Leases

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

The Company has operating leases for office space and equipment expiring at various dates through 2034. The Company leases its corporate headquarters at 85 Broad Street, New York, New York which houses its executive management team and many administrative functions for the firm as well as its research, trading, investment banking, and asset management divisions and an office in Troy, Michigan, which among other things, houses its payroll and human resources departments. In addition, the Company has 90 retail branch offices in the United States as well as offices in London, England, St. Helier, Isle of Jersey, Geneva, Switzerland, Munich, Germany, Tel Aviv, Israel and Hong Kong, China.

The Company is constantly assessing its needs for office space and, on a rolling basis, has many leases that expire in any given year.

Substantially all of the leases are held by the Company's subsidiary, Viner Finance Inc., which is a consolidated subsidiary and 100% owned by the Company.

Leases with an initial term of 12 months or less are not recorded on the balance sheet; the Company recognizes lease expense for these leases on a straight-line basis over the lease term. Most leases include an option to renew and the exercise of lease renewal options is at the Company's sole discretion. The Company did not include the renewal options as part of the right of use assets and liabilities.

The depreciable life of assets and leasehold improvements is limited by the expected lease term. The Company's lease agreements do not contain any material residual value guarantees or material restrictive covenants.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had right-of-use operating lease assets of $140.6 million (net of accumulated amortization of $99.7 million) which are comprised of real estate leases of $137.9 million (net of accumulated amortization of $97.1 million) and equipment leases of $2.7 million (net of accumulated amortization of $2.6 million). As of December 31, 2023, the Company had operating lease liabilities of $183.3 million which are comprised of real estate lease liabilities of $180.6 million and equipment lease liabilities of $2.7 million. The Company had no finance leases as of December 31, 2023.

As most of the Company's leases do not provide an implicit rate, the Company uses the incremental borrowing rate based on the information available at commencement date in determining the present value of lease payments. The Company used the incremental borrowing rate on January 1, 2019 for operating leases that commenced prior to that date. The Company used the incremental borrowing rate as of the lease commencement date for the operating leases that commenced subsequent to January 1, 2019.

The following table presents the weighted average lease term and weighted average discount rate for the Company's operating leases as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively:


	As of
	December 31, 2023	December 31, 2022

Weighted average remaining lease term (in years)	6.35	6.82
Weighted average discount rate	7.72%	6.66%

The following table presents operating lease costs recognized for the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively, which are included in occupancy and equipment costs on the consolidated income statements:


(Expressed in thousands)
	For the Year Ended December 31, 2023		For the Year Ended December 31, 2022

Operating lease costs:
Real estate leases - Right-of-use lease asset amortization	$	25,568	$	25,128
Real estate leases - Interest expense	13,413		12,996
Equipment leases - Right-of-use lease asset amortization	1,717		1,672
Equipment leases - Interest expense	184		152

The maturities of lease liabilities as of December 31, 2023 are as follows:


(Expressed in thousands)
	As of December 31, 2023

2024	$	43,885
2025	38,759
2026	36,757
2027	34,823
2028	21,660
After 2028	58,081
Total lease payments	$	233,965
Less interest	(50,692)
Present value of lease liabilities	$	183,273

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had $5.8 million of additional operating leases that have not yet commenced. ($40.2 million as of December 31, 2022).