KBRA Affirms Ratings for Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P.

KBRA affirms the BBB issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings for Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. (“Cantor” or “the firm”). Domiciled in New York, NY, Cantor is a full-service, globally diverse capital markets firm with controlling stakes in wholesale brokerage and financial technology services and commercial real estate brokerage and fee service companies. The rating Outlook is Stable.

The ratings for Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. are underpinned by management’s long record of producing relatively steady operating results, irrespective of the operating environment, adapting to market evolution, and maintaining an ongoing emphasis on risk management as well as consistent financial leverage and liquidity management policies.

Cantor’s flow securities trading operation and agency brokerage business model, together with it’s overnight and disciplined margined fixed income repo finance business, contribute to both a higher-quality balance sheet and comparatively stable revenue performance, further supporting the ratings.

While revenue performance generally follows the contours of capital markets conditions, KBRA considers Cantor’s amalgamation of collateralized finance, agency flow trading, and various advisory services to be sufficiently diversified to absorb an environment of subdued trading and transaction volumes. Profitability, as a result, while variable at times, due principally to the cyclical nature of the industry and periodic nonrecurring items, has performed well over time. Earnings in 2024 were robust due to strong financing conditions at principal subsidiary, CF Secured, LLC, which is benefiting from secular forces.

Consistent and disciplined financial leverage management also reinforces the current ratings and remains a key factor for the rating category. Cash and unencumbered asset coverage of non-collateralized finance short-term debt, as well as total aggregate corporate debt, remains healthy. Although seasonal funding advances on corporate revolvers at Cantor, BGC, and NMRK were notably higher than historic use in 2024, substantial remaining capacity exists, and a large portion was repaid post YE24.

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