Marcus & Millichap Inc (MMI) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to Marcus & Millichap's First Quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host Jacques Cornet. Thank you. You may begin.

您好，歡迎參加 Marcus & Millichap 的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。提醒一下，此通話正在錄音。現在我想將會議交給主持人雅克·科內特 (Jacques Cornet)。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Marcus & Millichap's First Quarter 2024 earnings conference call. With us today are President and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Nadji, and Chief Financial Officer, Steve DeGennaro. Before I turn the call over to management, please remember that our prepared remarks and the responses to questions may contain forward looking statements. Words such as may, will, expect, believe, estimate, anticipate, goal, and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual results can differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to general economic conditions and commercial real estate market conditions, company's ability to retain and attract transactional professionals, company's ability to retain its business philosophy and partnership culture amid competitive pressures, company's ability to integrate new agents and sustain its growth and other factors discussed in the Company's public filings included, including its annual report on Form 10 K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2024. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can make no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

謝謝你，接線生。早上好，歡迎參加 Marcus & Millichap 的 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。今天與我們在一起的有總裁兼執行長 Sam Nadji 和財務長 Steve DeGennaro。在我將電話轉交給管理層之前，請記住，我們準備好的評論和對問題的答覆可能包含前瞻性陳述。諸如「可能」、「將」、「期望」、「相信」、「估計」、「預期」、「目標」等詞語以及這些詞語的變體和類似表達旨在識別前瞻性陳述。由於多種因素，實際結果可能與此類前瞻性陳述所暗示的結果有重大差異，包括但不限於總體經濟狀況和商業房地產市場狀況、公司保留和吸引交易專業人士的能力、公司保留的能力其在競爭壓力下的經營理念和合作夥伴文化、公司整合新代理商和維持成長的能力以及公司公開文件中討論的其他因素，包括其於2 月28 日向美國證券交易委員會提交的10 K 表格年度報告， 2024 年。儘管該公司認為此類前瞻性陳述中反映的預期是基於合理假設，但不能保證其預期能夠實現。本公司不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。

In addition, certain financial information presented on this call represents non-GAAP financial measures Company's earnings release, which was issued this morning and is available on the company's website includes a reconciliation to the appropriate GAAP measures and explains why the company believes such non-GAAP measures are useful to investors. This conference call is being webcast. The webcast link is available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at w. w. w. dot Marcus Millichap.com, along with the slide presentation, you may reference during the prepared remarks.

此外，本次電話會議中提供的某些財務資訊代表非公認會計原則財務指標公司的收益發佈於今天上午發布，可在公司網站上獲取，其中包括對適當公認會計原則指標的調節，並解釋了為什麼公司相信此類非公認會計原則措施對投資者有用。本次電話會議正在網路直播。網路廣播連結可在公司網站的投資者關係部分獲取，網址為：w。 w。 w。點 Marcus Millichap.com，以及幻燈片演示文稿，您可以在準備好的發言中參考。

With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to CEO, Hessam Nadji.

至此，我很高興將電話轉給執行長 Hessam Nadji。

Thank you, Jacques, on behalf of the entire Marcus & Millichap team, good morning, and welcome to our first quarter earnings call. The highly anticipated start to the interest rate easing cycle by the Federal Reserve messaged in early 2024, reversed course during the first quarter. This shift toward higher for longer has prolonged interest rate volatility, which remains disruptive to real estate valuations, marketing of listings and transaction closings after dropping 51% in the first quarter of 2023 from the previous year. For overall market sales volume dropped another 19% in the first quarter of 2024 based on preliminary estimates by RCA. Given this difficult backdrop, revenue for the quarter was $129 million, with adjusted EBITDA loss of $10 million. These results reflect the productivity drag on our sales force as listings take longer to market and many deals continue to fall out of contract due to financing issues or repricing. This is time-consuming for our sales force, as you can imagine, and limits their bandwidth to engage in new business developments in the current environment, our financial results were also impacted by expenses related to investments made over the past several years in talent, retention and acquisition, technology development and implementation and expanded brokerage support. The expected revenue levels, which would typically follow. These investments in a stable market remain hampered temporarily as we work through this market disruption. We remain steadfast in our strategy to stay on offense and positioned the company to lead in the eventual recovery. This includes ongoing investments in business development efforts, client outreach, branding, and ensuring that MMI remains prominently in the center stage at key industry events as an example, client demands for market analysis, updated valuations and general advisory services remain at an all-time high as investors navigate uncertainty to remain fully capable of providing this level of granular client support. We have proactively maintained our service level and resources, as we know from past cycles, staying close to investors and developing new advisory base relationships during tough times leads to future revenue growth. Our strategy is also unwavering when it comes to pursuing strategic acquisitions, attracting additional experienced individuals and teams and returning capital to shareholders. During the quarter, we added several brokerage and financing professionals in key segments where we lacked coverage and began dialogue with the number of new targets and investment opportunities. Our underwriting is highly sensitive to balancing near-term downside with future upside and strategic enterprise value when it comes to valuations and deal structure.

謝謝雅克，代表整個 Marcus & Millichap 團隊，早上好，歡迎參加我們的第一季財報電話會議。聯準會在 2024 年初發出的備受期待的利率寬鬆週期啟動消息在第一季發生了逆轉。這種長期向高利率的轉變導致了利率波動的延長，在 2023 年第一季較上年下降 51% 後，利率波動仍然對房地產估值、上市行銷和交易成交產生破壞性影響。根據 RCA 的初步估計，2024 年第一季整體市場銷售再下降 19%。鑑於這種困難的背景，本季營收為 1.29 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 損失為 1000 萬美元。這些結果反映出我們銷售人員的生產力受到拖累，因為上市需要更長的時間才能上市，而且許多交易由於融資問題或重新定價而繼續脫離合約。正如您可以想像的那樣，這對我們的銷售人員來說非常耗時，並且限制了他們在當前環境下參與新業務開發的頻寬，我們的財務業績也受到過去幾年人才投資相關費用的影響，保留和收購、技術開發和實施以及擴大經紀支援。通常會遵循預期的收入水準。在我們應對市場混亂的過程中，這些對穩定市場的投資仍然暫時受到阻礙。我們仍然堅定不移地採取進攻策略，並使公司在最終的復甦中處於領先地位。這包括對業務開發工作、客戶拓展、品牌推廣的持續投資，並確保MMI 在關鍵產業活動中保持顯著的中心地位，例如，客戶對市場分析、更新估值和一般諮詢服務的需求始終保持不變由於投資者要克服不確定性，以保持完全有能力提供這種級別的精細客戶支持，因此該水平很高。正如我們從過去的周期中了解到的那樣，我們積極維持我們的服務水準和資源，在困難時期與投資者保持密切聯繫並發展新的諮詢基礎關係可以帶來未來的收入成長。在追求策略性收購、吸引更多經驗豐富的個人和團隊以及向股東返還資本方面，我們的策略也堅定不移。本季度，我們在缺乏涵蓋的關鍵領域增加了幾位經紀和融資專業人士，並開始與許多新目標和投資機會進行對話。在估值和交易結構方面，我們的核保對平衡近期下行與未來上行以及策略企業價值高度敏感。

Looking back at M&A opportunities with decided to pass on over the past 18 months, there is no doubt that results would have been below expectations. Had we accepted terms required by the seller. Having said that, the bid-ask spread in the market is not keeping us from pursuing targets given the importance of external growth internally, we continue to focus on providing our team with the best in class tools, training, communication and support the Company's expanded research content is instrumental in keeping investors informed and connecting our sales force to clients and prospects. Additional resources have been added to our recruiting team to help our managers increase outreach to high-quality sales professionals to regain momentum in our traditional organic growth. While these efforts are making a difference, the turnover rates for newer individuals remain elevated due to the challenging market environment, we continue to proactively transition lower probability individuals out of the firm. If they're not able to meet key development and production metrics in time, we believe our organic growth will fuel net contributions to headcount as we build on our recent success in attracting experienced professionals. Notwithstanding the current challenges and my closed over 1,300 transactions in the quarter, including 234 financings with 121 separate lenders in this tough environment. These numbers reflect our ability to solve problems for clients, facilitate opportunities for investors and get deals done and MI remains the top investment brokerage firm by number of transactions, which in turn enables us to execute on behalf of our clients due to our market reach and unique investor access.

回顧過去18個月決定放棄的併購機會，毫無疑問，結果會低於預期。我們是否接受了賣方要求的條款。話雖如此，考慮到內部外部成長的重要性，市場上的買賣差價並沒有阻止我們追求目標，我們將繼續專注於為我們的團隊提供一流的工具、培訓、溝通和支持公司的擴張研究內容有助於讓投資者了解情況並將我們的銷售人員與客戶和潛在客戶聯繫起來。我們的招募團隊增加了額外的資源，以幫助我們的經理擴大與高素質銷售專業人員的聯繫，以恢復我們傳統有機成長的動力。儘管這些努力正在發揮作用，但由於充滿挑戰的市場環境，新員工的流動率仍然很高，我們將繼續主動將可能性較低的員工轉移出公司。如果他們無法及時滿足關鍵的開發和生產指標，我們相信，在我們最近成功吸引經驗豐富的專業人士的基礎上，我們的有機成長將推動對員工人數的淨貢獻。儘管面臨當前的挑戰，但我在本季度完成了 1,300 多筆交易，其中包括在這種艱難的環境下與 121 個獨立貸方進行的 234 筆融資。這些數字反映了我們為客戶解決問題、為投資者提供機會和完成交易的能力，MI 仍然是交易數量最多的投資經紀公司，這反過來又使我們能夠憑藉我們的市場覆蓋範圍和能力代表客戶執行交易。

From a market perspective, we continue to see hamper transaction activity across all business segments and price points. Given the macro nature of the interest rate shock still working its way through the industry. However, a number of very important positive signs are emerging that I'd like to point out. First, even without the shift in Fed policy toward lowering interest rates, the passage of time is driving price adjustments. Positive momentum on buyer tours and offers is building on realistically priced assets across all property types and markets. This is indicative of the record capital on the sidelines, awaiting more clarity on interest rates and well-priced acquisition opportunities. As prices reset, we are seeing an uptick in our inventory with assets coming to market at more realistic values, which should have a higher conversion rate in the quarters ahead. Many sellers who were hoping for a Fed miracle are coming to terms with having to sell due to maturing loans that cannot be extended or refinanced without fresh equity or personal circumstances, which we typically rely on as a driver of transaction situation of distress is also increasing for assets that were underwritten to aggressively with short term financing that is terming out and does with operational issues. We're also seeing growing demand for our Auction Services, which is a complementary offering, we added ahead of the market downturn. While these positive factors will take time to manifest in better financial results, we believe they're the building blocks to an eventual recovery. Most importantly, when the market becomes more favorable, we believe the production capacity of the talent that has been added and retained for the firm, coupled with numerous technological advances we've made over the past few years, we'll play a major part in accelerating our growth into the next cycle. In the meantime, we continue to guard our strong balance sheet with diligence while pursuing internal and external growth opportunities and keeping the Marcus & Millichap brand as strong as ever.

從市場角度來看，我們繼續看到所有業務領域和價位的交易活動都受到阻礙。鑑於利率衝擊的宏觀性質仍在影響整個產業。然而，我想指出一些非常重要的正面跡象正在出現。首先，即使聯準會政策沒有轉向降低利率，時間的推移也會推動價格調整。買家參觀和報價的積極勢頭正在建立在所有房地產類型和市場的實際定價資產的基礎上。這表明創紀錄的資本處於觀望狀態，等待利率的進一步明確和價格合理的收購機會。隨著價格重置，我們看到庫存增加，資產以更現實的價值進入市場，這在未來幾季應該會有更高的轉換率。許多希望聯準會奇蹟出現的賣家都不得不出售，因為貸款到期，如果沒有新的股權或個人情況，就無法延長或再融資，而我們通常依賴這些作為交易的驅動因素，困境也在增加適用於透過短期融資積極承銷的資產，這些資產即將到期且有營運問題。我們也看到對我們的拍賣服務的需求不斷增長，這是一種補充服務，我們在市場低迷之前補充道。雖然這些正面因素需要一段時間才能體現在更好的財務表現上，但我們相信它們是最終復甦的基石。最重要的是，當市場變得更加有利時，我們相信公司增加和保留的人才的生產能力，加上我們過去幾年取得的眾多技術進步，我們將發揮重要作用加速我們的成長進入下一個週期。同時，我們繼續勤奮地保護我們強勁的資產負債表，同時尋求內部和外部成長機會，並保持 Marcus & Millichap 品牌一如既往的強大。

With that, I will turn the call over to Steve for additional insights into our financial results. Steve?

這樣，我將把電話轉給史蒂夫，以獲取有關我們財務表現的更多見解。史蒂夫？

Thank you, Hessam. As Hassane mentioned, revenue for the first quarter was $129 million compared to $155 million in the prior year quarter.

謝謝你，赫薩姆。正如 Hassane 所提到的，第一季的收入為 1.29 億美元，而去年同期的收入為 1.55 億美元。

Breaking down revenue by segment real estate brokerage commission for the first quarter was $109 million and accounted for 85% of total revenue compared to $135 million last year, a decrease of 19% year over year. Brokerage volume for the quarter was $5.7 billion, over 1,102 transactions down 21% and 14%, respectively, compared to last year. Average transaction size was approximately $5.1 million, down from $5.6 million a year ago. Partially driven by a lower mix of deals with institutional buyers as well as lower property values across asset types.

按細分市場劃分，第一季房地產經紀佣金收入為 1.09 億美元，佔總收入的 85%，而去年同期為 1.35 億美元，年減 19%。本季經紀業務量為 57 億美元，交易量超過 1,102 筆，與去年相比分別下降 21% 和 14%。平均交易規模約 510 萬美元，低於一年前的 560 萬美元。部分原因是與機構買家的交易組合減少以及各種資產類型的房地產價值下降。

Within brokerage, our core private client business accounted for 67% of revenue for $73 million. This compares to 67% and $91 million last year. Private client transactions were down 20% in dollar volume and 17% in number of transactions. This is largely due to restrictive financing by banks and credit unions, which are the primary funding sources for smaller transactions, our middle market and larger transaction segments together accounted for 29% of brokerage revenue or $32 million compared to 29% and $40 million last year. Middle market and larger transactions combined were down 21% in dollar volume and 14% in number of transactions. Revenue in our financing business, which includes MMCC, was $14 million in the first quarter compared to $16 million last year. Fees from refinancing accounted for 51% of loan originations this year compared to 46% last year. During the quarter, we closed 234 financing transactions totaling $1.7 billion in volume compared to 279 transactions for the same $1.7 billion volume in the prior year. Other revenue was $5 million in the first quarter compared to $4 million last year. Total operating expenses for the quarter were $149 million, 13% lower than a year ago, primarily due to lower variable expenses directly attributable to revenue and cost containment efforts.

在經紀業務中，我們的核心私人客戶業務佔收入的 67%，達 7,300 萬美元。相較之下，去年這一比例為 67%，為 9,100 萬美元。私人客戶交易金額下降了 20%，交易數量下降了 17%。這主要是由於銀行和信用合作社的融資限制，它們是小型交易的主要資金來源，我們的中間市場和大型交易領域合計佔經紀收入的29%，即3,200 萬美元，而去年這一比例為29% ，即4,000 萬美元。中型市場和大型交易的金額合計下降了 21%，交易數量下降了 14%。我們的融資業務（包括 MMCC）第一季的收入為 1,400 萬美元，而去年為 1,600 萬美元。再融資費用佔今年貸款發放的 51%，而去年為 46%。本季度，我們完成了 234 筆融資交易，總交易額為 17 億美元，而去年同期為 279 筆交易，交易額為 17 億美元。第一季其他收入為 500 萬美元，而去年為 400 萬美元。該季度的總營運支出為 1.49 億美元，比去年同期下降 13%，主要是由於收入和成本控制工作直接導致可變支出減少。

Cost of services was $77 million for the quarter, or 59.5% of total revenue, a decrease of 210 basis points over the same period last year. Consistent with the lower revenue. Sg&a during the quarter was $69 million, a decrease of 5% year over year, primarily due to lower agent marketing support tied to last year's revenue and continued proactive balancing of key investments with expense reductions for the first quarter, we reported a net loss of $10 million or $0.26 per share compared with a net loss of $5.8 million or $0.15 per share in the prior year. For the quarter, adjusted EBITDA was negative $10.1 million compared to negative $7.4 million in the prior year. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 32%, which takes into account the level of expenses that are nondeductible for tax purposes in relation to estimated pretax income for the full year, future tax rate may fluctuate as the relationship between these two components change, given prolonged market uncertainty.

該季度服務成本為 7,700 萬美元，佔總營收的 59.5%，比去年同期下降 210 個基點。與較低的收入一致。本季的銷售及管理費用為 6,900 萬美元，年減 5%，主要是由於與去年收入相關的代理商行銷支援減少，以及第一季關鍵投資與費用減少的持續主動平衡，我們報告淨虧損淨虧損1,000 萬美元，即每股0.26 美元，而前一年的淨虧損為580 萬美元，即每股0.15 美元。本季調整後 EBITDA 為負 1,010 萬美元，而上年同期為負 740 萬美元。本季的有效稅率為 32%，考慮到了與全年預計稅前收入相關的不可扣除的費用水平，未來稅率可能會隨著這兩個組成部分之間關係的變化而波動，鑑於市場長期不確定性。

Moving over to the balance sheet, we continue to be well capitalized with no debt and $346 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, which was down from the prior quarter's balance of $407 million. The decrease during the quarter was expected and reflects seasonal outlays for current and deferred agent commissions performance, performance-based management bonuses, which were significantly lower as a reflection of 2023 financial results as well as investments in talent acquisition and retention. As a reminder, our deferred earnings program has a three year vesting period. Therefore, the deferred commission payout was larger than usual, given the record revenue performance in 2021. During the quarter, we declared a semiannual dividend of $0.25 per share, representing a total of $10.1 million. That dividend was paid during the first week of April. Over the past two years, we have returned more than $160 million to shareholders and have roughly $71 million remaining on the current share repurchase authorization and we remain committed to a balanced long-term capital allocation strategy. This includes a combination of investing in technology, recruiting and retaining the best in class producers, strategic acquisitions and returning capital to shareholders through dividends and opportunistic share repurchases. Investors entered this year with expectations of lower inflation and the start of Fed rate cuts by Q2, which would stimulate transactions and pave the way for a capital markets recovery. Recent inflation data, however, has tempered prospects for near term rate cuts and fueled further uncertainty around the number of cuts expected in 2024 given this backdrop, the market recovery seems likely to be pushed out at least to the second half of 2024 cost of services as a percentage of revenue for the second quarter should follow the usual pattern and be sequentially higher than the first quarter. Sg&a is expected to be largely in line with the first quarter, reflecting the benefit of cost actions previously taken. As mentioned earlier, our tax rate is highly dependent on the level of nondeductible expenses and more importantly, the variability of pretax income for the full year as a result, the rate could fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter. Our primary focus continues to be proactive engagement with clients leadership at industry events, ensuring the MMI brand remains top of mind and technological enhancements, all in support of our sales and financing professionals. The investments we have made in systems, talent and market coverage will position us to capture growth as market conditions improve.

轉向資產負債表，我們的資本狀況繼續良好，沒有債務，現金、現金等價物和有價證券為 3.46 億美元，低於上一季 4.07 億美元的餘額。本季的下降是預期的，反映了當前和遞延代理佣金績效、基於績效的管理獎金的季節性支出，這些支出顯著降低，反映出 2023 年的財務業績以及人才獲取和保留方面的投資。提醒一下，我們的遞延收益計畫有三年的歸屬期。因此，考慮到 2021 年創紀錄的收入表現，遞延佣金支付比平常多。本季度，我們宣布派發每股 0.25 美元的半年度股息，總計 1,010 萬美元。該股息是在四月的第一周支付的。過去兩年，我們已向股東返還超過 1.6 億美元，目前的股票回購授權剩餘約 7,100 萬美元，我們仍致力於平衡的長期資本配置策略。這包括技術投資、招募和留住一流生產商、策略性收購以及透過股利和機會性股票回購向股東返還資本的組合。投資者進入今年時預期通膨將會下降，並且聯準會將在第二季開始降息，這將刺激交易並為資本市場復甦鋪平道路。然而，近期的通膨數據削弱了近期降息的前景，並加劇了 2024 年預期降息次數的進一步不確定性，考慮到這一背景，市場復甦似乎可能至少被推遲到 2024 年服務成本下半年第二季度佔收入的百分比應遵循通常的模式，並連續高於第一季。SG&A 預計將與第一季基本持平，反映了先前採取的成本行動的好處。如前所述，我們的稅率高度依賴不可扣除費用的水平，更重要的是，全年稅前收入的變化，因此稅率可能會因季度而大幅波動。我們的主要重點仍然是在行業活動中與客戶領導層積極互動，確保 MMI 品牌始終處於領先地位並進行技術改進，所有這些都是為了支持我們的銷售和財務專業人員。我們在系統、人才和市場覆蓋範圍方面進行的投資將使我們能夠隨著市場狀況的改善而實現成長。

With that, operator, we can now open up the call for Q&A.

有了這個，接線員，我們現在可以開始問答電話了。

Thank you. At this time we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two, if you would like to remove your question from the queue For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please. As we poll for questions.

謝謝。此時我們將進行問答環節。如果您想提問，請按電話鍵盤上的星號一。確認音將表示您的線路已在問題佇列中。如果您想從佇列中刪除您的問題，您可以按星號二。稍等一會兒。當我們投票詢問問題時。

And our first question comes from the line of [Jason Belcher] with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.

我們的第一個問題來自富國銀行的 [Jason Belcher]。請繼續你的問題。

Hey, good morning, guys. I just stepping in for Blaine here I just wanted to go back to your comment on the current environment. Clearly, the transaction market is depressed, but the transactions that are happening today to provide some color on what percent is driven by some distress and then versus those that are turning natural?

嘿，早上好，夥計們。我只是在這裡代替布萊恩，我只是想回到你對當前環境的評論。顯然，交易市場低迷，但今天發生的交易可以提供一些色彩，說明有多少百分比是由某種困境驅動的，然後與那些正在轉向自然的交易相比？

Good morning. Happy to answer that. It's Hessam here. We're seeing more and more situations where sellers are having issues with operations or maturing loans that require fresh equity in order to get refinanced or recapitalized. And that's really the definition of distress that we're seeing more than the typical wholesale large portfolio dispositions by lenders that you would typically categorize as distress. And very little of that is really affecting the market and much more so of the situational examples are driving the market. Overall, the distress is becoming a bigger factor, but really not the driving force in the current real-time transaction activity. The bulk of the market is simply driven by both the personal circumstances, the private investor, bringing product to market or some middle market and institutional investors deciding to punt on certain assets that they don't believe will perform to their expectations going forward and just have the typical seller motivation that is bringing product to market a year ago. At this time, there was so much more uncertainty related to the timing of this downcycle and what the Fed would or wouldn't do and that pushed a lot of people to the sideline with the passage of time. We're seeing the natural kind of realization that the cycle is not going to go away overnight. And therefore, if there is a reason to sell a property might as well bring that product to market and redeploy the equity or get out of a situation that is very likely to underperform.

早安.很高興回答這個問題。這裡是赫薩姆。我們看到越來越多的情況是，賣方遇到營運或貸款到期問題，需要新的股權才能獲得再融資或資本重組。這確實是困境的定義，我們看到的不僅僅是貸方通常將其歸類為困境的典型批發大型投資組合處置。其中很少有真正影響市場的，更多的是情境範例正在推動市場。總體而言，困境正在成為一個更大的因素，但實際上並不是當前即時交易活動的驅動力。大部分市場只是由個人情況驅動的，私人投資者將產品推向市場或一些中間市場，機構投資者決定押注於某些他們認為未來不會達到他們預期的資產，並且只是具有一年前將產品推向市場的典型賣家動機。此時，與本次下行週期的時間以及聯準會會做什麼或不會做什麼有關的不確定性越來越大，隨著時間的推移，許多人都在觀望。我們自然而然地意識到，這個週期不會在一夜之間消失。因此，如果有理由出售房產，不妨將該產品推向市場並重新部署股權，或擺脫很可能表現不佳的情況。

Looking ahead.

展望未來。

What we're also seeing is that the financing is generally available. There's liquidity in the market the underwriting standards and the essentially loan to values that we're seeing today is much more restrictive than in a normal market environment that has become more of an obstacle to getting more transactions done than anything else. And although as I mentioned in my formal remarks, we're able to essentially find a willing lender that is that is available in the marketplace as long as the realistic terms are met by the borrowers. And I hope that gives you some color.

我們也看到融資普遍可用。市場上的流動性、承銷標準和本質上的貸款價值，我們今天看到的限制性比正常的市場環境嚴格得多，這已經成為完成更多交易的障礙。儘管正如我在正式發言中提到的那樣，只要藉款人滿足實際條件，我們基本上就能在市場上找到願意的貸款人。我希望這能給你一些色彩。

I know that that's helpful. Could you talk about what product product-type could see the most distressed. We're hearing multi-family potentially and an office obviously. But so just interested in kind of your thoughts there.

我知道這很有幫助。能談談什麼產品類型最讓人苦惱嗎？我們聽到的可能是多戶住宅，顯然還有辦公室。但只是對你的想法感興趣。

What we're seeing on the product type comparison is that retail continues to have favor. If anything at all there is to be said about retail is the 15 previous years of recalibrating the shortage of new construction conversion of retail to other uses and reduction of essentially supply has repositioned shopping centers, in particular, much better today than any time we've seen in the last 20 years. At the same time, tenant demand appears to be at the highest level we've seen in that same time period. And the combination is really driving a lot of interest in shopping centers. That's a outlier in terms of positive momentum for transaction activity, plus retail and other certain other property types like hospitality or even office didn't have a tight spread between cap rates and interest rates before the Fed tightening. Therefore, there was more of a margin of absorbing the negative leverage that has significantly impacted multifamily and industrial where they which were the two property types with the lowest cap rates prior to this tightening cycle. That's where we've seen the biggest valuation disruption and uncertainty on pricing. And on the multifamily side, we are seeing a rebound in tenant demand in occupancies after a soft period in 2023 and part of 2022, which is a very positive sign. But you're right in that we're seeing more examples of maturing loan problems, especially because the last three years were driven by very aggressive financing by a lot of debt funds. And that are terming out, as I mentioned in my comments, and those situations need some kind of a solution, whether it's raising equity or recapping or a sale. And we're actively working with our clients across the country on numerous examples of those kinds of transactions. The fundamentals of multifamily are still solid. There's a housing shortage. The home affordability index is up showing the widest gap between renting versus owning. So the fundamentals are there and the pockets of overbuilding that we're seeing throughout the country. Multifamily are really limited to about eight to 10 metros and therefore, the industry is still doing well. I think it's going to take some time for the re pricing of multi-family to really it. This is where part of our results have been hampered more than usual because the private client multifamily, the private client, single-tenant retail as more affected in this cycle because of the interest rate shock in that normally we have the Fed coming in to the market as sort of a rescue when there is a recession or a credit market problems in this cycle is, of course, the reverse where the Fed has caused the disruption in valuations where we are actually successful in many, many office sales. And the key factor in office is that the book is being judged by cover in that distressed office is really limited to older urban product suburban product is much better off than urban product. And we've sold both distressed and well-performing office assets in the quarter throughout the country, and industrial is holding up.

我們在產品類型比較中看到的是，零售業繼續受到青睞。如果說關於零售業有什麼可說的話，那就是過去15 年重新調整了新建築的短缺，將零售業轉變為其他用途，並減少了基本供應，重新定位了購物中心，特別是今天，比我們任何時候都好得多。與此同時，租戶需求似乎達到了同期的最高水準。這種結合確實引起了人們對購物中心的極大興趣。就交易活動的積極勢頭而言，這是一個異常值，而且在美聯儲收緊政策之前，零售業和酒店業甚至辦公大樓等其他某些房地產類型的上限利率和利率之間的利差並不小。因此，吸收負槓桿的餘地更大，這對多戶住宅和工業產生了重大影響，這兩種房產類型是本次緊縮週期之前資本化率最低的兩種房地產類型。這就是我們看到最大的估值中斷和定價不確定性的地方。在多戶住宅方面，我們看到租戶需求在經歷 2023 年和 2022 年部分時間的疲軟期後出現反彈，這是一個非常積極的跡象。但你說得對，我們看到了更多到期貸款問題的例子，特別是因為過去三年是由許多債務基金非常積極的融資推動的。正如我在評論中提到的，這些情況正在結束，這些情況需要某種解決方案，無論是籌集股本、資本重組還是出售。我們正在與全國各地的客戶積極合作，處理此類交易的大量例子。多戶住宅的基礎仍然穩固。住房短缺。住房負擔能力指數上升，顯示租屋與買房之間的差距最大。因此，基本面已經存在，但我們在全國各地都看到了過度建設的情況。多戶住宅實際上僅限於大約 8 到 10 個地鐵，因此該行業仍然表現良好。我認為多戶住宅的重新定價需要一些時間才能真正實現。這就是我們的部分業績比平常受到更多阻礙的地方，因為私人客戶多戶家庭、私人客戶、單租戶零售在這個週期中受到的影響更大，因為利率衝擊通常是聯準會介入的。當本週期出現衰退或信貸市場問題時，市場作為一種救援手段，與聯準會造成估值中斷的情況相反，而我們在許多辦公室銷售方面實際上是成功的。辦公室的關鍵因素是，這本書是透過封面來判斷的，因為陷入困境的辦公室實際上僅限於較舊的城市產品，郊區產品比城市產品好得多。本季我們在全國範圍內出售了陷入困境和表現良好的辦公資產，工業資產也表現強勁。

Okay. Themselves in the market for industrial were down 20% in the first quarter, and we're viewing industrial as an ongoing growth opportunity for the Company. So we're actually adding coverage and penetrating more of the industrial market because we believe that long term is here to stay, but it is showing signs of a pullback. Hotels were down 23% in the market. And for us, that's another growth opportunity. We continue to do well there and the self-storage business, which we're a top player and has also seen a major drop off in transaction activity. But again, as market leaders there, we are very well positioned to take advantage of that segment.

好的。第一季工業市場下降了 20%，我們將工業市場視為公司持續成長的機會。因此，我們實際上正在增​​加覆蓋範圍並滲透更多的工業市場，因為我們相信長期趨勢將持續下去，但它正在顯示出回調的跡象。飯店市場下跌 23%。對我們來說，這是另一個成長機會。我們在自助倉儲業務方面繼續表現出色，我們是該領域的頂級參與者，但交易活動也大幅下降。但同樣，作為那裡的市場領導者，我們處於充分利用該細分市場的優勢。

Got it. Thank you for the color on. And then you talked about experiencing higher turnover given the current environment. So how should we think about your brokerage count as we progress through the year?

知道了。謝謝你的顏色。然後您談到在當前環境下經歷更高的營業額。那麼，隨著這一年的進展，我們該如何考慮您的經紀業務數量？

Well, first, a little bit more details on on what is happening in that we've gone from the pandemic to a post pandemic, major market reversal to the upside and then a very dramatic market shift downward because of the interest rate shock. So the last three to four year period has provided nothing resembling a typical market environment in which we train people. We Mentor people, they learn the fundamentals of brokerage underwriting client contact and they basically start to develop their production and their brokerage career. This disruption both on the way down on the way up and down the way back down is the primary reason that skillset aren't developing in a way that we're used to seeing through our excellent training and market-leading ways of mentoring new people into the business. That's what's causing the disruption. And that's a lot of the people that you would typically bring in after, let's say, two years of this initial training and mentorship would become productive or would become a standalone new additions to our sales force. And we're still attracting at the top of the funnel, a phenomenal volume of both interns, fellows and new agent candidates. What is causing causing the challenge is the higher turnover rate of people that have been through the training, but are not able to function because of the market challenges and headwinds and the lower transaction velocity is just making it very hard to break into the business. So that's a little bit more color on the mechanics of what were the challenges we do expect this to be an obstacle to overcome. We're taking a variety of different initiatives, both on the top of the funnel to bring in more candidates. We have implemented a new version of a screening test and a screening process for our management team. We've added recruiters and that are helping them with the bandwidth and available time in order to reach and reach out to more candidates. And so all of that we're confident will make a major difference. But I think the biggest difference will come from the market, essentially a satellite and being able to provide a somewhat of a normal operating environment for them.

好吧，首先，我們要詳細了解正在發生的事情，從大流行到大流行後，市場主要逆轉為上行，然後由於利率衝擊而導致市場急劇下滑。因此，在過去三到四年的時間裡，我們並沒有提供任何類似於我們培訓人員的典型市場環境。我們指導人們，他們學習經紀承銷客戶聯繫的基礎知識，他們基本上開始發展他們的生產和經紀職業。這種在上升過程中和下降過程中的中斷是技能組合沒有以我們習慣的方式發展的主要原因，我們透過我們優秀的培訓和市場領先的方式來指導新人進入業務。這就是造成混亂的原因。比方說，經過兩年的初步培訓和指導後，您通常會引入很多人，這些人將變得富有成效，或者將成為我們銷售隊伍中獨立的新成員。我們仍然在漏斗的頂部吸引了大量的實習生、研究員和新代理商候選人。造成挑戰的原因是，經過培訓的人員流動率較高，但由於市場挑戰和逆風而無法發揮作用，而較低的交易速度使得進入該業務變得非常困難。因此，這對我們確實期望這是一個需要克服的障礙的挑戰的機制有更多的色彩。我們正在採取各種不同的舉措，無論是在管道的頂部還是為了吸引更多的候選人。我們為我們的管理團隊實施了新版本的篩選測試和篩選流程。我們增加了招募人員，幫助他們提供頻寬和可用時間，以便接觸和接觸更多候選人。因此，我們相信所有這些都會產生重大影響。但我認為最大的區別將來自市場，本質上是衛星並能夠為他們提供某種正常的操作環境。

Training me well, I really want to emphasize the importance of the success in bringing in experienced individuals and teams. It's more than offsetting and that disruption and the creation of new producers through our organic channel and the fact that's out and we strongly believe in a multichannel strategy going forward, getting back to our organic contribution to the sales force when the market really normalizes and at the same time continuing to build on our success of bringing in experienced people, we make a point to only bring in experienced individuals and teams that don't overlap with our existing sales force in order to make sure that we're expanding the market coverage and the segment coverage and not cannibalizing our existing sales force.

好好訓練我，我真的想強調成功引進經驗豐富的個人和團隊的重要性。這不僅僅是抵消，而且透過我們的有機管道顛覆和創建新的生產商，事實上，我們堅信未來的多通路策略，當市場真正正常化時，我們將恢復對銷售團隊的有機貢獻。在成功引進經驗豐富的人才的同時，我們強調只引進與我們現有銷售隊伍不重疊的經驗豐富的個人和團隊，以確保我們擴大市場覆蓋範圍和細分市場的覆蓋範圍，而不是蠶食我們現有的銷售隊伍。

Okay. That's that's helpful. And lastly, can you provide some thoughts on external growth opportunities that you may be pursuing maybe in terms of what stage of negotiations that you may be in right now and then maybe also compare those opportunities versus repurchasing shares?

好的。這就是有幫助的。最後，您能否就您現在可能處於談判的哪個階段來提供一些關於您可能正在尋求的外部成長機會的想法，然後也可以將這些機會與回購股票進行比較？

Yes, I'll let Steve comment as well. But in general, we are always in the market with a proactive strategy in various verticals that we believe are complementary to our core business as well as an ongoing pipeline of core business, whether acquisitions or individual and team recruiting It never stops. So we have explored different opportunities in appraisal and advisory services. We have explored a number of boutique brokerage acquisition opportunities and boutique finance acquisition opportunities in the last 12 to 18 months as well as considerations around the investment management vertical, where we're looking at some opportunities there. But the most important aspect of our growth strategy is the balance that we're trying to maintain between the near term risk in underwriting and valuation. As I mentioned in my remarks, it's a very tough environment in assessing the near term risk and the timing of the market recovery versus the bid-ask spread that appears to be in the marketplace?

是的，我也會讓史蒂夫發表評論。但總的來說，我們始終在各個垂直領域採取積極主動的策略，我們認為這些策略與我們的核心業務以及持續的核心業務管道互補，無論是收購還是個人和團隊招聘，它都永不停歇。因此，我們在評估和諮詢服務方面探索了不同的機會。在過去 12 至 18 個月中，我們探索了許多精品經紀收購機會和精品金融收購機會，以及圍繞投資管理垂直領域的考慮因​​素，我們正在那裡尋找一些機會。但我們成長策略最重要的方面是我們試圖在核保和估值的近期風險之間保持平衡。正如我在演講中提到的，在評估近期風險和市場復甦時機與市場上出現的買賣價差方面，這是一個非常艱難的環境？

It is narrowing. I will say our current conversations are much more realistic that are ongoing right now than they were even six to nine months ago. But nonetheless, for us, the important thing is to be in the market through our platform, developing relationships, knowing the targets that would work for us from a cultural perspective and having more of a ground-up strategy than just trying to trying to buy share, if you will. Steve, you want to add some comments to that?

它正在縮小。我想說的是，我們目前正在進行的對話比六到九個月前更現實。但儘管如此，對我們來說，重要的是透過我們的平台進入市場，發展關係，從文化角度了解對我們有利的目標，並製定更多的基礎策略，而不僅僅是試圖購買分享，如果你願意的話。史蒂夫，你想對此添加一些評論嗎？

Yes. I think more of more broadly are around capital allocation, which I think is what you're getting at Jan. And it's important to have to acknowledge that we are wanting to invest for long-term growth. That means investments in technology, recruiting and retention, as Hassane has talked about as well as M&A and returning capital to shareholders and in different environments. Our priorities and our focuses can can move around can shift depending on circumstances as we evaluate the best use for deploying our capital as it relates specifically to repurchases, which I think you mentioned, we've always said our repurchase program will be opportunistic. And to that end, we've repurchased roughly $70 million of shares over the last 18 months or so. That is a program that we can dial up or down depending on a balancing of those various opportunities. And that and other relative uses of our capital. So yes, we were a little bit on the lighter side this last quarter, partly, I guess you could say a function of the fact that the the business is not necessarily generating as much of the free cash flow as we do in normal times. So that's just an example of how we balance our various priorities.

是的。我認為更廣泛的是資本配置，我認為這就是你在 1 月 1 日得到的結果。重要的是必須承認我們希望為長期成長進行投資。正如哈桑所說，這意味著對技術、招聘和保留的投資，以及在不同環境下的併購和向股東返還資本。我們的優先事項和重點可以根據情況而變化，因為我們評估部署資本的最佳用途，因為它特別與回購有關，我想你提到過，我們一直說我們的回購計劃將是機會主義的。為此，我們在過去 18 個月左右的時間裡回購了大約 7,000 萬美元的股票。我們可以根據這些不同機會的平衡來調高或調低該計劃。以及我們資本的其他相關用途。所以，是的，上個季度我們的情況有點輕鬆，部分原因是，我們的業務不一定會像正常情況下那樣產生那麼多的自由現金流。這只是我們如何平衡各種優先事項的一個例子。

Got it. Great. Thank you, guys.

知道了。偉大的。感謝你們。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. And we have reached the end of the question and answer session. I'll now turn the call over to the President and Chief Executive Officer. Hessam Nadji for closing remarks.

謝謝。我們的問答環節已經結束了。我現在將把電話轉給總裁兼執行長。 Hessam Nadji 致閉幕詞。

Thank you, operator, and thank you for joining our first quarter call. We appreciate your participation and look forward to seeing many of you on the road and look forward to our next earning call. The call is adjourned.

謝謝您，接線員，也謝謝您參加我們的第一季電話會議。我們感謝您的參與，並期待在路上見到你們中的許多人，並期待我們的下一次收益電話會議。通話暫停。

And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，此時您可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。