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Douglas Elliman Real Estate is planning to spin off from the Vector Group to become a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Douglas Elliman is one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the New York metro area. It has expanded throughout the country with offices in Florida, California, Colorado, Texas, and Massachusetts.
Scott Durkin, CEO of Douglas Elliman Realty LLC, says that as a standalone public company, Douglas Elliman will seek to expand its market footprint and make strategic investments in early-stage proptech companies “that keep us and our agents on the cutting edge of the industry.”
Douglas Elliman has applied to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DOUG. Following the spin-off, Vector Group, which also owns the tobacco company Liggett Group and real estate investment firm New Valley LLC among others, will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VGR.
“The filing of the Form 10 registration statement is an important milestone in our plan to create two independent publicly traded companies,” says Howard M. Lorber, president and CEO of Vector Group and chairman, president, and CEO of Douglas Elliman Inc. “With a leading luxury brand and a comprehensive suite of technology-enabled services and investments, Douglas Elliman is well positioned to capitalize on opportunities in the large and growing U.S. residential real estate market. Following the spin-off, Vector Group’s separate tobacco and real estate businesses will be better positioned to execute their strategic plans to drive each company’s long-term success and unlock value for stockholders.”
Durkin will remain in the top role at Douglas Elliman. The spinoff is expected to be completed by the end of the year, pending approval of the Federal Trade Commission.
Over the past year, several real estate companies have taken advantage of the housing boom by going public, often turning to SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, which are public entities formed to buy existing firms and take them public. Over the past year, such real estate firms and services like Cushman & Wakefield, RXR Realty, Simon Property Group, Tishman Speyer, Opendoor, Matterport, among others have used SPACs to go public.