NEW YORK CITY-In an effort to expand its US platform, global brokerage firm BGC Partners Inc. has closed on its acquisition of Newmark & Co. Real Estate Inc. after attaining all outstanding shares in the company, BGC unveiled late Friday. A spokeswoman for BGC says the financial terms of the deal will be revealed in the company’s third quarter report on Thursday, Oct. 27, but declined to comment about the details of the transaction beyond a news release to GlobeSt.com.
The acquisition--expected to be accretive to BGC--means the company will gain control of Newmark’s US commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm, plus a controlling interest in its affiliated companies, encompassing 425 brokers. As a long-term strategy, BGC plans to “aggressively drive Newmark’s growth by attracting experienced brokers, investing in proprietary technology and capitalizing on Newmark’s extensive domestic relationships with international reach,” according to a company statement.
“This acquisition is a game changer,” says Howard W. Lutnick, chairman and chief executive officer of BGC. “Newmark boasts an impressive domestic footprint, talented pool of brokers and prominent client base with substantial opportunity for synergies with BGC.”
Barry M. Gosin, chief executive officer of Newmark, says joining with BGC enables the firm to offer “a unique value proposition for clients” and a professional opportunity to build-out a global platform. “Given our commitment to providing world-class service to our clients and the best tools for our professionals, this is a unique moment in the commercial real estate industry as we align best-in-class technology with financial products in real estate,” he says, in a statement.
Newmark & Co. operates as Newmark Knight Frank in New York City and Knight Frank in London. The global partnership between Newmark and Knight Frank operates more than 240 offices across the globe with 7,000 employees, including approximately 1,600 brokers and other employees throughout the US. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as a financial adviser to BGC on the transaction.
Earlier in the year, BGC posted gains in Q2, with revenues reaching $364.8 million mid-year, up 8.5% from $336.3 million in Q2 2010. BGC’s board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.17 per share on Aug. 25 to the class A and B common stockholders of record as of Aug. 11, an increase of 21.4% year-over-year.
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