Leases

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 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 88 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 December 31, 2024, the Company had right-of-use operating lease assets of $133.8 million (net of accumulated amortization of $118.3 million) which are comprised of real estate leases of $131.4 million (net of accumulated amortization of $115.7 million) and equipment leases of $2.4 million (net of accumulated amortization of $2.6 million). As of December 31, 2024, the Company had operating lease liabilities of $173.3 million which are comprised of real estate lease liabilities of $171.0 million and equipment lease liabilities of $2.3 million. The Company had no finance leases as of December 31, 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 following table presents the weighted average lease term and weighted average discount rate for the Company's operating leases as of December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively:


	As of
	December 31, 2024	December 31, 2023

Weighted average remaining lease term (in years)	6.08	6.35
Weighted average discount rate	7.50%	7.72%

The following table presents operating lease costs recognized for the years ended December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively, which are included in occupancy and equipment costs on the consolidated income statements:


(Expressed in thousands)
	For the Year Ended December 31, 2024		For the Year Ended December 31, 2023

Operating lease costs:
Real estate leases - Right-of-use lease asset amortization	$	24,394	$	25,568
Real estate leases - Interest expense	12,761		13,413
Equipment leases - Right-of-use lease asset amortization	1,706		1,717
Equipment leases - Interest expense	176		184

The maturities of lease liabilities as of December 31, 2024 are as follows:


(Expressed in thousands)
	As of December 31, 2024

2025	$	42,466
2026	40,596
2027	38,151
2028	24,794
2029	18,816
After 2029	52,472
Total lease payments	$	217,295
Less interest	(43,975)
Present value of lease liabilities	$	173,320

As of December 31, 2024, the Company had $6.9 million of additional operating leases that have not yet commenced. ($5.8 million as of December 31, 2023).