revenue rising 33% in Q4 to CAD 613 million and full-year revenue reaching a record CAD 2.2 billion.
• Positive Sentiment: Profitability improved sharply, as adjusted diluted EPS increased 300% year over year in Q4 to CAD 0.48 and 107% for the full year to CAD 1.26, while fiscal 2026 pre-tax operating margin expanded by 3.5 percentage points.
• Positive Sentiment: Capital markets momentum remained strong, with Q4 revenue up 37% and full-year revenue up 26%, supported by robust mining-related activity, stronger underwriting, advisory, and commission revenue, and 472 capital-raising transactions totaling more than CAD 63 billion.
• Positive Sentiment: Wealth management delivered another record year, marking its tenth straight quarter of revenue growth and ending fiscal 2026 with client assets at a record CAD 148 billion, up 23% year over year, helped by organic inflows and the Wilsons Advisory acquisition in Australia.
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised its quarterly dividend by 17.6% to CAD 0.10 per share and said it expects fiscal 2027 firm-wide pre-tax operating margin to improve by low single digits, signaling confidence in continued earnings momentum.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. Fiscal 2026 fourth quarter results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Following the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the star then the number two. If you have any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star then zero for operator assistance at any time. As a reminder, this conference call is being broadcast live online and recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, Mr. Daviau.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Thank you, operator, and welcome to everyone joining today's call. As always, I'm joined by our Chief Financial Officer, Nadine Ahn. Our remarks today are complementary to our earnings release, MD&A, and supplemental financials, copies of which have been made available for download on SEDAR+ and on the investor relations section of our website at cgf.com. Within our update, certain reported information has been adjusted to exclude significant items to provide a transparent and comparative view of our operating performance. These adjusted items are non-IFRS measures. Please refer to our notice regarding forward-looking statements and the description of non-IFRS measures that appear in our MD&A. With that, let's discuss the fourth quarter and fiscal 2026 results. Q4 began on a constructive note, with the markets rising in January on strong earnings and enthusiasm around AI-driven productivity.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Sentiment weakened over the balance of the three-month period as geopolitical conflict, sharp moves in oil, bond, and currencies, and a rotation away from growth in technology weighed on investor confidence. Gold prices also reflected the broader volatility, reaching a record high in January before entering a multi-week sell-off and declining nearly 17% by quarter end. Against this backdrop, our teams remained focused on disciplined execution, supporting a solid quarterly result and a strong finish to the fiscal year. Firm-wide revenue of CAD 613 million for the three-month period increased 33% year-over-year, representing our third highest quarterly revenue on record. For the full fiscal year, revenue reached a record CAD 2.2 billion, reflecting an operating model designed to protect shareholder value across market cycles. The fourth quarter revenue contribution from our capital markets division increased by 37% year-over-year.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

This reflected stronger investment banking and commission and fees revenue led by our Canadian and Australian businesses, where mining sector activity remained robust, although modestly below the exceptional levels achieved in the prior quarter. Our Canadian business also delivered an exceptional advisory result in the quarter. For fiscal 2026, capital markets revenue increased to its highest level since fiscal 2022. This performance reflected robust underwriting activity in Australia, strong underwriting and advisory activity in Canada, and disciplined execution across our global platform. We continue to rank among the league table leaders in our target sectors and continue to maintain our position as the most active mid-market dealer globally. During the year, we participated in 472 capital-raising transactions, raising more than CAD 63 billion for growth companies, a 70% increase over the prior year.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Our wealth management division delivered its tenth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, which brought fiscal 2026 revenue earned by this division to a record CAD 1.1 billion, up 24% from fiscal 2025. Growth in the three and 12-month period was led by stronger commission and fee revenue, reflecting higher client engagement levels as market conditions improved. Results in our Canadian and Australian business also benefited from elevated transaction-based revenue, particularly from new issue activity, which typically carries higher margins but is more market-dependent. This has been a positive contributor in recent quarters, margin progression in these businesses may moderate as activity levels normalize. We ended the year with record client assets of CAD 148 billion, up 23% year-over-year, driven by market appreciation, strong organic net inflows, and the addition of Wilsons Advisory in Australia.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

We continued to invest in and scale this platform through targeted recruitment, expanded product capabilities, and selective acquisitions, strengthening our ability to attract and retain assets, drive net inflows, and improve the quality of earnings over time. Across the organization, we continue to manage expenses carefully while maintaining disciplined investment in areas that support long-term growth. Excluding significant items, firm-wide pre-tax net income increased 176% year-over-year to CAD 89 million in the fourth quarter, and adjusted diluted earnings per share rose 300% to CAD 0.48. For the full year, adjusted diluted earnings per share were CAD 1.26, up 107%, reflecting stronger operating leverage and improved profitability across the platform. Throughout the year, we took deliberate steps to allocate resources and capital to the areas where we can deliver the greatest value to clients and compete most effectively.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

In Australia, the Wilsons Advisory acquisition materially strengthened our platform, adding 60 advisors and establishing a truly national wealth management footprint, bringing complementary talent and relationships to our capital markets business in the region. In the U.S., the acquisition of CRC enabled the formation of our new Energy Transformation group, deepening our capabilities in the higher growth advisory segments while strengthening our offering for sustainability sector clients and related mandates across our broader sector platform. With that, I will turn things over to Nadine.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. As Dan mentioned, we delivered very strong fourth quarter results and capped the year with record revenue and materially improved profitability. Firm-wide pre-tax net income for the fourth fiscal quarter increased 176% year-over-year to CAD 89 million, bringing full year pre-tax net income to CAD 263 million, up 76% from fiscal 2025. This translated to adjusted diluted earnings per share of CAD 0.48 in the quarter, up 300% year-over-year, and CAD 1.26 for fiscal 2026, an increase of 107% over the prior year. While a more supportive market backdrop contributed to top-line growth, operating discipline drove significantly stronger profitability. For fiscal 2026, our pre-tax operating margin improved by 3.5 percentage points compared to fiscal 2025.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Firm-wide non-compensation expenses, excluding significant items, were CAD 155 million in the fourth quarter and CAD 601 million for fiscal 2026, with the full-year increase reflecting acquisition-related growth, higher activity levels, and continued investment in our platforms. Our non-compensation expense ratio improved by 5.6 percentage points year-over-year to 27.2%. Compensation expense increased with stronger performance across the organization in addition to changes in our revenue mix, while share-based compensation increased year-over-year, primarily due to mark-to-market changes in the valuation of certain awards. Our firm-wide compensation ratio was 60.9% for fiscal 2026. Turning to business unit performance, Capital Markets contributed adjusted pre-tax net income of CAD 58 million in the fourth quarter, bringing the fiscal 2026 contribution to CAD 141 million, an increase of 222% from the prior year. The adjusted pre-tax profit margin in this division was 20% in the fourth quarter, driven by stronger revenue and improved operating leverage.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Fiscal 2026 margin was 13.5%, up 8.2 percentage points from the prior year. On a consolidated basis, capital markets revenue increased 37% year-over-year to CAD 292 million in the fourth quarter and 26% to CAD 1 billion for fiscal 2026. The year-over-year increase in the quarter was driven primarily by higher investment banking revenue, up 161%, along with stronger advisory and commissions and fees revenue. Activity in the metals and mining sector continued to support stronger performance in Canada and Australia, where we have established sector depth. We are also seeing improvement across our other core sectors, although the pace and consistency of activity remain more variable, particularly in the U.S. and U.K. Advisory revenue was CAD 119 million in the fourth quarter, up 32% year-over-year, with our U.S. operations remaining the largest contributor and Canada delivering a particularly strong quarter.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

For fiscal 2026, advisory revenue of CAD 312 million represented the third highest annual result on record for this business line. Commissions and fees revenue increased 26% year-over-year to CAD 53 million in the quarter and by 25% for the full year, while trading revenue declined materially, primarily due to the sale of the U.S. wholesale market-making business. With the sale of that business and the addition of CRC, the revenue mix and earnings quality of our U.S. capital markets franchise improved during fiscal 2026, and we expect those changes to support stronger margin performance over time. Turning to wealth management, revenue of CAD 307 million in the fourth quarter and CAD 1.1 billion for fiscal 2026 represented year-over-year increases of 28% and 24% respectively, and new records for each period.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Fourth quarter revenue growth was driven primarily by commissions and fees revenue of CAD 248 million, up 30% year-over-year, reflecting higher contributions from all geographies as well as higher investment banking revenue in Canada and Australia. For the fiscal year, we recorded meaningful increases in all regions. Enhanced performance in Australia also reflected contributions from our acquisition of Wilsons Advisory, which was completed in the second half of our fiscal year. The adjusted pre-tax net income for our global wealth management division increased 10% year-over-year to CAD 45 million in the fourth quarter, bringing the full year contribution to CAD 195 million, up 31% from fiscal 2025. The U.K. remained the largest contributor to wealth management earnings in the three and 12-month periods, while Canada delivered strong year-over-year improvement and Australia continued to scale following the Wilsons acquisition.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

As Dan noted, Canada and Australia produced particularly strong operating leverage, while margins in the U.K. and Crown dependencies declined modestly. This reflected higher general and administrative and development costs to support growth initiatives, as well as higher compensation ratio driven by increased fixed compensation to support higher headcount. Client assets ended the year at a record CAD 148 billion, up 23% year-over-year. Growth was driven by market appreciation, acquisitions, and positive net inflows across the platform. In the U.K. and Crown dependencies, client assets finished the year at CAD 74 billion, or GBP 40 billion in local currency, up 7% and 8% year-over-year respectively, supported by market growth and positive net new asset flows. Client assets in Canada reached a new record of CAD 56 billion, up 30% year-over-year, reflecting higher market values, positive net flows, and enhanced advisor productivity.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

The average book per investment advisor team grew 29% year-over-year. Client assets in Australia reached a new record of CAD 18 billion, increasing CAD 10 billion or 113% year-over-year, with approximately CAD 7 billion of that increase attributable to Wilsons Advisory. Across the wealth platform, increased scale, improving asset levels, and continued investment in growth initiatives position the business well as we move into fiscal 2027. Although margin progression will continue to vary by geography depending on investment levels and revenue mix. During the fourth quarter, in connection with the completion of the Wilsons acquisition, the holding company for Australian operations completed a rights offering. As expected, this reduced our ownership percentage in the Australian business with our beneficial ownership decreasing from 65%-52.4%.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

For accounting purposes, our ownership as of March 31st is reflected at 54.6%, which includes shares held in an employee trust controlled by the Australian holding company, compared to 68.4% a year ago. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of CAD 2 billion and working capital of CAD 787 million, maintaining ample liquidity to support regulatory requirements, strategic priorities, and ongoing business activity. For fiscal 2027, we expect our firm-wide pre-tax operating margin to improve by low single digits, supported by continued progress against our strategic priorities, improvements in operating leverage, and ongoing firm-wide expense discipline. With that, I'll turn things back to Dan.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Thank you, Nadine. We are very pleased with our fourth quarter performance and the momentum we carried through fiscal 2026, which reflected strong execution, broader contributions across the platform, and materially improved profitability. At the core of that performance is our partnership culture, which supports a long-term approach to servicing clients and driving value for our fellow shareholders. In wealth management, our priorities remain to grow client assets, deepen fee-based relationships, and continue to improve operating leverage while making selective investments to support long-term growth and a stronger reoccurring revenue mix. We expect conditions across our core capital markets activities to remain broadly supportive, recognizing that geopolitical uncertainty, market volatility, and shifts in investor sentiment could affect the pace and timing of activity.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

We have good visibility on strong advisory pipelines in Canada and the U.S., our outlook for corporate financing remains constructive, supported by improving activity levels across our core focus sectors. We also continue to evaluate strategic opportunities with the objective of maximizing long-term value for our shareholders while maintaining continuity and high standards of service for our clients. As previously disclosed, this includes our ongoing assessment of a range of strategic options for our wealth management business in the U.K. and Crown dependencies. To date, our activities have been limited to discussions and assessment of potential opportunities, we expect this work to continue on an ongoing basis with no fixed timeline for completion.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

The business remains a meaningful contributor to our financial performance, and we continue to see value in its role within our global wealth management operation. Having said that, I would direct you to the full statement included in last night's quarterly press release, and we will not be commenting further on this matter. Overall, the structural improvements we've made in our capital markets business, together with disciplined execution and selective investment in our wealth management platform, leaves us well-positioned to capture market share and support continued earnings momentum. Reflecting this confidence in our outlook, our board has approved a 17.6% increase to our quarterly common share dividend to CAD 0.10 per share, as disclosed in last night's release. With that, Nadine and I would be pleased to take your questions. Operator, you may open the lines.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then the number two. There will be a brief pause while we compile the Q&A roster. First question comes from the line of Stephen Boland from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Good morning. Nadine, you threw a lot of numbers out there on expenses. I wonder if you could maybe just separate the Canada and the U.S. expenses and the improvement. Obviously, the Canadian expenses even quarter-over-quarter were pretty flat. Non-compensation, I'm talking about. Is that just a combination of you guys are working on a lot of projects on technology, compliance? Maybe just start with Canada first, that this is kind of the flat run rate that we can expect. Obviously, you grow, you're going to probably incur more expense. I'm just trying to get a bit of a breakdown on Canada, and then may I have a specific question on U.S. expenses as well.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Sure. Thank you. In terms of Canada, yes, we were running at a bit of an elevated. We did have some one-time costs in there related to some pro fees, given some of the activities we were engaging in from a strategic perspective. In addition, we were running at probably a higher technology cost base due to some of our vendor contracts that we are working on remitting in terms of into fiscal 2027. For Canada, we do expect to see continued margin improvement, particularly in the wealth management business. In capital markets, you would expect that we would have seen the operating margin improvement. Costs did come down. We've been managing, particularly in discretionary areas on some of our general and admin as it relates to managing our travel and expense.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Our productivity actually improved quite significantly in Canada on our capital markets side of things. From a run rate perspective, you would expect to see on the Canadian wealth some decrease there related to some of our business-related non-comp expenses, just given some of the one-time items that we had in place. Also we expect to see improvement in margins just with some of our revenue scale as well.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

U.S.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Just on the U.S., you sold the trading business off, so we're getting, I guess, used to a new run rate. Is it the same story in the U.S. that you had some elevated, obviously due to remediation, one-time costs as well as the trading business? How structural is this run rate now for this quarter? It was a meaningful drop in the non-compensation expenses.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah, a lot of that would have been driven, as you noted, off of the sale of our wholesale market-making-based business. The trading costs coming down there, as well as our interest costs as it relates to the dividend positions. Going forward, though, in addition to the[ E] removal, we expect to see, given our elevated pro fees as we had completed our remediation work in the U.S. We expect to see that move to a more normalized run rate that we would have seen a number of years ago. That's going to benefit from a margin perspective overall. In addition, we'll start to see, given the revenue mix shift, in particular, we expect to see that margin improvement going into fiscal 2027 with, I would say, an improvement in the mid-single digits on that margin, but it's a concerted focus area going forward in that regard.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. Appreciate that. Dan, one for you, I guess. In your outlook, maybe I'm just reading this a little bit different, but kind of a mixed message about the outlook in terms of, I'm not sure if it's the economy, the ability to capital raise, but it was kind of a little bit more negative at the beginning, and then in the last paragraph, it was very kind of positive for mid-market capital raising advisory. I'm just trying to get maybe in your own words, what your outlook is, just say for the next 12 months.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah. I think you know, and you'd know better than most, capital markets is difficult to predict even in a good time. We obviously have great visibility on M&A. The equity business is more difficult to predict, particularly in volatile markets. We got wars going on. We've got the economies flying around. We got a trade negotiation coming up. If you're hearing some cautiousness. It's just nobody knows. Our M&A pipeline continues to be really strong. Some of that stuff gets pushed off occasionally, depending on what's happening in cross-border wars and all that kind of stuff. Our M&A pipeline continues to be really strong. We feel pretty confident there. The new issue pipeline, in addition to everything else I said, is heavily concentrated into the mining sector. You can see that.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

I mean, half, Nadine, roughly this quarter of our business is tied to the mining sector in Canada and Australia. When you've got that kind of exposure, not that I have any reason not to be super excited by it, but you just would express some cautiousness around that. I think we feel reasonably good about our business, reasonably good about our numbers, but it's just a tough business to predict. Unlike our wealth business, which is an incredibly easy business to predict.

[Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James]

Okay. Thanks very much.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Jeff Fenwick from ATB Cormark. Please go ahead.

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Hi. Good morning, everyone.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Morning, Jeff.

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Wanted to start off asking about the Canadian wealth management unit there. Client inflows have been a very material contributor over the last year and quite an impressive result overall.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah.

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Just wondering, was there something that was done there operationally or from a program perspective around maybe a new CRM platform or assistance with client outreach that assisted that? What were the levers being pulled there? Maybe it was just more related to the fact the market was doing very well and that just encouraged the inflows as well. Any color you could offer there.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah. In fairness, it is probably both, Jeff. We have an immense number of programs going around to increase our net organic assets. We obviously get our assets from three ways. We recruit advisors. That growth has been not significant this year. It continues, but it has not been the primary driver. The market increase obviously drives assets, and it has been a good year in the market. Finally, net organic flows. The cheapest way to grow your business is net organic flows, have your existing advisors grow. We give them a lot of tools to increase their business. We have got a very phenomenal group of advisors who are incredibly entrepreneurial, who are materially increasing their operations. You have seen the average size of book per advisor grow substantially this year. That is not all market. That is mainly net new assets.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

We've got a great business there, and they've got a great set of tools, and we've got a great set of partners who will continue to grow. You haven't seen an increase so much in the number of teams because it's just the cycle out, bigger advisors for smaller advisors. We're not looking to add a bunch of real estate and stuff like that. That strategy continues to play out the way it has played out for the last decade, to be honest. Continue to be very excited by our Canadian wealth business and the prospects in front of it, and you can see that reflected in the numbers. As Nadine mentioned on the cost, we continue to spend money there.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

When you see those costs not going down, it's because we're investing in that side of the business, and we'll continue to invest in that side of the business.

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Okay. That's helpful color. Thank you. Maybe I'll circle back onto the OpEx discussion here. Maybe in the U.K., that's one where we've seen the G&A line sort of progressively creep higher here. Maybe just some commentary on that, where the focus has been there and what we can expect going forward.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

In the U.K., we've built out quite a bit in terms of our tools to support our advisors there as well. That continues to be an investment that we make within the firm. Also, I noted that there was some increased headcount just in terms of as we not only take on new acquisitions, but also upskill some of our complement in terms of helping to manage the size and scale of the business that we have right now. You would've noticed that just some of the one-time cost items that we had come through, particularly in the fourth quarter, did have a negative impact on margins. We do expect that to rebound into fiscal 2027. There's a huge focus on cost and as well as looking for increased productivity and efficiency with these tools that we've brought in.

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

For U.K., I would say that the expectation is that we will start to revert back to those healthier margins that you're used to seeing in that business into FY 2027.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Again, just like our Canadian business, we're investing in growth in that business, net organic asset growth. To Nadine's point, that doesn't come free. You invest in tools, you invest in technology, you invest in people. You're seeing those investments play out on the cost side in the U.K. a little bit. As Nadine also noted, we have invested already. You'd expect those costs to come down.

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Okay. Thank you. Then maybe one more. Excuse me. On the compensation front, I believe there's a certain cadence around awards paid out to employees, and then they recycle some of that into purchasing units in the partners LP. Can you just remind us of that? I mean, it expanded its position in Canaccord ownership overall by a fair amount last year. Is there sort of a similar cycle that we'll see play out here?

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

The policy of the board, having just got through the board meetings, is there's a repayment of those loans that go on every year. Those are fully recourse interest-bearing loans. These aren't anything other than that. The loans help people buy partnership units. The partnership, in turn, buys equity of Canaccord Genuity. That equity stays inside that partnership, and it's kind of, I don't want to say gone forever, but it stays inside the partnership. We're up to about 14%. There will be a loan repayment this year that's already happening as we speak through bonuses being paid to people, so they're repaying their loans. Those loans will be recycled again. That partnership will increase its ownership in Canaccord Genuity again this year. Last year was about 2%. This year it'll be about the same number.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

That's the plan for the foreseeable future, is that partnership will continue to accumulate stock of the underlying company. Does that answer your question?

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you very much. Then maybe I'll just squeeze a quick one in there as well on OpEx. I meant to ask about Australia. We've had only really one quarter after the Wilsons acquisition there. Is the OpEx in the quarter there somewhat representative of the run rate going forward, or were there some systemic costs there as you integrated that business?

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yes, there were definitely some increased costs as it related to the Wilsons acquisition, but that has been fully integrated now. So we do expect that the margin expansion, just given the scale of that business, will start to improve closer to what you would see from a peer average.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

You remember, this business started at a CAD 1 billion business five years ago. We're up to CAD 18 billion. We're starting to achieve scale. It's not the CAD 55 billion we are in Canada or whatever, but it's starting to get the scale that we're looking for. Margins will improve in that business over time.

[Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark]

Okay. Thanks for that color. I'll requeue.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Graham Ryding from TD Securities. Please go ahead.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Hello. Good morning.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Morning, Graham.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Maybe I could start with U.K. Wealth. It looks like the AUM there was flat quarter-over-quarter, up 8% year-over-year in constant currency. That seems to have underperformed the FTSE market as a benchmark. The growth profile there is lower than your other platforms in Canada, Australia. Any color or anything to call out for why you're seeing lower growth in U.K. Wealth?

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

I think in terms of the U.K. market overall, it's been struggling a bit. I think going forward, the focus that we've had, not only from some of the discussion we've had around the tools we're bringing in from our advisors, is really around growing the net new assets. Obviously, we've been growing the business significantly through M&A and integrating those quite well. The focus now as we start to build out our planning business in conjunction with the rest of the team, that we expect to see that improvement in our net new asset growth, which you'll start to see that trajectory start to really amplify going forward.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah. Graham, two points, and we should get you better details on this, so my apologies. There are two points to note. We have integrated a couple of acquisitions in. Ultimately, when we integrate these acquisitions in, we know we're losing some assets. We exceptionalize that in our internal management reporting, but we know we're intentionally losing some assets, so to speak. You don't see that in our public numbers. You just see the flat assets. Our own internal numbers would reflect higher growth than that, number one. Number two, the portfolios aren't just U.K.-based portfolios. These are fully managed portfolios with international equities, fixed income. I will have to give you the proportions of that so that you can do the right analysis. We don't think this business is flat. We don't think this business is shrinking.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Our management benchmark showed this business to continue to increase. In fact, in Q4, had a phenomenally good Q4 in terms of net new assets and growth. We feel pretty excited by the business where it sits today.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Okay. In your presentation, you do show 4.2% organic flows, and then you flag a -2.1% as exceptional. Is that what you're talking about?

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah. Exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Understood. Maybe the acquisition of CRC was quite sizable, CAD 130 million. What is the earnings contribution that you expect from that platform? Just any sort of high-level color on where in particular that platform is quite strong and why you think this is a good investment.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Yeah. First of all, on the acquisition, I think you know how acquisition accounting works. A huge portion of that purchase price is earn-out purchase price. You take a provision for it at the beginning. If they hit it, great. If they don't, you take it back. That's a balance sheet item, not an income statement item. The actual purchase price was significantly less, think half of that amount. That's the first thing. You hope they hit the earn-out because it's free money, so to speak. You're strongly encouraged for that. That's the first thing. The second thing, they are in the Energy Transition space. This is the way we define it at our organization. You can say it's sustainability or whatever. Either we're geniuses or we got lucky, that Energy Transition space is massive right now and continues to grow.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

AI, data centers, crypto, these things all need power. It's not all just traditional power. There's a lot of different types of power. That's where these guys are particularly strong and particularly active. The business is very robust. When we first entered into our original loan agreement with these people, which was our new partners, which was more than 18 months ago, a long time ago. We had lent them some money to buy out their initial partners. When we entered into that deal, compared to what they're doing today, they're probably doing 50% more revenue than they were doing back then. It's been a very positive experience. It'll continue to be a very positive experience. Their existing run rates right now, we closed the deal in December, Nadine, or early January or late December?

[Nadine Ahn, CFO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

January close, yeah.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

January close. The performance has been very good and it'll continue to be strong. We anticipate that more than offsetting the lost revenue from the principal trading business that we sold, and quite frankly, at a margin level that would be more significant than what we lost. That's not a big bar to climb over. We see it materially helping not only our U.S. business and our M&A franchise in the U.S., but there's incredible synergies between that business and the rest of our global footprint into Canada. Everyone's going through the same energy transition, whether it's Canada, the U.K., ultimately Australia. We see a really good partnership there, but they're going flat out on just existing North American business right now.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Okay, great. Appreciate the color. I don't want to hold you to any hard numbers, but did you say you expect this to replace your wholesale trading business, which I think was sort of running at about CAD 30 million a quarter?

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

No, it wasn't running at CAD 30 million a quarter. I wish it was. Maybe there was a quarter or two where it was running at CAD 30 a quarter? Still not. That business is volatile. It had ups and downs quarters. No, that's a business that's going to do, our CRC business, the business that we bought. Nadine's giving me an evil eye. We'll get back to you, Graham, as opposed to me answering that question. I can answer it, I'm just not allowed to.

[Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities]

Sounds good.

[Operator]

There are no further questions. I'll turn the call back over to Mr. Daviau.

[Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO at Canaccord Genuity Group]

Oh, good. Well, thanks everyone for joining today. Again, thanks for your continued support. Graham and others, we're available for future questions on the quarter as needed. Otherwise, we're going to update you not too far away. Just given this was our year-end, we'll be reporting again in early August. Look forward to talking to everyone then. If you can close the line to operator, that'd be great.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Dan Daviau, Chairman and CEO
• Nadine Ahn, CFO

Analysts

• Graham Ryding, Analyst at TD Securities
• Jeff Fenwick, Analyst at ATB Cormark
• Stephen Boland, Analyst at Raymond James