Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh Quý 2 năm tài chính 2027 của Houlihan Lokey (HLI): Doanh thu tăng 5%

Houlihan Lokey đã báo cáo doanh thu quý 2 năm tài chính 2027 đạt 692 triệu USD, tăng 5% so với cùng kỳ năm trước, trong khi lợi nhuận điều chỉnh trên mỗi cổ phiếu (EPS điều chỉnh) đi ngang ở mức 1,85 USD. Mảng Tài chính Doanh nghiệp đã tăng trưởng trở lại và ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng hoạt động sẽ sôi động hơn trong nửa cuối năm, tùy thuộc vào điều kiện thị trường.

Điểm tin chính

• Doanh thu quý 2 năm tài chính 2027 tăng 5% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên 692 triệu USD. EPS điều chỉnh không đổi ở mức 1,85 USD.
• Doanh thu mảng Tài chính Doanh nghiệp tăng 10% lên 481 triệu USD mặc dù số lượng giao dịch hoàn tất giảm xuống 142 từ 171, phản ánh mức phí trung bình trên mỗi thương vụ thành công cao hơn.
• Doanh thu mảng Tái cấu trúc Tài chính giảm 12% xuống 118 triệu USD, nhưng ban lãnh đạo cho biết lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng (backlog) đạt mức kỷ lục khi bước sang năm dương lịch 2027 và dự kiến doanh thu sẽ duy trì ở mức cao cho đến hết năm tài chính 2028.
• Doanh thu mảng Tư vấn Tài chính và Định giá tăng 7% lên 93 triệu USD, chủ yếu nhờ mảng định giá danh mục đầu tư thúc đẩy.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến nửa cuối năm tài chính 2027 sẽ tăng trưởng mạnh hơn bình thường, mặc dù triển vọng này phụ thuộc vào sự thuận lợi từ thị trường tài chính.
• Houlihan Lokey kết thúc quý với khoảng 888 triệu USD tiền mặt không bị hạn chế và chứng khoán đầu tư, đồng thời mua lại khoảng 397.000 cổ phiếu với giá khoảng 50 triệu USD.

Dữ liệu Tài chính Cốt lõi

Kết quả Kinh doanh và Hoạt động

Tài chính Doanh nghiệp

Mảng Tài chính Doanh nghiệp đạt doanh thu 481 triệu USD, tăng 10%. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết danh mục thương vụ tiềm năng vẫn tiếp tục tiến triển hướng tới hoàn tất mặc dù lãi suất cao hơn. Công ty coi các cú sốc địa chính trị là nguồn gây gián đoạn lớn hơn so với chi phí vay hiện tại, vì nguồn vốn vẫn luôn sẵn có trong phân khúc thị trường tầm trung (middle market).

Công ty chưa thay đổi chiến lược tập trung vào thị trường tầm trung. Các giao dịch vẫn chủ yếu nằm trong khoảng vài trăm triệu USD và dưới khoảng 2 tỷ USD. Houlihan Lokey đang sử dụng dữ liệu nội bộ để ưu tiên các hợp đồng ủy thác có khả năng hoàn tất cao hơn thay vì chuyển hướng sang các thương vụ quy mô lớn (large-cap).

Mảng phần mềm vẫn yếu, trong khi sự suy yếu của mảng chăm sóc sức khỏe được đánh giá là vấn đề mang tính thời điểm. Ban lãnh đạo không kỳ vọng doanh thu mảng phần mềm trong năm tài chính 2027 sẽ bằng với năm trước. Các hoạt động M&A và ngoài M&A của Tài chính Doanh nghiệp, bao gồm các giải pháp nguồn vốn, dự kiến sẽ có kết quả tương đồng vào cuối năm tài chính. Ban lãnh đạo cũng kỳ vọng châu Âu và Mỹ sẽ đạt mức tăng trưởng tương đương vào thời điểm đó.

Tái cấu trúc Tài chính

Doanh thu mảng Tái cấu trúc Tài chính giảm 12% xuống 118 triệu USD với 27 giao dịch được hoàn tất. Mặc dù vậy, niềm tin của ban lãnh đạo vào triển vọng đã cải thiện hơn nữa trong quý. Công ty bước sang năm dương lịch 2027 với lượng đơn hàng tồn đọng kỷ lục và mức độ hoạt động mạnh mẽ.

Phần mềm là nguồn phát sinh chính cho các hợp đồng tư vấn tái cấu trúc mới, dù không phải là động lực duy nhất. Houlihan Lokey dự kiến các hợp đồng liên quan sẽ bắt đầu đóng góp vào doanh thu trong năm dương lịch 2027, với tác động lớn hơn trong suốt năm dương lịch 2027 và 2028 khi các thương vụ tiến triển qua các giai đoạn. Ban lãnh đạo cũng lạc quan về các cơ hội tái cấu trúc ở cả Mỹ và châu Âu khi thời điểm đáo hạn nợ hàng loạt đang đến gần.

Tư vấn Tài chính và Định giá

Doanh thu mảng Tư vấn Tài chính và Định giá tăng 7% lên 93 triệu USD. Tăng trưởng dẫn đầu bởi mảng định giá danh mục đầu tư, điều mà ban lãnh đạo mô tả là không có tính chu kỳ và được hỗ trợ bởi các sáng kiến mới hơn. Các mảng kinh doanh ý kiến chuyên môn và tư vấn cũng tăng trưởng nhưng vẫn gắn liền hơn với hoạt động M&A.

Nhân sự và Phân bổ Vốn

Houlihan Lokey đã bổ nhiệm thêm 12 giám đốc điều hành (managing director) trong quý, bao gồm 8 người thông qua thương vụ thâu tóm Intrepid Financial Partners hoàn tất vào tháng 9. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết danh mục cơ hội thâu tóm vẫn mạnh mẽ nhưng nhấn mạnh rằng thời điểm rất khó dự đoán và sự phù hợp về văn hóa vẫn là yếu tố thiết yếu.

Công ty sẽ chi trả các khoản thưởng bằng tiền mặt hoãn lại liên quan đến năm tài chính 2026 vào tháng 11, làm giảm lượng tiền mặt trên bảng cân đối kế toán. Ban lãnh đạo sẽ tiếp tục cân nhắc các cơ hội thâu tóm so với việc mua lại cổ phiếu khi phân bổ nguồn vốn thặng dư.

Dự báo của Ban Lãnh đạo

• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến nửa cuối năm tài chính 2027 sẽ tăng trưởng vững chắc với yếu tố mùa vụ mạnh hơn bình thường, miễn là điều kiện thị trường tiếp tục thuận lợi.
• Tỷ lệ chi phí đãi ngộ điều chỉnh dự kiến sẽ duy trì ở mức mục tiêu dài hạn 61,5% cho năm tài chính 2027.
• Thuế suất hiệu dụng điều chỉnh cho cả năm dự kiến nằm trong khoảng từ 26% đến 28%.
• Mức tăng trưởng chi phí ngoài đãi ngộ cho năm tài chính 2027 dự kiến sẽ tương tự như tốc độ tăng trưởng hàng năm của năm trước.
• Doanh thu Tái cấu trúc Tài chính dự kiến sẽ khởi sắc hơn trong nửa cuối năm và duy trì ở mức cao cho đến hết năm tài chính 2028.
• Ban lãnh đạo mô tả doanh thu Tài chính Doanh nghiệp quý 2 năm tài chính đạt 481 triệu USD là nền tảng vững chắc để tiếp tục tăng trưởng.

Rủi ro và Các yếu tố Cần theo dõi

Ban lãnh đạo vẫn thận trọng do sự biến động kinh tế vĩ mô, tình trạng bất ổn địa chính trị, lãi suất cao hơn và sự gián đoạn trong ngành phần mềm. Trong khi lãi suất cao hơn không ảnh hưởng đáng kể đến hoạt động thương vụ thuộc phân khúc thị trường tầm trung, các sự kiện địa chính trị bất ngờ có thể làm chậm tiến độ giao dịch.

Triển vọng nửa cuối năm phụ thuộc vào sự thuận lợi tiếp tục từ thị trường. Sự suy yếu của mảng phần mềm đang tạo áp lực lên Tài chính Doanh nghiệp, ngay cả khi chính ngành này lại tạo ra các cơ hội dài hạn hơn cho mảng Tái cấu trúc Tài chính. Doanh thu tái cấu trúc cũng có thể biến động đáng kể giữa các kỳ do thời điểm giao dịch và quy mô thương vụ.

Điểm nhấn Q&A với Chuyên gia Phân tích

• Hoạt động thương vụ: Ban lãnh đạo cho biết khách hàng ngày càng sẵn sàng tiến hành giao dịch sau khi các đợt gián đoạn kinh tế vĩ mô và địa chính trị trước đó làm hoãn tiến độ. Hoạt động do các nhà tài trợ vốn hậu thuẫn cũng đang cải thiện, mặc dù áp lực từ các thành viên góp vốn được mô tả là tồn tại từ lâu chứ không phải là động lực mới.
• Cơ cấu giao dịch: Doanh thu Tài chính Doanh nghiệp cao hơn dù số lượng giao dịch hoàn tất ít hơn phản ánh yếu tố thời điểm và tỷ trọng lớn hơn của các giao dịch có mức phí cao hơn. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết điều này không thể hiện sự dịch chuyển khỏi thị trường tầm trung.
• Danh mục tái cấu trúc: Cả các cuộc thảo luận sơ bộ và các hợp đồng ủy thác đang triển khai đều gia tăng. Phần mềm hiện là động lực ngành rõ nét nhất, với đóng góp doanh thu dự kiến bắt đầu từ năm dương lịch 2027 và có tác động tiềm năng lớn hơn trong năm tài chính 2028.
• Triển vọng theo khu vực: Ban lãnh đạo nhận thấy môi trường tái cấu trúc hấp dẫn tại châu Âu và kỳ vọng tăng trưởng mảng Tài chính Doanh nghiệp tại châu Âu và Mỹ sẽ tương đương nhau vào cuối năm tài chính.
• Hoạt động thâu tóm: Houlihan Lokey tiếp tục tích cực đánh giá các mục tiêu, nhưng ban lãnh đạo cho biết thời điểm thâu tóm không gắn liền cụ thể với sự gián đoạn hiện tại của ngành phần mềm.

Toàn văn Biên bản Cuộc họp Báo cáo Kết quả Kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Houlihan Lokey's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2027 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference call is being recorded today, October 28, 2026. I will now turn the call over to the company.

Prabha Bhandari

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. By now, everyone should have access to our second quarter fiscal year 2027 earnings release, which can be found on the Houlihan Lokey website at www.hl.com in the Investor Relations section. Please note that the discussion today will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are usually identified by use of words such as indicate, suggest, see, will, expect, believe or other words or phrases of similar meaning are not guarantees of future performance.

These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect, and therefore, you should exercise caution when interpreting and relying on them. We refer you to our recent SEC filings for a more detailed discussion of the risks that could impact our future operating results and financial condition. Except as required by applicable securities laws, Houlihan Lokey is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change.

We encourage investors to review our regulatory filings, including our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, when it is filed with the SEC. During today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be considered in isolation from, as a substitute for or as more important than the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP.

In addition, these non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all the items associated with the company's results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in our earnings release and our investor presentation, which can be found on the hl.com website. Hosting the call today, we have Scott Adelson, Houlihan Lokey's Chief Executive Officer; and Lindsey Alley, Chief Financial Officer. They will provide some opening remarks, and then we will open the call to questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott.

Scott Joseph Adelson

Thank you, Sipi. Welcome, everyone, to our second quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call. We ended the quarter with revenues of $692 million and adjusted earnings per share of $1.85. Revenues were up 5% and adjusted earnings per share were flat compared to the same period last year. Our results for the quarter reflect a normalizing market environment, which continued into October. Key metrics indicate solid performance for the remainder of the year across all 3 of our businesses, and we have seen a return to growth in both Europe and the U.S. and across our industry groups, except technology and health care.

We do, however, remain cautious given the volatility of the macro environment. We continue to see headwinds from interest rates, ongoing geopolitical instability and dislocation in the software sector. Our Corporate Finance business produced $481 million in revenue for the quarter, driven by higher average transaction fees. Heading into the third quarter, our backlog and activity levels suggest growth for the balance of the year, even as we remain mindful of the macro volatility. Despite the higher interest rate environment of the last few months, transactions continue to move through the pipeline to closing, which tells us that the stronger economic fundamentals are outweighing macro uncertainty.

Financial Restructuring produced $118 million in revenues for the second quarter, performing in line with our expectations. Based on our current backlog and new deal activity levels over the last several months, we see a stronger second half of the year and elevated restructuring revenues through fiscal 2028. Our reputation and experience in the software space has led to significant wins in the sector, and we expect these engagements to begin contributing to revenues in calendar '27. Financial and Valuation Advisory produced $93 million of revenues for the second quarter. Growth was primarily driven by our portfolio valuation business.

We added 12 new managing directors in the second quarter, including 8 who joined us through our acquisition of Intrepid Financial Partners, which closed in September. We're excited to welcome our new partners to Houlihan Lokey. Also in the second quarter, we welcome our new Chief Legal Officer, Sipi Bhandari, who you heard from earlier on the call. We are all delighted to have Sipi on board. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Christopher Crain, who served as our General Counsel and a member of our executive team for 22 years and who fortunately will remain a senior adviser.

In terms of acquisitions, our pipeline remains strong, and we are confident that our combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions will continue to deepen and expand and strengthen our talent base around the world. I want to thank our shareholders for their support, especially during a volatile first half of the fiscal year. We continue to execute our long-term business plan and believe that we are the best positioned investment banking advisory firm to capitalize on our industry trends over the next decade. With that, I'll turn it over to Lindsey.

J. Alley

Thank you, Scott. Revenues in Corporate Finance were $481 million for the quarter, up 10% compared to the same period last year. We closed 142 transactions this quarter, down from 171 for the same period last year. However, our average transaction fee on closed deals increased as there was a disproportionate number of higher fee transactions relative to lower-fee transactions for the quarter, the reverse of what we saw last quarter. Financial Restructuring revenues were $118 million for the quarter, down 12% compared to the same period last year.

We closed 27 transactions this quarter, down 27% from the same quarter last year, but our average transaction fee on closed deals increased. We expect to see higher revenues for the second half of the year, and we approach calendar 2027 with record backlog and strong activity levels. For Financial and Valuation Advisory, revenues were $93 million for the quarter, a 7% increase from the same period last year. The number of fee events remained relatively flat at 1,071 during the quarter compared to 1,075 in the same period last year.

And turning to expenses. Our adjusted compensation expense ratio for the second quarter in both fiscal 2027 and 2026 remained constant at 61.5%. We expect to maintain our long-term target of 61.5% for our adjusted compensation expense ratio for fiscal 2027. Our adjusted non-compensation expenses grew 11% to $91 million for the quarter compared to $83 million for the same period last year. Our adjusted non-compensation expense ratio for the second quarter was 13.3% compared to 12.5% in the same period last year.

Our other income and expense produced income of approximately $5 million versus income of approximately $9 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily driven by lower cash balances for the quarter and lower return on our investment securities. Our adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was 30%, remaining flat compared to the same quarter last year. We expect to see a fiscal 2027 full year adjusted effective tax rate of between 26% and 28%.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with approximately $888 million of unrestricted cash and investment securities. As a reminder, we will pay our deferred cash bonuses related to fiscal 2026 in November, which will reduce our balance sheet cash. Also in our second quarter, we repurchased approximately 397,000 shares as part of our share repurchase program for a total of approximately $50 million. We will continue to evaluate balance sheet flexibility for acquisitions versus excess cash for share repurchases. And with that, operator, we can open the line for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

And our first question here will come from Brennan Hawken with BMO Capital Markets.

Phần hỏi đáp

Brennan Hawken

So nice to see the recovery in Corporate Finance revenues this quarter. Scott, your comments sounded a little mixed, although maybe just recognizing some volatility in the marketplace. So should we expect to be able to build on that on the results that you put up here this quarter? And we've seen rates back up. Has there been any impact on the higher rates in the dialogue that you've seen?

Scott Joseph Adelson

As always, thanks. Good question. The rate question, really not. As we've talked about before, rates in the mid-cap space really, unless they are accelerating greatly, don't have a dramatic impact. Things aren't priced quite to the same perfection that they are in large-cap world. So that, as long as capital is available, which it is very plentiful today, that is really not an issue. I would say the geopolitical shocks have been more important from our perspective. And I think our hesitation is we just never know what's around the corner. But based upon everything we're seeing from our dialogues, from our metrics, we're feeling good about the back half of the year.

Brennan Hawken

Excellent. And you had spoken previously about restructuring and that those pipelines rebuilding. Are you continuing to see that? And what additional color could you give us about how that outlook is shaping up?

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. And that is, as we've talked about, I think when we originally started the year, we were actually a little concerned about the growth in restructuring. That has really turned around, particularly with the fallout from software is a significant driver of that. It's certainly not the only one. Higher interest rates help as well. Some of the geopolitical dislocation helps. I mean all of that has helped restructuring, and we're at the margin as Corporate Finance, exactly the way the model is supposed to work. But at this point, we feel much better than we did at the beginning or the end of last year about restructuring this year, but even more importantly, probably next year.

J. Alley

Yes. Our confidence in restructuring is at or better than it was last quarter.

Brennan Hawken

So it's continued to improve.

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes, thanks, Brennan.

Operator

And our next question will come from Nathan Stein with Deutsche Bank.

Nathan Stein

Would you just unpack a little more what caused the drop in transactions versus a year ago in both the Corporate Finance and the Financial Restructuring business? I just feel like there's a big difference between the higher revenues and the lower number of deals.

J. Alley

There is, and we figured we would get this question. Restructuring, I think we've seen this before. It is a lumpy business, and you do see that those, that disconnect between transaction volume and revenues occur a lot more often than you do in Corporate Finance. So that is not an unusual set of circumstances for us. With respect to Corporate Finance, it is unusual. If you look at the year-to-date, it's a better indication of the reality. Year-to-date, the number of transactions, our revenue is down roughly 6% and our number of transactions closed is down roughly 9%. So they tend to follow each other on a year-to-date basis.

It was a very unique first quarter and a unique second quarter in this regard. If you remember, first quarter, I think we were down 25% in revenues, and we had a flat number of transactions. It really is just, I think, the timing and the unusual circumstances in Q1 that sort of drove the disconnect in Q2. I wouldn't read into it any further than that.

Having said that, and Scott has said this in the past, we are much more intentional in the types of transactions that we will take on, which has resulted in us, generally speaking, taking on larger transactions with generally speaking, higher fees. And so you may not, in the future, see quite as strong a correlation between transaction volume and revenues. Not saying that you won't see it for the foreseeable future, but that you might start to see that as we continue to.

Scott Joseph Adelson

To be clear, all still squarely in the, this is not by the companies that you guys are following. This is not, when we say larger, that kind of scale, it's still squarely in our marketplace.

Nathan Stein

Yes. I guess just following up on that, that is, it sounds like a total shift in how you guys have talked about deal size that you'd like to target in the past. What really drove, what drove the decision to start leaning more into bigger deals even within your...

Scott Joseph Adelson

No, no, no. That's what I wanted, I thought I was being clear. I was a little concerned you were going to take that away from Lindsey's statement. That is not at all what that means. This is all squarely within the middle market, all squarely sub couple of billion dollars, mostly in the kind of few hundred million dollar range, a few less deals that we think are more speculative in nature in that size range than those that we think have a higher probability of closing.

And so just as we've always talked about using our data to our advantage, we are able to analyze things better than we ever have. We have enormous amounts of information about really what closes and what doesn't close. And therefore, we're being smarter, if you will, about that. And that is a long-term trend that is not something that is just this quarter. But there's no decision to move away from our mid-market focus. There's no decision to do bigger deals, none of that. A little clearer than where Lindsey left you.

Operator

And our next question will come from Devin Ryan with Citizens Bank.

Devin Ryan

Good to see the Corporate Finance get back to kind of, as you said, more normal levels of activity and the outlook as well there. It still sounds like the tech space, maybe software specifically remains challenging. And so I'm just curious, is it just not as challenging as it was last quarter? Or are there other sectors that are just maybe picking up more and carrying more of the weight here for the overall business? Just trying to think about the mix, maybe some sector dynamics as well.

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. I think we called out both software or tech, but it's mostly software and health care in the written remarks. And I think that health care is realistically just a timing issue. Software is down. That is just a reality. It is not as bad as it was from a market standpoint, it has continued to improve. They're beginning to realize there are good software companies and bad software companies. I do believe it will come back. Having said that, there is no world where I envision us doing the same amount of software revenue this year than we did last year.

Devin Ryan

Yes. Of course, makes sense. And then as a follow-up on just the kind of the non-M&A advisory elements of Corporate Finance, like capital solutions or private capital. Can you just give a sense of like the baseline for those businesses? And are they flat? Are they accelerating? And just a little bit more flavor for what you're seeing there and the outlook as well?

J. Alley

I mean I think the expectations are that capital solutions and what I would call the non-M&A businesses will perform similarly by the end of the year. And so we don't, we're not necessarily differentiating between the 2 in terms of how those businesses look for the balance of the year. And similar to our comments last quarter about Europe, I think we had some concerns about growth in Europe. We started to see that come back and now expectations Europe and the U.S. by the end of the year will look about the same. So I'd say, yes, we don't see a divergence between M&A and non-M&A businesses through fiscal '27.

Operator

Our next question will come from Gabriel Angelini with Bank of America.

Gabriel Angelini

I think historically the second half tends to be stronger than the first half from a revenue perspective. And obviously, first half was a little bit weaker this year just because of the first quarter. With conditions improving, should we expect a little bit stronger than normal seasonality in the second half of this year? Or should we interpret the caution to suggest that it's something closer to a typical year in terms of seasonality?

J. Alley

I mean it's, the answer is based on all the metrics and all the things Scott suggested, yes, we should see an unseasonably higher seasonality in our second half. But again, that it's, we need cooperation in the market. But yes, we do expect a good solid second half that's better than normal for us, but we need that, we need the cooperation.

Gabriel Angelini

Got it. And maybe just given the disruption we're seeing across the industry right now, I imagine software is putting pressure on a lot of smaller boutiques. Is now the right time to lean in on acquisitions? And maybe are there any sectors that you're particularly focused on?

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. It's safe to say and we've talked about it before. We have a very robust process to go after acquisitions. And it isn't honestly time sensitive. We are in the market constantly. And I wish I could do a better job of predicting when things are going to close, but it is safe to say that we, as I said in my remarks, we are feeling good about what that pipeline looks like and more to come. But it's not just because software is difficult or anything like that. There are just, we constantly talk about it, it needs to be a good cultural fit for us.

Operator

And our next question will come from Ryan Kenny with Morgan Stanley.

Ryan Kenny

So on the restructuring side, it sounds like you're a little bit more positive with higher interest rates. Any sectors in particular driving the bigger pipeline there? And is it more speculative where conversations are increasing or actual mandates increasing?

Scott Joseph Adelson

It is both. I will call it verbally mandated, actively mandated, both and software is clearly one of the driving sectors, not, by far not the only sector. But typically, when we have an increasing restructuring cycle, it is driven by an industry or another. And right now, it is software.

Ryan Kenny

Got it. And then just to be very clear on the earlier discussion about transaction size. So you would still stay within below $2 billion in value. And is that right?

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. 100%.

Ryan Kenny

And then does that number move up over time as the market inflates?

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. 100%, we have not moved our strategy one bit. This is not a strategic focus. This is about being better utilizing our information to make more calculated decisions within our market that we play in.

Ryan Kenny

And does that number move up over time as the economy grows or no?

J. Alley

Yes. It's moved up over time historically. I mean just we, just on average, it's not about the economy. We went from average transaction sizes of $100 million many, many, many years ago, and now we're closer to $200 million to $300 million. And we expect that number over time to continue to go up, but in baby steps.

Scott Joseph Adelson

And I think the only other comment I want to make is on the restructuring question. I mean I think that we will, we're seeing some of that this year. We believe we will see more of that in fiscal '28 just because it takes time for those deals to work their way through the pipeline.

Ryan Kenny

And so was the $481 million in revenues a good base to grow off of? Or was it positively impacted by that timing that you mentioned that resulted in higher fees per deal?

J. Alley

I would say it's a good solid base to grow off of.

Operator

And our next question will come from Alex Bond with KBW.

Alexander Bond

Maybe I just want to follow up on, again on the larger deals that did get across the line this quarter. Maybe if you could just comment if you're seeing more willingness from clients to push through some of the macro and geopolitical volatility that may have deterred some of the activity earlier in the year. I think you had mentioned some elongated deal timelines for those deals, again, in the earlier portion of the year. So are clients more willing to sort of look through that, what's going on, on the macro and geopolitical fronts there?

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. I think we've talked about it before. When these things happen, they have created speed bumps or traffic jams or whatever you want to call it, that have slowed things down. And then it has settled in and people go, okay, the sky is not going to fall. And then they keep to mix my metaphors, and then they keep on with the deals. And that is what we are seeing. And right now, we are seeing a willingness to do deals. And I just was in a meeting with somebody, they were commenting on, we're getting to a point where people are like, look, I just want to get this done. And that is a good sign when people start saying that for things just moving through the pipeline.

Operator

And our next question will come from James Yaro with Goldman Sachs.

James Yaro

I was hoping you might be... Just hoping you might expand a little bit on the FVA business outlook from here. Perhaps if you could just comment on the cyclical versus noncyclical parts of the business? And then also if you could just comment on some of the newer initiatives in that business that you've been working on the past few quarters and years.

Scott Joseph Adelson

Yes. Great. Thanks, James. The growth, as I mentioned in my comments, is really largely, not exclusively, but largely coming from our portfolio valuation business, and that is a noncyclical business and has been growing very strongly at this point for a very long time. And some of those new initiatives that we are pushing into are in that arena as well, and we feel very good about where that business is heading and like that a lot. Our other 2 businesses, our opinion business and our advisory business are more tied towards, are more cyclical and more tied to the M&A environment, not exclusively, but are more tied to that. And while they are up, they haven't been driving the growth quite as much.

James Yaro

Okay. Great. I was hoping perhaps you could just touch a little bit on the non-comp expense trajectory. Obviously, I thought very well managed non-comps this quarter. So I was hoping you might be able to just update us on how you're thinking about the trajectory for that going forward.

J. Alley

I think, James, for now, we're kind of at where we were at last quarter. I still think last year's annual growth is a decent proxy. We had a good first quarter relative to that. Second quarter is kind of right on track. Second half of the year may sort of make up for the better first quarter a little bit. But I think you can expect non-comp to grow similarly to last year by the time we reach the end of the fiscal year.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Our next question will come from Mike Brown with UBS.

Michael Brown

I guess if I use your analogy from last quarter, I think you called it a bit of a rain delay. So the middle market activity has clearly rebounded. Maybe just narrow in on the sponsor space, specifically. Obviously, that's a big cohort in the middle market. We saw some life coming back kind of later in the summer. It sounds like things are continuing to progress for your business there. Maybe just talk a little bit about that cohort though specifically. Is the conviction levels that you kind of referenced previously, is that also apply here for this group? And are you starting to see, are LPs starting to kind of drive more of that urgency to act? Has that been a bit of a catalyst for activity recently?

Scott Joseph Adelson

So that's, given the importance of that cohort for us, it absolutely is part of it. I mean that is the largest part of our client base does tend to be sponsor driven. So it absolutely is driving that return. And yes, we are seeing a growing willingness to do transactions in the sponsor community, and that has been ramping. And again, whether you get another rain delay or we hopefully don't, we don't know, but it is all headed in that correct direction.

J. Alley

And the limited partner pressure has been in place for years. So it hasn't changed.

Scott Joseph Adelson

I don't think that all of a sudden, they're succumbing to that. That has been around for quite a while, and it is much more, they're just ready to get on.

Michael Brown

Okay. Understood. Understood. Okay. And then maybe just to double-click on the financial restructuring side of the business. You talked about a lot of the strength you're seeing there and some growth potential that can come through. Can you maybe just talk a little bit about some of the opportunities outside of the U.S. and maybe specifically Europe? And then on the software restructuring opportunity, you talked about that's been driving activity. I guess when can that really move the needle? Is that going to be a 2027 story? Or is that going to be more like a '28 story? And then how would you maybe size the quantum of opportunity there in a base case maybe compared to prior restructuring cycles?

J. Alley

So I think, look, we think we are extraordinarily well positioned in restructuring in Europe. And so we, and we think there are it is a very attractive environment in Europe in restructuring today. And so we're, I think, quite bullish on both the U.S. and the European restructuring market really over the next couple of years as we see these debt maturity walls approach us. With respect to software, I don't want to size it, but it is going to be a huge opportunity for those who are in software restructuring. So it's not just going to be Houlihan Lokey.

Your best proxy is if you go back to the oil and gas dislocation that occurred in our fiscal 2017 and got a sense of how that impacted our restructuring business in a single year, software is much larger than that. And so that's not a bad way to think about it. We don't think that probably starts for us from a revenue standpoint until calendar '27, but we think that is calendar '27 and calendar '28 that you're going to see revenues from software activity that we're seeing today really start to translate into closed transactions.

Operator

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Scott Joseph Adelson

I want to thank you all for participating in our second quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call. We look forward to updating everyone on our progress when we discuss our third quarter results for fiscal 2027 this winter. Thank you.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.