Jefferies announces 2021 financial results for the three months and year ended november 30, 2021

Picture credit: The Economic Time

Q4 Financial Highlights:

•Net income attributable to common shareholders of $325 million, or $1.20 per diluted share; adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders2 of $369 million, or $1.36 per diluted share, after removing fourth quarter expenses of $59 million related to bondholder make-whole and tender premium payments on an aggregate of $1.06 billion in debt which will reduce our future interest expense

•Quarterly Investment Banking net revenues of $1.18 billion

•Combined Capital Markets and Other net revenues of $438 million

•Asset Management net revenues (before allocated net interest3) of $55 million

•Annualized return on adjusted tangible equity of 16.5%1; adjusted annualized return on adjusted tangible equity of 18.7%4

•Repurchased 2.0 million shares of common stock for $88 million, or an average price of $42.91 per share; our Board of Directors has increased our share buyback authorization by $88 million back to a total of $250 million

"What a year! Once again, Jefferies delivered record results in Investment Banking and Capital Markets and Asset Management. Our performance and momentum are the direct result of the persistent hard work and dedication of our 4,508 Jefferies Group employee-partners around the globe, decades of investment to create strong breadth and depth of capabilities across our integrated Investment Banking and Capital Markets platforms, our unique partnership culture and a supportive operating environment. Those factors have driven Jefferies to an important position of scale within our industry, and a meaningful and sustainable step change in our market position and brand. We have never wavered in prioritizing the needs and interests of our clients. We believe our momentum is excellent and, while there will be inevitable bumps in the road, our growth prospects are terrific.

"Our results and momentum derive from our incredible and increasingly global team. Jefferies' strategy is based substantially on human capital, with the right amount of supporting financial capital commensurate with market opportunity. We are committed to recruiting and growing great talent at all levels. We are thrilled that we enter fiscal 2022 with 278 Managing Directors in Investment Banking, a 24% increase from one year prior. This increase was driven equally by internal promotion of talented people we nurtured and trained, and external recruiting of experienced professionals. Our overall Jefferies Group headcount grew by 15% in 2021, enabling us to keep up with the demands from our clients and to support further growth. We have been investing for many years now in enhanced efforts to train, support, develop and grow our human capital, and we see further opportunity in this regard ahead.

"We believe Jefferies' future growth will be fueled by the continued buildout of our Investment Banking effort, enhancing our Capital Markets businesses, and further developing our Leucadia Asset Management alternative asset management platform. We will continue winding down our legacy Merchant Banking portfolio prudently and patiently, and are confident that, as we have proven in the past, there is value to be realized in excess of tangible book value.

"Our Investment Banking backlog5 is robust and consistent with levels from a year ago.

"In light of our performance and prospects, as well as our limited need for incremental equity capital, our Board of Directors has increased our quarterly dividend to $0.30 per share, a 140% increase from two years ago. We will continue also to return capital to shareholders via share buybacks as well as, if financial conditions and circumstances permit, in-kind distributions or special cash dividends as we continue to wind down the legacy merchant banking portfolio." Richard Handler, CEO, and Brian Friedman, President 

Please refer to the just-released Jefferies Financial Group Annual Letter from our CEO and President for broader perspective on 2021, as well as our strategy and outlook.

Highlights:

Three months ended November 30, 2021

•Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders2 of $369 million, or $1.36 per diluted share.

•We repurchased 2.0 million shares for $88 million, or an average price of $42.91 per share.

•Our Board of Directors has increased our share buyback authorization by $88 million back to a total of $250 million.

Twelve months ended November 30, 2021

•Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders2 was $1.71 billion, or $6.29 per diluted share.

•We repurchased 8.5 million shares for $267 million, or an average price of $31.25 per share. We had 244 million shares outstanding and 274 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis6 at year end. Our book value per share was $43.33 and tangible book value per fully diluted share7 was $32.45 at year end.