Public Spinoff Ahead For NKF After Brokerage Rebrands, Drops 'Grubb' From Name
Following the announcement of a companywide rebrand, multinational real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank is preparing to go public, according to parent company BGC Partners CEO Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick said the initial public offering will occur sometime between late September and November, after which time Lutnick said it is likely the firm will casually be referred to as Newmark since it still has too many names, CoStar reports.
BGC Partners, which acquired Newmark Knight Frank in 2011, has been weighing options to unlock shareholder value in the brokerage since late 2015. Selling or spinning the company off into a publicly traded company have both been on the table since the purchase.
NKF, formerly known as Newmark Knight Grubb Frank, recently dropped the Grubb from its name, which was added in 2012 following the acquisition of brokerage firm Grubb & Ellis.
Cushman & Wakefield is also reportedly considering an IPO. In January Bloomberg said the company is considering a listing as soon as Q3 of this year.
