In addition to comprehensive investment, wealth and estate planning, and a broad array of third party and proprietary asset management products, our Advisory Teams in Canada, the UK & Europe and Australia are able to provide their clients with access to the world-class ideas, opportunities and expertise that are available across our global platform. We are committed to enhancing the client experience and partnering with our Advisory Teams to drive long term success, together.

In recent years, we have made significant investments to improve the middle- and back-office functions of our global operations. These improvements provide our advisors with complete flexibility to deliver differentiated investment solutions and client service, while providing the necessary infrastructure to advance the scale and scope of our business.

Looking ahead, we will strive to grow our assets under administration and management, with a focus on recruiting quality teams in all regions, in addition to increasing our proportion of fee-based revenues, to support steady, recurring revenue growth.

Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management earned $252.7 million in revenue during fiscal 2016.

In our global wealth management operations, we have worked hard to establish Canaccord Genuity as the leading independent advisory group for the high net worth segment. Our continued focus lies in continuing to grow assets under administration and management, with an emphasis on improving fee-based revenues globally.

Our wealth management business in the UK & Europe continues to be an important contributor of stable and recurring revenues and an important strategic asset for our firm. Despite market headwinds and a significant investment in improving our back-office infrastructure, this business has been able to improve its financial performance during the fiscal year.

During fiscal 2016, this business earned revenues of $138.4 million, an improvement of 10% compared to the previous fiscal year. At the end of the fiscal year, assets under management in this business reached $22.8 billion, a year-over-year increase of C$1 billion.

At the end of the fiscal year, fee-based assets in our UK wealth management business comprised 70% of total assets. Additionally, client holdings in our in-house investment management products in the region have increased by 24% over the fiscal year and total assets have surpassed $1 billion. To support further development of the firm’s investment management offering, we launched the Global Equity Fund, powered by Quest®.

The quality and performance of our investment management offering in the region has contributed to steady improvement in assets under management and growing support from domestic intermediaries and international fund companies. During fiscal 2016, this business was appointed the sole investment advisor for a national intermediary firm. We also announced an arrangement which allows us to deliver Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management’s AIM Inheritance Tax Portfolio to intermediaries in the UK market. We expect this development will contribute to additional growth in the intermediary network and support related revenue growth for our business.

Our centralized investment process and robust network of global industry expertise provide an attractive platform for established professionals, and we have been fortunate to recruit a selection of high quality professionals to both our UK and offshore operations. We have also bolstered sales leadership in the region with multiple recruits from major competitors.

Our investment in the implementation of a best-in-class operational and technology platform is helping to deliver cost, operational and scale efficiencies, in addition to enhancing the client experience and providing significant capacity for growth in volumes and assets under management.

Looking ahead, we expect to achieve further organic growth from domestic intermediaries and international fund companies and we will continue to pursue opportunities to increase scale in this business through recruiting and selective acquisition opportunities.

The strategic focus of our Canadian wealth management business has led to a greater share of client assets, sophisticated investment solutions and a positive change in our revenue mix.

During fiscal 2016, our Canadian wealth management business earned revenues of $108.2 million. As a key distribution channel for our capital markets transactions, the decline in investment banking activity put pressure on related commission fees and revenues for this business over the year.

As a result of lower market values over the year and a slight reduction in the number of Advisory Teams, assets under administration decreased by 14%, to $9.2 billion compared to the previous fiscal year. However, during fiscal 2016, fee-based assets in this business grew by 10.3 percentage points since the end of the previous fiscal year, to account for 44% of the revenue for this business. Helping to drive this growth, assets in our Canadian in-house investment products have increased by 215% over the fiscal year to $285 million.

Early in the fiscal year, our strategic repositioning of this business was tested and the results were positive. When compared to periods of similar revenue generation, this business has been able to successfully limit losses, highlighting the progress we have made in reducing fixed costs and shifting towards a stronger recurring revenue model. For the fiscal year, expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by 3.0 percentage points compared to the same period last year, and general and administrative expense decreased by 21.8% year over year.

We continue to add new partnerships, products and services to better serve the Canadian high net worth segment and steadily grow our portion of fee-based revenues. In addition to our proprietary asset management product, GPS Optimized Portfolios, we have also brought management of our ETF portfolios in-house and made an investment to broaden our ETF product offering in Canada. And finally, we announced an exclusive partnership with Credit Suisse Asset Management for the Canadian distribution of the Capital Discipline Strategies.

We have also focused on attracting and retaining high quality advisors. New national and regional leadership appointments across our Canadian wealth management operations will help enhance the implementation of Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management’s investment decisions across our client portfolios and leverage the broader resources of our integrated global platform.

Looking ahead, we continue to focus on improving the infrastructure, advisor and product mix across our global wealth management businesses, initiatives we expect will further contribute to delivering stable and consistent revenue growth, while improving our profitability.

Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management has offices in Melbourne and Sydney, and our team of seven advisors provides comprehensive wealth management services to growing numbers of clients in Australia and Southeast Asia. While a softer capital raising environment in the region over the past fiscal year has slowed the momentum we have experienced in recent years, we expect to grow this business through targeted recruiting and the continued build-out of wealth management services and products in this market.