BGC Partners Sees Record Revenues, CFO to Step Down

BGC Partners, a leading global brokerage, announced on Thursday that it experienced a record-breaking third quarter, with revenues showing a significant increase.

In the third quarter, which ended on September 30, 2018, BGC recorded revenues of $977.3 million. In comparison to the same time period last year, which experienced revenues of $827 million, this is an increase of 18.2 percent.

Taking a closer look, foreign Exchange revenues for the brokerage were $90.7 million, jumping by 8.1 percent year-on-year from $83.9 million which was recorded in the third quarter of 2017.

Energy and commodities revenues were also up by 20.2 percent. This saw revenues go from $48.2 million in Q3 of 2017 up to $58 million in the third quarter of 2018. Overall, total brokerage revenues experienced an uptick of 6.1 percent year-on-year, coming in at $425.3 million.

Commenting on the results, Shaun Lynn, President of BGC, said: “our Financial Services business has continued to gain market share in 2018, as we benefit from our investment in technology, improved front office productivity, and our successful integration of GFI, Sunrise, and other recent acquisitions."

“Our year-on-year revenue growth was virtually entirely organic across all of our Financial Services asset classes. This was led by a 20 percent improvement in our energy and commodities business and 8 percent growth in our foreign exchange business."

“Our Financial Services profits were up in the quarter driven by average revenue per broker/salesperson growing by 8 percent year-on-year. This was the seventh consecutive quarter in which we generated an increase in front-office productivity.”

BGC Partners Announces Changes to Its Finance Team

BGC Partners also announced today that its current Chief Financial Officer Steven McMurray will step down from his position, effective as of December 15, 2018. Until this time, he will remain in his role.

According to the statement, McMurray is stepping down from his position due to family reasons and he is not pursuing another position at present. In the meantime, as of December 16, 2018, Sean Windeatt, the current Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President, will act as Interim CFO until a replacement is found.

In addition, the firm also announced two new additions to its finance team. Sean Galvin is joining BGC to the newly created role of Chief Accounting Officer. He has more than three decades worth of experience in finance, tax and accounting and was most recently working at Virtu Financial, Inc.

With 22 years of experience under his belt, Kalyan Popuri is also a new addition to BGC’s finance team, recently joining the firm as Global Treasurer for BGC and its Affiliates . During his career, Popuri has mostly focused on corporate treasury, institutional banking and capital markets. Before joining BGC, he was working at JPMorgan Chase & Co.