BGC Group, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the BGC Group, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all practices based on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jason Krzykiewicz, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Hello, everyone. This morning we issued BGC's fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results, which can be found at ir.bgcg.com. Any historical results provided on today's call compare only the fourth quarter of 2024 with the prior year period, otherwise specified. We will be referring to our results on a non-GAAP basis, which include the terms adjusted earnings and adjusted EBITDA. Please refer to today's investment materials on our website for additional details on our financial results and for complete and updated definitions of any non-GAAP terms, reconciliations of these items to the corresponding GAAP results, and how, when, and why management uses them. The outlook discussed today assumes no material acquisitions or dispositions. Our expectations are subject to change based on various macroeconomic, social, political, and or other factors. Information on this call contains forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements about our economic outlook and business. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause our actual results to differ from expectations. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For information on factors that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements and a complete discussion of the risks and other factors that may impact these forward-looking statements, see our SEC filings included but not limited to the risk factors and disclosures within these SEC documents. And with that, I'm happy to turn the call over to Sean Windyette, Chief Operating Officer of BGC Group.

Thank you, Jason. Good morning, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call. With me today are my fellow co-global heads of brokerage, John Aboularaj and JP O'Ban, and our chief financial officer, Jason Hoff. I'd like to start by congratulating our chairman and CEO, Howard Lutnick, on his nomination as the 41st United States Secretary of Commerce. For decades, Howard has provided transformational leadership delivering billions of dollars of value for shareholders through pioneering electronic trading and strategic corporate transactions. As a resilient and visionary leader, he built BGC into the world's most valuable wholesale broker with more than 4,000 employees, generating over $2.2 billion of annual revenue. We are confident that upon confirmation, he will bring the same level of dedication and financial acumen to his new role serving the American people as he has at BGC. Turning to our fourth quarter and full year results. BGC delivered record fourth quarter and full year revenues, growing by 11% and 12% respectively. Our strong revenue growth was driven by our ECS, rates, and foreign exchange businesses, which continue to outperform the market. This momentum has carried forward into 2025 with trading volumes currently outpacing Q124's record. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, we closed our acquisition of Sage Energy Partners and expect to close OTC Holdings around the end of the first quarter. We expect these acquisitions will contribute more than $450 million of annual revenues, be instantly accretive, and make BGC the largest ECS broker in the world. Looking at our fourth quarter results in more detail, total revenues grew by 10.8% to $572.3 million, representing record fourth quarter revenues and reflecting strong growth across every region and our largest asset classes. Brokerage revenues grew by 11.8% $516.1 million. Rates revenues increased by 8.8% to $169.6 million, reflecting higher volumes across interest rate derivatives, listed rates products, and U.S. Treasuries. ECS revenues grew by 28% to $134.1 million, driven by strong growth across the energy complex power and our leading environmental business, as well as the acquisition of Sage Energy Partners. Foreign exchange revenues are up 21.3% to $93.6 million, primarily driven by higher options and emerging market foreign exchange volumes. Credit revenues decreased by 4.9% to $62.4 million due to lower CDS and emerging market credit volumes, partially offset by record volumes in portfolio match. Equities revenues declined 3.5% to $56.3 million, primarily due to the lower Asian equity derivative volumes, partially offset by higher European and US volumes. Data, network, and post-trade revenues improved by 10.3% to $32.6 million. This was primarily driven by strong subscription-based revenue growth across Fenix market data and Lucera, offset by lower post-trade revenues due to the sale of Capitalab in the fourth quarter. Revenues for data, network, and post-trade, excluding the impact of Capitalab, grew by more than 20% year over year. Turning to Fenix, in the fourth quarter, Fenix revenues improved by 8.6% to $142.1 million. Fenix markets reported revenues of $116.7 million, an increase of 6.4%. This growth was driven by higher electronic volumes across rates and foreign exchange, as well as higher market data revenues, partially offset by lower credit volumes. Fenix growth platforms generated revenues of $25.5 million, a 20.2% increase primarily driven by FMX, Portfolio Match and Lucera, partially offset by the sale of Capitalab in the fourth quarter. Excluding the impact of this sale, Fenix growth platforms would have grown by approximately 37%. FMX UST generated average daily volumes of over $52 billion for the fourth quarter, up 28% compared to last year. This translated to over 30% market share for the fourth quarter, up from 29% last quarter and 26% a year ago. FMX FX volumes improved by approximately 80% compared to last year on record ADV of more than $11 billion. FMX FX continues to expand its market share in the enormous global foreign exchange market. FMX Futures Exchange continues to connect the world's largest FCMs, recently onboarding FMX's partners Bank of America, Barclays, and Citi. FMX expects to have more than 10 FCMs connected before the launch of U.S. Treasury futures around the end of the first quarter of 2025. SOFRA volumes continue to grow on FMX Futures Exchange, and its market share exceeds what we experienced at the same point in time following the launch of our US Treasury business. As a reminder, FMX UST now holds over 30% market share. Portfolio match ADB increased by more than 150% due to strong growth across both US and European credit volumes. Lucera. Fennec's network business that provides critical real-time trading infrastructure to the capital markets grew its revenue by over 33% and continues to expand its revenue pipeline. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Jason.