NEW YORK, March 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BGC Partners,
Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP) ("BGC Partners", "BGC", or the
"Company"), a leading global brokerage company servicing the
financial and real estate markets, today updated its outlook with
respect to its consolidated financial results for the quarter
ending March 31, 2017.
The Company now expects both its revenues and its pre-tax
distributable earnings for the period to be around the high-end of
the range of its previously stated guidance.
BGC plans to issue an advisory press release regarding the
availability of its consolidated quarterly financial results by
8:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Please visit
http://ir.bgcpartners.com for any details or updates regarding this
planned release and the subsequent conference call.
Distributable Earnings Defined
BGC Partners uses
non-GAAP financial measures including, but not limited to, "pre-tax
distributable earnings" and "post-tax distributable earnings",
which are supplemental measures of operating results that are used
by management to evaluate the financial performance of the Company
and its consolidated subsidiaries. BGC believes that
distributable earnings best reflect the operating earnings
generated by the Company on a consolidated basis and are the
earnings which management considers available for, among other
things, distribution to BGC Partners, Inc. and its common
stockholders, as well as to holders of BGC Holdings partnership
units during any period.
As compared with "income (loss) from operations before income
taxes", and "net income (loss) per fully diluted share", all
prepared in accordance with GAAP, distributable earnings
calculations primarily exclude certain non-cash compensation and
other expenses that generally do not involve the receipt or outlay
of cash by the Company and/or which do not dilute existing
stockholders, as described below. In addition, distributable
earnings calculations exclude certain gains and charges that
management believes do not best reflect the ordinary operating
results of BGC.
Adjustments Made to Calculate Pre-Tax Distributable
Earnings
Pre-tax distributable earnings are defined as GAAP
income (loss) from operations before income taxes and
noncontrolling interest in subsidiaries excluding items, such
as:
- Non-cash equity-based compensation charges related to limited
partnership unit exchange or conversion.
- Non-cash asset impairment charges, if any.
- Non-cash compensation charges for items granted or issued
pre-merger with respect to certain mergers or acquisitions by BGC
Partners, Inc. To date, these mergers have only included those with
and into eSpeed, Inc. and the back-end merger with GFI Group
Inc.
Distributable earnings calculations also exclude certain
unusual, one-time or non-recurring items, if any. These
charges are excluded from distributable earnings because the
Company views excluding such charges as a better reflection of the
ongoing, ordinary operations of BGC.
In addition to the above items, allocations of net income to
founding/working partner and other limited partnership units are
excluded from calculations of pre-tax distributable earnings.
Such allocations represent the pro-rata portion of pre-tax earnings
available to such unit holders. These units are in the fully
diluted share count, and are exchangeable on a one-to-one basis
into common stock. As these units are exchanged into common
shares, unit holders become entitled to cash dividends rather than
cash distributions. The Company views such allocations as
intellectually similar to dividends on common shares. Because
dividends paid to common shares are not an expense under GAAP,
management believes similar allocations of income to unit holders
should also be excluded when calculating distributable earnings
performance measures.
BGC's definition of distributable earnings also excludes certain
gains and charges with respect to acquisitions, dispositions, or
resolutions of litigation. This includes the one-time gains
related to the Nasdaq and Trayport transactions. Management
believes that excluding such gains and charges also best reflects
the ongoing operating performance of BGC.
However, the payments associated with BGC's expected annual
receipt of Nasdaq stock and related mark-to-market gains or losses
are anticipated to be included in the Company's calculation of
distributable earnings for the following reasons:
- Nasdaq is expected to pay BGC in an equal amount of stock on a
regular basis for a 15 year period beginning in 2013 as part of
that transaction;
- The Nasdaq earn-out largely replaced the generally recurring
quarterly earnings BGC generated from eSpeed; and
- The Company intends to pay dividends and distributions to
common stockholders and/or unit holders based on all other income
related to the receipt of the earn-out.
To make period-to-period comparisons more meaningful,
one-quarter of each annual Nasdaq contingent earn-out amount, as
well as gains or losses with respect to associated mark-to-market
movements and/or hedging, will be included in the Company's
calculation of distributable earnings each quarter as "other
income".
The Company also treats gains or losses related to
mark-to-market movements and/or hedging with respect to any
remaining ICE shares in a consistent manner with the treatment of
Nasdaq shares when calculating distributable earnings.
Investors and analysts should note that, due to the large gain
recorded with respect to the Trayport sale in December, 2015, and
the closing of the back-end merger with GFI in January, 2016,
non-cash charges related to the amortization of intangibles with
respect to acquisitions are also excluded from the calculation of
pre-tax distributable earnings.
Adjustments Made to Calculate Post-Tax Distributable
Earnings
Since distributable earnings are calculated on a
pre-tax basis, management intends to also report post-tax
distributable earnings to fully diluted shareholders.
Post-tax distributable earnings to fully diluted shareholders are
defined as pre-tax distributable earnings, less noncontrolling
interest in subsidiaries, and reduced by the provision for taxes as
described below.
The Company's calculation of the provision for taxes on an
annualized basis starts with GAAP income tax provision, adjusted to
reflect tax-deductible items. Management uses this non-GAAP
provision for taxes in part to help it to evaluate, among other
things, the overall performance of the business, make decisions
with respect to the Company's operations, and to determine the
amount of dividends paid to common shareholders.
The provision for taxes with respect to distributable earnings
includes additional tax-deductible items including limited
partnership unit exchange or conversion, employee loan
amortization, charitable contributions, and certain net-operating
loss carryforwards.
BGC incurs income tax expenses based on the location, legal
structure and jurisdictional taxing authorities of each of its
subsidiaries. Certain of the Company's entities are taxed as
U.S. partnerships and are subject to the Unincorporated Business
Tax ("UBT") in New York City. Any U.S. federal and state
income tax liability or benefit related to the partnership income
or loss, with the exception of UBT, rests with the unit holders
rather than with the partnership entity. The Company's
consolidated financial statements include U.S. federal, state and
local income taxes on the Company's allocable share of the U.S.
results of operations. Outside of the U.S., BGC operates
principally through subsidiary corporations subject to local income
taxes. For these reasons, taxes for distributable earnings
are presented to show the tax provision the consolidated Company
would expect to pay if 100 percent of earnings were taxed at global
corporate rates.
Calculations of Pre-tax and Post-Tax Distributable Earnings
per Share
BGC's distributable earnings per share
calculations assume either that:
- The fully diluted share count includes the shares related to
any dilutive instruments, such as the Convertible Senior Notes, but
excludes the associated interest expense, net of tax, when the
impact would be dilutive; or
- The fully diluted share count excludes the shares related to
these instruments, but includes the associated interest expense,
net of tax.
The share count for distributable earnings excludes shares
expected to be issued in future periods but not yet eligible to
receive dividends and/or distributions.
Each quarter, the dividend to BGC's common stockholders is
expected to be determined by the Company's Board of Directors with
reference to a number of factors, including post-tax distributable
earnings per fully diluted share. In addition to the
Company's quarterly dividend to common stockholders, BGC Partners
expects to pay a pro-rata distribution of net income to BGC
Holdings founding/working partner and other limited partnership
units, as well as to Cantor for its non-controlling interest.
The amount of this net income, and therefore of these payments, is
expected to be determined using the above definition of pre-tax
distributable earnings per share.
Other Matters with Respect to Distributable Earnings
The term "distributable earnings" should not be considered in
isolation or as an alternative to GAAP net income (loss). The
Company views distributable earnings as a metric that is not
indicative of liquidity or the cash available to fund its
operations, but rather as a performance measure.
Pre- and post-tax distributable earnings are not intended to
replace the Company's presentation of GAAP financial results.
However, management believes that they help provide investors with
a clearer understanding of BGC Partners' financial performance and
offer useful information to both management and investors regarding
certain financial and business trends related to the Company's
financial condition and results of operations. Management
believes that distributable earnings and the GAAP measures of
financial performance should be considered together.
BGC anticipates providing forward-looking quarterly guidance for
GAAP revenues and for certain distributable earnings measures from
time to time. However, the Company does not anticipate
providing a quarterly outlook for other GAAP results. This is
because certain GAAP items, which are excluded from distributable
earnings, are difficult to forecast with precision before the end
of each quarter. The Company therefore believes that it is
not possible to forecast quarterly GAAP results or to
quantitatively reconcile GAAP results to non-GAAP results with
sufficient precision unless BGC makes unreasonable
efforts.
The items that are difficult to predict on a quarterly basis
with precision and which can have a material impact on the
Company's GAAP results include, but are not limited, to the
following:
- Allocations of net income and grants of exchangeability to
limited partnership units and FPUs, which are determined at the
discretion of management throughout and up to the period-end.
- The impact of certain marketable securities, as well as any
gains or losses related to associated mark-to-market movements
and/or hedging. These items are calculated using period-end closing
prices.
- Non-cash asset impairment charges, which are calculated and
analyzed based on the period-end values of the underlying assets.
These amounts may not be known until after period-end.
- Acquisitions, dispositions and/or resolutions of litigation
which are fluid and unpredictable in nature.
For more information on this topic, please see certain tables in
the most recent BGC financial results press release including
"Reconciliation of GAAP Income (Loss) to Distributable
Earnings". These tables provide summary reconciliations
between pre- and post-tax distributable earnings and the
corresponding GAAP measures for the Company.
About BGC Partners, Inc.
BGC Partners is a leading
global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate
markets. BGC owns GFI Group Inc., a leading intermediary and
provider of trading technologies and support services to the global
OTC and listed markets. The Company's Financial Services
offerings include fixed income securities, interest rate swaps,
foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives,
commodities, futures, and structured products. BGC provides a wide
range of services, including trade execution, broker-dealer
services, clearing, trade compression, post trade, information, and
other services to a broad range of financial and non-financial
institutions. Through brands including FENICS, BGC Trader,
Capitalab, and Lucera, BGC offers financial technology solutions,
market data, and analytics related to numerous financial
instruments and markets.
Real Estate Services are offered through brands including
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank,
Newmark Cornish & Carey, ARA,
Computerized Facility Integration, NGKF Valuation & Advisory,
and Excess Space. Under these names and others, the Company
provides a wide range of commercial real estate services, including
leasing and corporate advisory, investment sales and financial
services, consulting, project and development management, and
property and facilities management.
BGC's customers include many of the world's largest banks,
broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds,
governments, corporations, property owners, real estate developers,
and investment firms. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ
Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP).
BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due
June 15, 2042, which trade on the New
York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC
Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W.
Lutnick. For more information, please visit
http://www.bgcpartners.com. You can also follow the Company
at https://twitter.com/bgcpartners and/or
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bgc-partners.
BGC, BGC Trader, GFI, FENICS, FENICS.COM, Capitalab,
Swaptioniser, Newmark, Grubb & Ellis, ARA, Computerized
Facility Integration, Landauer, Lucera, and Excess Space, Excess
Space Retail Services, Inc., and Grubb are trademarks/service
marks, and/or registered trademarks/service marks and/or service
marks of BGC Partners, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Knight
Frank is a service mark of Knight Frank (Nominees)
Limited.
Discussion of Forward-Looking Statements about BGC
Partners
Statements in this document regarding BGC that are
not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve
risks and uncertainties. Except as required by law, BGC undertakes
no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For a
discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause
actual results to differ from those contained in the
forward-looking statements, see BGC's Securities and Exchange
Commission filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors
set forth in the most recent Form 10-K and any updates to such risk
factors contained in subsequent Forms 10-Q or Forms 8-K.
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