Leases

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2024

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 Company 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 89 retail branch offices in the United States as well as offices in London, England, St. Helier, Isle of Jersey, Geneva, Switzerland, 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 wholly owned subsidiary of 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 September 30, 2024, the Company had right-of-use operating lease assets of $128.7 million (net of accumulated amortization of $114.4 million) which are comprised of real estate leases of $126.3 million (net of accumulated amortization of $111.6 million) and equipment leases of $2.4 million (net of accumulated amortization of $2.8 million). As of September 30, 2024, the Company had operating lease liabilities of $167.4 million which are comprised of real estate lease liabilities of $165.0 million and equipment lease liabilities of $2.4 million. The Company had no finance leases as of September 30, 2024.

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 September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively:


	As of
	September 30, 2024	December 31, 2023

Weighted average remaining lease term (in years)	5.91	6.35
Weighted average discount rate	7.76%	7.72%

The following table presents operating lease costs recognized for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023, respectively, which are included in occupancy and equipment costs on the condensed consolidated income statements:


(Expressed in thousands)
	For the Three Months Ended September 30,				For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2024		2023		2024		2023
Operating lease costs:
Real estate leases - Right-of-use lease asset amortization	$	6,165	$	6,321	$	18,242	$	19,446
Real estate leases - Interest expense	3,139		3,402		9,690		10,009
Equipment leases - Right-of-use lease asset amortization	424		432		1,287		1,285
Equipment leases - Interest expense	45		45		135		138

The maturities of lease liabilities as of September 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023 are as follows:


(Expressed in thousands)
	As of
	September 30, 2024		December 31, 2023
2024	$	11,015	$	43,885
2025	40,842		38,759
2026	38,682		36,757
2027	36,266		34,823
2028	22,939		21,660
After 2028	60,432		58,081
Total lease payments	$	210,176	$	233,965
Less interest	(42,752)		(50,692)
Present value of lease liabilities	$	167,424	$	183,273

As of September 30, 2024, the Company had $23.3 million of additional real estate operating leases that have not yet commenced ($5.8 million as of December 31, 2023).