BGC Partners Continues Spree With Deal to Buy Real Estate Firm

The brokerage firm BGC Partners is on a deal-making spree.

The firm announced on Monday that it had acquired Excess Space Retail Services, a specialist in helping companies get rid of their unused space, as it continues to build out its real estate offerings. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition is the latest by BGC and its Newmark Grubb Knight Frank unit, coming just under two weeks after the firm bought Computerized Facility Integration, which helps real estate owners manage their assets.

And in February, the firm took over another brokerage firm, the GFI Group, after defeating the CME Group in a hotly contested fight.

Behind the drive is BGC’s effort to continue growing and to become one of the top providers of real estate services.

In Excess Space, the firm is buying a specialist in a small field. The acquired company works with clients like supermarkets, department stores and banks to help dispose of leased properties, as well as rework leases.

The real estate services provider has benefited in part from retailers that have looked to cut their space as rents have risen.

The 23-year-old Excess Space, which is based in Lake Success, N.Y., has saved its clients an estimated $4 billion, according to the announcement by BGC.

“Excess Space is a dominant force in the niche area of real estate dispositions and lease restructurings for retailers,” Barry M. Gosin, the chief executive of Newmark Grubb, said in a statement. “They have an excellent industry reputation, and their business of moving rapidly and efficiently to assist clients in healthy and distressed situations complements our own services,”

[“source-nytimes.com”]