Sprott (NYSE:SII) executives said the company ended 2025 with sharp asset growth and higher profitability, citing strong investor demand for precious metals and “critical materials” strategies and continued momentum into early 2026. The comments came during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call held February 19, 2026.
Assets climb to $59.6 billion at year-end, $70.1 billion in February
Chairman and CEO Whitney George said 2025 was a “banner year” for Sprott, with client assets benefiting from market appreciation and net sales across multiple metals exposures. Total assets under management (AUM) increased by $10.5 billion during the fourth quarter and finished the year at $59.6 billion, up $28.1 billion from December 31, 2024. George added that AUM continued to grow after year-end, reaching $70.1 billion as of February 13, 2026—an additional $10.5 billion.
Earnings rise, while stock-based compensation accounting adds volatility
Hibbert reported quarterly net income of $28.7 million, up from $11.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Full-year net income was $67.3 million, up from $49.3 million in 2024. He attributed the improvement primarily to market value appreciation and inflows to the company’s precious metals physical trusts, along with carried interest and performance fee crystallizations in managed equities and private strategies.
Management also emphasized a new source of income statement volatility: a cash-settled stock plan implemented in 2025. Hibbert said the plan requires mark-to-market and graded vest accounting under IFRS 2, which both accelerates vesting expense recognition and introduces market volatility into the expense calculation. He noted that the accounting impact was amplified by Sprott’s share price appreciation—up 18% in the quarter and 132% for the full year.
Adjusted EBITDA was $42 million for the quarter, up 88% from $22.4 million a year earlier, and $121 million for the full year, up 43% from $85.2 million. Hibbert said the results reflected higher average AUM, market appreciation, and inflows to precious metals physical trusts and ETFs.
Hibbert also said the company’s liquidity strengthened during the year and that Sprott increased its dividend by 33% in November.
Physical trusts and ETFs drive sales; copper trust NYSE Arca cross-listing planned
CEO of Sprott Asset Management John Ciampaglia said Sprott has maintained a bullish view on metals and miners and argued that investors are increasingly embracing what he described as a “metals-driven commodity super cycle.” He said the company’s physical trusts fund suite grew significantly in 2025, with AUM up 97% to $47 billion, and that momentum continued with another $7 billion added year to date.
Ciampaglia pointed to price strength across the metals Sprott offers in physical form, stating that gold, silver, platinum, and copper “have all recently reached all-time highs,” while uranium reached a two-year high.
Net flows into physical trusts were described as a record in 2025, with Ciampaglia saying fourth-quarter sales were “very strong” and continued into January. He said the gold, silver, and uranium trusts accounted for most flows, while the Physical Copper Trust emerged as a growing contributor. While the copper trust saw only $4 million of sales in 2025, Ciampaglia said it had generated $54 million year to date.
He also said Sprott received SEC approval to cross-list the Physical Copper Trust on NYSE Arca and, subject to unitholder approval, expects trading to begin in early second quarter. He said it would be the first physical copper fund to trade in the United States. Ciampaglia added that assets across Sprott’s broader copper suite, including copper mining ETFs, stood at approximately $800 million, compared with $6 million two years earlier.
ETF platform scales; management discusses margins, competition, and new launches
George said Sprott’s ETF business, which has been growing since 2021, represented more than $4.6 billion of AUM at year-end and was approaching $7 billion early in 2026. Ciampaglia characterized 2025 as a “breakout year” for the ETF suite, with AUM up 94% during the year and up another 45% year to date.
He highlighted performance rankings, noting that over the year ended February 18, Sprott had six ETFs in the top 25 performers among more than 4,000 U.S.-listed non-leveraged ETFs. He also called out the Sprott Physical Silver Miners and Physical Silver ETF (ticker: SLVR), saying it surpassed $1 billion in assets in its first year and was the company’s fastest-growing ETF launch to date. Ciampaglia added that the partnership with European distributor HANetf continued to grow, with assets at $650 million.
During Q&A, Ciampaglia said ETF “unitary fees” provide predictability for investors, and that as assets scale, Sprott can capture additional margin due to vendor pricing arrangements that improve at higher asset levels. George added that ETFs tend to have higher margin opportunities than physical products, citing a lower fixed cost structure. Ciampaglia said break-even AUM varies by ETF but typically ranges from about $25 million to $75 million, depending largely on the management fee and listing market.
Asked about competition, Ciampaglia said the precious metals ETF space is crowded and that newer entrants often compete on lower price points, while Sprott has not discounted pricing because it views its offerings as “premium.” He said there has been more new competition in mining-focused ETFs, and argued that Sprott’s index construction approach has helped performance. He cited outperformance in the company’s critical materials and copper mining ETFs relative to tracked competitors.
On future product plans, Ciampaglia said the ETFs “in the hopper” were proprietary, passive index-based strategies: one would be a “clone of an existing fund” to bring to Europe, and another a new fund he said was already in the public domain but not something the company would discuss in detail. George said Sprott expects to announce at least one new ETF in the first half of 2026.
Managed equities performance strong; private strategies described as episodic
George said managed equity AUM increased 97% in 2025 to $5.7 billion. He reported that the firm’s flagship gold equity fund gained 18% in the fourth quarter and rose 148% for the full year, while some private partnerships performed even better. Despite performance, he said the strategies experienced modest outflows, and noted that a sub-advisory agreement for the silver equities fund was terminated by a client in the fourth quarter despite the fund being up 175% as of December 1.
George said Sprott is leveraging its team via active ETFs, with the Sprott Active Gold and Silver Miners ETF and the Sprott Active Metals and Miners ETF scaling to $202 million and $105 million in AUM, respectively.
On private strategies, George said the company was monitoring and harvesting investments in its second lending fund, assessing new opportunities as it invests a third lending fund, and continuing to monitor streaming portfolio investments. In Q&A, management described carried interest and performance fees as “episodic,” noting a portion of 2025 performance-related revenue was tied to a harvested “legacy exploration LP” that would not recur.
Executives also discussed the accounting treatment of private credit AUM changes. In response to questions about limited market value increases, management said private credit funds are accounted for at amortized cost, with changes generally driven by factors such as equity kickers and loan repayments rather than mark-to-market movements.
Looking to 2026, George said the firm expects more market volatility and described January’s sharp precious metals sell-off as a “healthy and overdue technical correction,” while maintaining that fundamental drivers remain intact. He added that governments are becoming more involved in critical materials supply and that Sprott expects this to boost investor interest. On capital allocation, George said the firm intends to keep a strong balance sheet, grow the regular dividend, consider buybacks opportunistically, and potentially evaluate special dividends tied to non-recurring income sources.
About Sprott (NYSE:SII)
Sprott Inc is a Toronto‐based alternative asset manager specializing in precious metals, real assets and related investment vehicles. Founded in 1981 by Eric Sprott, the firm has built a reputation for offering physically backed bullion trusts, exchange‐traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds and private managed accounts that provide exposure to gold, silver, platinum and other hard assets. Sprott’s product lineup also includes royalty and streaming strategies, which grant investors long‐term participation in mining project cash flows without direct operational risk.
In addition to its flagship physical bullion trusts, Sprott offers actively managed equity portfolios that focus on companies engaged in the exploration, development and production of precious metals.
