BGC Partners, Inc.

Good morning, everyone. We issued BGC's fourth quarter and full year 2022 financial results press release and the presentation summarizing these results this morning prior to the market open. You can find these at ir.bgcpartners.com. Please note you can find additional details on our results in today's press release and investor presentation. Unless otherwise stated, any historical results provided on today's call compare only the fourth quarter of 22 with the prior year period and compare revenue excluding insurance due to its sale on November 1st, 2021. Certain revenue figures are provided for the first 35 trading days in the first quarter to date 2023. We will be referring to our results on this call only on an adjusted earnings basis unless otherwise stated. We may also refer to adjusted EBITDA. We may refer to our liquidity, which we define as cash with cash equivalents plus marketable securities that have not been financed. Reverse repurchase agreements and securities owned, less securities loaned, and repurchase agreements. We define total capital as redeemable partnership interest, total stockholders' equity, and non-controlling interest in subsidiaries. BGC generated a significant amount of its revenue in non-U.S. dollar-denominated currencies, particularly in the euro and pound sterling. BGC presents revenue comparisons on a constant currency basis in order to present a better comparison of the company's revenues during the period, which exhibited volatile foreign exchange movements. BGC's constant currency movements assume no foreign exchange rates used to determine the company's prior period revenues applied to the current period revenues. Please see today's press release for the results under generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Please also see the relevant sections in the back of today's press release for the complete and updated definitions of any non-GAAP terms, reconciliations of these items to the corresponding GAAP results, and how and when and why management uses such terms. Additional information with respect to our GAAP and non-GAAP results mentioned on today's call is available on our website at ir.bgcpartners.com and in our investor presentation. We refer to the company's technology-driven business as Fenix. Fenix offerings include Fenix Markets and Fenix Growth Platforms. I also remind you that the information regarding our business on today's call that are not historical are forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and except as required by law, BGC undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Any outlook and targets discussed on the call assume no material acquisitions, buybacks, extraordinary transactions, or meaningful changes to the company's stock price. For discussion of additional risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see BGC's SEC filings, including but not limited to the risk factors and special note on forward-looking information set forth in these filings and any updates to such risk factors and special note on forward-looking information contained in the subsequent reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and Form 8-K. And with that, I am now happy to turn the call over to Howard Lutnick, Chairman of the Board and CEO of BGC Partners.

Thank you, Jason. Good morning. Thank you all for joining us for our fourth quarter and full year 2022 conference call. With me today are BGC's Chief Operating Officer, Sean Windyette, and our Chief Financial Officer, Jason Hough. Today, I have the pleasure of discussing how our business fundamentally changed starting in December of 2022. BGC became a growth company. Historically, huge issuance, which we've seen over the past decade, would have produced record trading volumes. Instead, zero and near zero interest rates over the last 14 years have caused rates trading volumes to remain flat and credit volumes to actually decline since 2008. This despite an over three times increase in global issuance. The trading environment has been overshadowed by manufactured zero interest rates, which created an over decade long headwind for our businesses. During the last 14 years of these zero interest rates, the relationship between new issuance and trading volume growth broke down and disappeared, leaving catalyst transactions and electronification as the best tools available to BGC to dampen the impact of these headwinds. In catalyst transactions, we sold eSpeed for 12 times revenues or $1.2 billion. We built Numark, which we spun off to our shareholders with a market cap of $2.3 billion. We bought GFI for $780 million and sold one of its technology assets, Tradeport, for $650 million shortly thereafter. We built and sold an insurance brokerage business, producing over $500 million in gross proceeds. The results of all these catalyst transactions was that BGC shareholders have earned a total return of over two and a half times their investment since BGC went public in April of 2008. Additionally, over the last decade, we have made a massive investment in Fenex technology, building the infrastructure to electronify our business. This differentiates us from our historical peers. Today, these higher margin Fenex businesses represent a quarter of BGC's overall revenues. We believe Fenix alone is worth more than BGC's current market capitalization. Since 2008, our voice hybrid business, the largest part of our company, faced a difficult trading environment. If you were to look at BGC, GFI, and the dozen or more other financial service acquisitions we have made, Their pro forma revenues in 2008 would have been close to $2.5 billion. This 14-year macro environment resulted in these businesses producing $1.8 billion of revenue in 2022, which should have been impossible given that global issuance has more than tripled during this period. Historically, trading volumes have been directly correlated with issuance. When issuance would double, trading volumes would grow on average 60%. With meaningful interest rates and issuance that is multiples above 2008 levels, we believe the return of this strong positive correlation will drive our trading volumes significantly higher. It is only a matter of time before we believe BGC will exceed the $2.5 billion I just mentioned. We are now a growth company. We will remain an opportunistic catalyst company. We will remain a company that is driving high margin electronification. But we now have the macro environment that will drive fundamental growth across all of our businesses. And with that, I will turn the call over to Sean.

Thanks, Howard, and good day, everyone. As Howard just mentioned, in order to highlight the growth of the company, my focus today will be on providing updates on how our business is performing so far through almost two months of the first quarter of 2023. For the first 35 trading days of the first quarter, BGC's total revenue is up 8% or 10% on a constant currency basis. We are seeing revenue growth across all our asset classes. Rates increased 6% or 8% on a constant currency basis. FX increased 6% or 7% in constant currency. Credit increased 4% or 6% in constant currency. Additionally, energy and commodities increased 15% or 16% in constant currency. And equities increased 14% or 16% in constant currency. Fenix. Our higher margin technology-driven business generated strong growth through the first 35 trading days of the first quarter, with revenue currently up 11% or 13% on a constant currency basis. This strong electronic momentum has been driven by rates, credit, foreign exchange, and market data. Fenix Markets' revenue increased 10% or 12% on a constant currency basis, This growth reflects the strength of our comprehensive Fenix offering that provide access to the deepest wholesale liquidity pools using our state-of-the-art technology. Fenix growth platforms revenue increased 22% for the first 35 trading days of 2023. This growth has been led by our broad range of fully electronic platforms such as Fenix US Treasuries, Lucera, Phoenix Go and Portfolio Match. With the details I've just described, I'm pleased to provide the following outlook for the first quarter of 2023. We expect to generate total revenue at between $515 and $565 million as compared to $506.5 million last year. Revenue guidance would be approximately $10 million higher on a constant currency basis. We anticipate pre-tax adjusted earnings to be in the range of $118 to $138 million versus $113.1 million. And we anticipate our pre-corporate conversion adjusted earning tax rate to be in the range of 8.4 to 10.4% versus 7.3% for full year 2022. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Jason. Thank you, Sean. And hello, everyone.