Grubb & Ellis Company Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-09-11 18:51:15.0

Tags: Grubb & Ellis Co.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Will Marks of JMP Securities.

William Marks - JMP Securities

One is on the TICK business, can you discuss, in the beginning of the call you had some comments, but on your market share in that area of your business.

Rich Pehlke

We currently hold about a 15% share in the TICK business.

William Marks - JMP Securities

And would you say that has changed. I know some tenders have gone out of business to tough environment.

Rich Pehlke

I think it has been relatively flat. We have seen soft conditions in the overall market as some competitors have suffered because of their capital structure or the weaker conditions. We actually think it will be an opportunity for us to gain share as the year progresses. And as we indicated in my comments, we're confident we'll raise more equity in the second half of the year.

William Marks - JMP Securities

And then on the brokerage side, what was your broker headcount at quarter's end, you added brokerage?

Rich Pehlke

Our total headcount was 867, which is down probably about 30 or 28 brokers from March 31st.

William Marks - JMP Securities

And is that something that you had strived for, meaning are you cutting back or have you lost brokers to other firms?

Rich Pehlke

We continue to look it has cuts and adds and takeaways, if you will, there is insurance some by our desires, some by others, it is a tough market. As you know, most of the broker environment is such that they do not get paid if they do not do transactions. And so some people use this as an opportunity to find their different career path.

We have not been as aggressive in hiring as we have in years past. I think we have said many times, we are focusing much more in productivity rather than just numbers of brokers and some of the changes that I think Jack outlined in his comments, the go-to-market strategy are directly related to driving growth and productivity in the brokerage trends.

Jack Van Berkel

And we are definitely in the market though. We have got a lot of recruiting going on in specific markets. We have outlined the critical needs that we have going forward, and we have got some specific objectives here in the next six months. All along, we have been telling our brokerage community that is all around productivity, not around headcount.

 

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