BGC Group has posted Q4 revenues of US$572.3 million and full-year figures of US$2.26 billion, and it set to launch FMX Futures to directly challenge CME’s stranglehold on US Treasury futures by the end of the quarter. At the same time it has substantially changed its leadership, with CEO Howard Lutnick is set to transition to his new role as US Secretary of Commerce.
Like many financial intermediaries, BGC Group reported its best Q4 ever in 2024, with revenues climbing 10.8% year-on-year to US$572.3 million and full-year revenues reaching US$2.26 billion—a 11.7% increase from 2023. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 26.7% in Q4.
During the earnings call, chief operating officer, Sean Windeatt, addressed an imminent leadership transition following chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick’s nomination as the next United States Secretary of Commerce.
Windeatt stated, “Howard will comply with all of the Senate Ethics Committee standards, including divesting his holdings within 90 days of Senate confirmation. There will be public SEC filings… We don’t expect any sales on the open market and in addition, that we don’t expect any change to the corporate structure.”
In addition to Lutnick’s upcoming divestiture—achieved by transferring his shares into a blind trust or through a negotiated block sale with institutional buyers—management recognized a new era of shared leadership.
Analyst Patrick Moley congratulated the leadership team by saying, “Congratulations to Sean, John and JP on the appointments as co-CEOs.”
The newly appointed co-CEOs, Sean Windeatt, John Abularrage, and Jean Pierre Aubin, have worked together for the past three years managing day-to-day operations.
Windeatt is also global chief operating officer of BGC Group and a veteran of the Cantor Group since joining in 1997; Abularrage is also co-global head of brokerage at BGC Group, a more recent addition to the firm which he joined in 2021 from rival interdealer broker TP ICAP; and Aubin, also co-global head of brokerage at BGC Group and president of Aurel BGC, the EU subsidiary of BGC Group, has been at BGC Group for 20 years.
The shift comes at a crucial point for BGC, which is intensifying FMX development with upcoming new tradeable instruments at the FMX Futures Exchange—a direct challenge to CME’s longstanding dominance in US-listed interest rate derivatives.
The company highlighted that its FMX UST platform delivered average daily trading volumes exceeding US$52 billion in Q4, while FMX FX volumes grew by approximately 80% YoY. FMX’s upcoming launch of US Treasury futures is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2025, with an operational target to have more than 10 futures commission merchants (FCMs) connected to support market making.
FMX has already launched its three-month Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) futures contract on 23 September 2024, stating that it expected to provide clients with significant capital savings through its clearing partnership with LCH.
Read more: https://www.fi-desk.com/bgcs-fmx-goes-live-with-marex-executing-first-trade/
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