KBRA Assigns Ratings for BGC Group, Inc.

KBRA assigns issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings of BBB to BGC Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGC), a diversified holding company and market leader specializing in global wholesale brokerage, complemented with a growing financial technology platform that offers an array of products and services to various types of clients, including governments, corporations, and financial institutions, such as banks, broker-dealers, and investment advisors and funds. The Outlook for the ratings is Stable.

Key Credit Considerations

In November 2022, BGC Partners, Inc. (“BGCP”) announced that it had entered into a corporate conversion agreement to reorganize and simplify its organizational structure such that all owners (shareholders and partners) of its existing entities would participate in the economics of the consolidated enterprise through a new publicly traded entity, BGC Group, Inc. The conversion was completed on July 1, 2023. KBRA notes that the reorganization and conversion will not have a material financial impact on the consolidated enterprise and there will be no changes to the organization’s business strategy, or its capital and liquidity management practices.

The ratings are underpinned by management’s long record of producing mostly consistent operating results, adapting to market evolution, and ongoing emphasis on risk and liquidity management. Profitability, while modest at times, is on an improving trend due to the overall increase in capital markets volatility, which KBRA expects to persist for the foreseeable future. High compensation expenses (cash and non-cash) have historically weighed on bottom-line earnings; adjusted for equity-based compensation, profitability is commensurate with the ratings. Leverage in the 2.5x range (Debt/Adj. EBITDA) has been managed consistently. BGC remains adequately funded; unsecured debt is well laddered and has been issued at a reasonable cost. Cash coverage of short-term obligations remains solid.

Rating Sensitivities

The ratings for BGC Group, Inc. are well positioned at the current levels. Although not anticipated, an erosion in business fundamentals that precipitated a declining trend in revenues would cause the ratings to be re-evaluated. In addition, a change in capital management such that leverage were to be managed above 5x or a decline in profitability that pressured the interest coverage to deteriorate to below 4x on a regular basis would also trigger reconsideration of the current ratings.

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