When acquiring other brokerages, Compass pays between four and six times those firm’s annual pre-tax earnings, according to CEO and founder Robert Reffkin.
The company, which has scooped up four brokerages since January 2016 and is valued at $2.2 billion, pays in that range (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) depending on the size of the business, Reffkin told Inman. Though it’s not clear exactly how much the brokerage has paid for its acquisitions, the company has indicated that its revenue for 2017 was expected to hit $350 million in revenue, according to Tech Crunch.
Since launching in 2012, Compass has raised $800 million, including a $450 million infusion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund last year.
“None of it is debt,” Reffkin said. “It never gets paid back to investors, no investor is ever going to ask for their money back. They have shares in Compass like you have shares in a public company’s stock.”
Compass will soon have a new revenue stream. The brokerage announced earlier this month that it will license its technology to other firms in non-core markets. [Inman] — Kathryn Brenzel