Newmark Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NMRK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jade Rahmani: Okay. Thank you for that. I was wondering if you could make any broad comment about 2024. CBRE has said that the earliest they would expect recovery to begin is in the second half and that would be with respect to capital markets. Also on the leasing side, with respect to office, it’s clear that new leases are smaller than they were before, and there is some pressure on revenue – on rents. So, it would be helpful to hear from you how you are starting to think about 2024.

Barry Gosin: As Mike said, we think we are at the bottom, and we think it’s only going to get better, the question as to how much better. We have done pretty well in leasing, retail leasing, industrial leasing has done fairly well, office, there are transactions being made. The high-quality premium office market is generally pretty good in most cities. Companies are making decisions around occupying space. And as we get closer to determining what the hybrid environment looks like, we will get a clearer vision of what that is. But it’s going to get better. And I don’t think anybody could really say exactly whether it’s in the middle of ‘24, at the end of ‘24, I think it’s hard to predict.

Jade Rahmani: And broadly speaking, a follow-up to that would be absolute growth year-on-year you expect to be positive in 2024?

Barry Gosin: We do. We have been hiring, we have been hiring really great people. This is a company where the highest and most productive brokers would like to be. That’s been our plan from the very beginning. We’ve stated this almost every quarter since we went public that our view is we bring the best professionals to our platform. We will have the best results and the highest market share. We think that has been proven across all the cycles. We have done well in the trough. We are doing well in the rise. We do better in the market recovery. So, I think there has been enough time for you guys to evaluate that what we have said is our plan and what the results of our plan has been over this period of time has proven true.

Jade Rahmani: Thanks very much.

Operator: And our next question will come from Patrick O’Shaughnessy with Raymond James.

Patrick O’Shaughnessy: Hey. Good morning guys. Maybe to follow-up on an earlier question, how should we think about sizing the revenue impact of the Signature Bank portfolio sales? And is it a big enough benefit to you in the fourth quarter this year to create a tough comp for you in capital markets in 2024?

Barry Gosin: As we have said before, we are just not going to comment on the size of the Signature portfolio. But we believe that our – we will have consistent market share outperformance sequentially going forward. We have hired new people. We have acquired great talent. We will continue as the market evolves itself and recovers to get an outsized proportion of the business that gets transacted.

Patrick O’Shaughnessy: Okay. Thank you. And then your loan servicing [ph] portfolio it looks like it grew a decent amount in the third quarter. And if I recall correctly, you bought the remainder of Spring 11 earlier this year. Can you just provide an update on your servicing strategy?

Barry Gosin: Well, we have built a nice servicing business. I mean we have $171 billion servicing book. We have now better integrated as we own 100% of Spring 11. We have integrated the Spring 11 business, which does loan screening, servicing, asset management, together with that. So, that really adds to what the flexibility and capability of that platform in a market like this, having people who can run the gamut of asset management, servicing, leasing, property management, project management, all those combined services within one enterprise puts us in a very good position to work through this moment in time.

Patrick O’Shaughnessy: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And that does conclude…

Mike Rispoli: Just to clarify, it’s $177 billion. Go ahead, operator.

Operator: Thank you. We do have an additional question from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler.