BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:BGCP), a brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets, has earlier today posted its financial metrics for the final quarter and full year 2015, with annual Forex revenues staging a 44.4% rise, reaching $310.6 million.
The company said its Forex revenues for the three months to December 31, 2015 amounted to $71.6 million, up 24.3% from the result for the equivalent period in 2014 and down 14.5% from the third quarter of 2015.
Total revenues for distributable earnings from financial services for the final quarter of 2015 amounted to $394.3 million, up 51.2% year on year and down 5.6% quarter on quarter.
Overall revenues for distributable earnings amounted to $692 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, up 34.3% from the same quarter in 2014 and down 1.3% from the third quarter of 2015.
GAAP net income per fully diluted share was $0.24 for the final quarter of 2015, compared to a loss of $0.08 a year earlier.
BGC Partners’ Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per share payable on March 16, 2016 to Class A and Class B common stockholders of record as of March 2, 2016. The ex-dividend date is February 29, 2016.
Management comments
Howard W. Lutnick, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BGC, says,
“BGC’s fourth quarter post-tax distributable earnings grew by more than 26 percent year-over-year to $76.7 million, while our revenues increased by 34 percent to $692 million. This marks our sixth consecutive quarter of record profits. This strong performance was driven by the addition of GFI, the ongoing success of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, our Real Estate Services company, and the 112 percent year-on-year revenue increase generated by our high margin fully electronic FENICS business. BGC’s record results came despite the stronger U.S. dollar reducing our reported Financial Services revenues by $18 million and $91 million during the fourth quarter and full year 2015, respectively.
“In December, we sold Trayport to Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. for approximately 2.5 million ICE common shares issued with respect to the $650 million purchase price. We have sold over 80 percent of these shares to date, and the expected cash tax rate related to the purchase price is 10 percent or less.
“The proceeds from the Trayport sale contributed to our more than $1 billion of balance sheet liquidity as of the end of the year. In addition to our strong current liquidity position, we expect to receive over $730 million in additional Nasdaq stock over time, which is not yet reflected on our balance sheet. This means that we have over $1.7 billion of dry powder available to us to drive substantial returns for our investors. We expect to use our considerable financial resources to repay debt, profitably hire, make accretive acquisitions, pay dividends, and/or repurchase shares and units of BGC, all while maintaining or improving our investment grade rating.
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