BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS, Apr 30, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
During their two-day working visit to Barbados, Their Excellencies
the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and
Mrs. Sharon Johnston met with the Honourable Elliott Belgrave, Acting
Governor General of Barbados, and the Honourable Freundel Stuart,
Prime Minister of Barbados, to discuss stronger business, security
and educational linkages between the two Commonwealth countries.

The Governor General reinforced Canada’s interest in expanding
education-related partnerships during his visit to Bellairs Research
Institute, McGill University’s teaching and research facility in
Barbados. He also highlighted the range and depth of the education
partnerships in a keynote speech to students, academics and alumni
from Canadian institutions at Barbados Community College:

“There are strong and long-standing ties of learning between our two
countries. Canadian scholarships have opened the door for many
Barbadians to higher education over the past few decades, and
graduates of Canadian schools are now working in many professions
across the Caribbean. Whether you are from Barbados or from Canada,
these exchanges invariably prove full of insight and discovery. And
how could they not, given our diverse histories, cultures and
geographies, as well as our fundamental similarity as peoples who
believe in the promise of learning?” said His Excellency.

The Governor General also hosted a networking meeting on our
countries’ close bilateral relationship, which he pointed out has
been built on the robust people-to-people ties established through
immigration and tourism, as well as through commercial, educational
and other connections. While this relationship already supports both
nations’ co-operation within the Commonwealth, the United Nations and
the Organization of American States, the meeting with Canadian and
Barbadian government officials, and representatives from business,
and educational sectors was held to facilitate the continued
expansion and development of the relationship.

The working visit to Barbados concluded with a meeting with members
of the Barbados Defence Force, government and private sector
officials at the Historic Garrison, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The
Governor General underscored the long-standing trade, security and
Commonwealth ties between both countries, as they celebrate Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

Throughout the visit to Barbados, His Excellency was joined by the
Honourable Diane Ablonczy, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
(Americas and Consular Affairs), other parliamentarians and an
accompanying delegation of Canadians who enhanced people-to-people
ties with their Barbadian counterparts. These exchanges provided
greater visibility for co-operation initiatives in various sectors,
particularly in strategies promoting education and economic
development.

Their Excellencies will be undertaking a State visit to the Republic
of Trinidad and Tobago on May 1 and 2, 2012, where the Governor
General will mark 50 years of bilateral relations with the country
and underline its 50th anniversary of independence.

Members of the public can learn more about these visits online at

www.gg.ca , where speeches, photos and videos of the Governor General
are posted.

Media can download photos and video of the Governor General’s visit
to Brazil at
http://media-gg-ca.smugmug.com .

Follow GGDavidJohnston and RideauHall on Facebook and Twitter

Contacts:
In Brazil :
Marie-Eve Letourneau
Rideau Hall Press Office
marie-eve.letourneau@gg.ca

In Ottawa:
Julie Rocheleau
Rideau Hall Press Office
613-998-7280
julie.rocheleau@gg.ca

SOURCE: Governor General of Canada

mailto:marie-eve.letourneau@gg.ca
mailto:julie.rocheleau@gg.ca

Copyright 2012 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

One of my clients is an art gallery that holds opening receptions every six weeks. The receptions are only two-hours long, and the gallery is located a half-hour away from a large portion of its customer base.

We found that people were not willing to drive an hour both ways for a 2-hour event, so we partnered with the restaurant next door.

Now, when the gallery holds an art opening, the restaurant (which usually closes at 4pm), stays open until 10pm, serves a limited-selection dinner menu, including beer and wine, and hires a band or a DJ to provide music and dancing.

The restaurant promotes the art show all month, the gallery includes the restaurant in our PR, and the customers have an event destination for the evening that is worth driving an hour for.

Win-Win-Win. Triple benefit.

When you hear the term Strategic Partnerships you may think of mounds of legal paperwork, contracts and detailed agreements. While some partnerships may indeed require this, depending on the size of your company and complexity of your agreement, it can also be done a lot simpler with just a little creativity.

In my mind, the best marketing methods are not only effective, but simple as well. Therefore, let’s examine a few simple partnership strategies that will double up your marketing muscle while benefiting your business, your partners’ business, and your combined customer base.

One of the main reasons for partnering is to save money or reduce expenses. A common example of this is seen in the hair salon business. One stylist opens her own shop and rents out the stations to other stylists, colorists, and mani-pedi specialists. This keeps the overhead manageable for the owner, offers a simple and low-commitment situation for the renters, and creates a one-stop beauty destination for the customer.

The partners can also save money by pooling their resources to market the whole shop as opposed to being responsible for individually marketing themselves (which they may choose to do as well).

Another good reason for partnering is to diversify your offering. There’s a technology company in town that shares its space with an office supply store. In this case, the two complimentary businesses can share their expertise and resources with a wider customer base than if they each maintained two separate storefronts. According to the owner of the tech company, a large percentage of walk-ins to the office supply store have become clients of his, and vice-versa.

Diversifying your offering through partnerships is also popular with web designers, marketers, media producers and business consultants like myself. If I determined that a prospect needed to implement a new e-commerce website with a blog, a social media presence including YouTube video channel, plus email marketing and PR services, I would be quite stressed if I thought I had to design and implement all of that myself.

Instead, I would tap my strategic partnership network of web designers, writers and video producers to help create the deliverables for my client. The caveat here is that the client’s budget needs to be proportionate to the cost of the team. If it’s not, we scale down the deliverables and focus on the most effective solution to meet the client’s objective.

There’s a local glass company that gets its shipments from Oregon. My friend went in to get a large piece of plexiglass, and they were out of stock. Each shipment from Oregon requires a minimum order amount, and the glass company hasn’t been selling enough plexi to justify a full order.

What if the glass company partnered with several other window companies, frame shops, or hardware stores in Northern California, combined their orders to meet the minimum and guaranteed each store carried stock? Sure, this requires extra work, but it makes more sense to me than sending customers away empty-handed.

Referral programs are another form of partnerships. I know a massage therapist who offers her clients discounts on their bodywork if any people they refer come in for a paid massage. There’s a real estate agent who has been making sales all winter long, despite the sluggish market. Every time she sells a house, she gives gifts and rewards to everyone who was involved in the sale.

People love to save money and they love to make money. Anytime you can help someone do this-as the massage therapist and real estate agent are doing-they will be happy to consider themselves your partner.

As you can see, strategic business partnerships can exist in many forms. They can be between you and your colleagues, your customers, your suppliers, even your competition.

And, in most cases, the partnership’s sum is greater that its individual parts. So, get creative and think about who you can partner with in order to deliver savings, profits and value to everyone involved.

What types of partnership strategies have worked for your business?

PITTSBURGH, Apr 30, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
HFF, Inc.

/quotes/zigman/442188/quotes/nls/hf HF
-2.91%

reported today its financial and production volume
results for the first quarter of 2012. Based on transaction volume, HFF,
Inc. (the Company), through its Operating Partnerships, Holliday
Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF LP) and HFF Securities L.P. (HFF Securities
and, collectively with HFF LP, the Operating Partnerships), is one of
the leading and largest full-service commercial real estate financial
intermediaries in the U.S. providing commercial real estate and capital
markets services to both the users and providers of capital in the
commercial real estate sector.

Consolidated Earnings

First Quarter Results

The Company reported revenues of $51.9 million for the first quarter of
2012, an increase of $9.9 million, or 23.7%, compared to the first
quarter of 2011 revenues of $41.9 million. The Company generated
operating income of $2.8 million for the first quarter of 2012, a
decrease of approximately $1.6 million, or 36.1%, when compared to
2011′s first quarter operating income of $4.3 million. This decline in
operating income is primarily attributable to the increase in the
Company’s compensation-related costs and expenses associated with, in
part, the growth in headcount of 77 new associates over the past twelve
months; an increase in performance-based incentive compensation
accruals; increased stock compensation expense primarily related to
mark-to-market adjustments on liability awards which are revalued each
quarter; and increased operating, administrative and other costs such as
travel and entertainment and supplies, research and printing, which are
also related, in part, to the increased revenues, our headcount growth,
and costs related to office expansion.

Interest and other income, net totaled $2.8 million, representing a
slight a decrease of $31,000, or 1.1%, during the first quarter of 2012
compared to the first quarter of 2011. The Company recorded income tax
expense of $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to income
tax expense of $2.8 million in the first quarter of 2011, which is
primarily due to the lower income before income taxes in the first
quarter of 2012 compared to the first quarter of 2011.

The Company reported net income attributable to controlling interest for
the first quarter of 2012 of $3.3 million (after a downwards adjustment
to net income of approximately $0.1 million to reflect the impact of the
noncontrolling ownership interest of HFF Holdings LLC (Holdings) in the
Operating Partnerships) compared with a net income attributable to
controlling interest of $4.0 million for the quarter ended March 31,
2011 (after a downwards adjustment to net income of approximately $0.3
million to reflect the impact of the noncontrolling interest of Holdings
in the Operating Partnerships). Net income attributable to controlling
interest for the first quarter of 2012 was $0.09 per diluted share
compared to net income attributable to controlling interest for the
first quarter of 2011 of $0.11 per diluted share.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP measures whose reconciliation to
net income can be found within this release) for the first quarter of
2012 were $7.1 million and $7.3 million, respectively, which
represent a decrease of $1.0 million, or 12.7%, and a decrease of $0.1
million, or 0.8%, respectively, as compared to $8.1 million and $7.3
million in the first quarter of 2011. This decrease in EBITDA and
Adjusted EBITDA is primarily attributable to the decrease in operating
income as discussed above.

HFF, Inc.
Consolidated Operating Results
(dollars in thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
For the Three Months Ended Mar. 31,
—————————–
2012 2011
———— —————–
Revenue $ 51,878 $ 41,936
Operating expenses:
Cost of services 32,367 25,410
Operating, administrative and other 15,239 11,260
Depreciation and amortization 1,516 955
—— ——
Total expenses 49,122 37,625
Operating income 2,756 4,311
Interest and other income, net 2,836 2,867
Interest expense (9) (10)
(Increase) decrease in payable under the tax receivable agreement (9) -
—— – ——
Income before income taxes 5,574 7,168
Income tax expense 2,177 2,821
—— ——
Net income 3,397 4,347
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest (1) 121 298
—— ——
Net income attributable to controlling interest $ 3,276 $ 4,049
===== ====== ===== ======
Earnings per share – basic $ 0.09 $ 0.11
Earnings per share – diluted $ 0.09 $ 0.11
EBITDA $ 7,099 $ 8,133
—– —— —– ——
Adjusted EBITDA $ 7,278 $ 7,334
—– —— —– ——

Production Volume and Loan Servicing Summary

The reported volume data presented below (provided for informational
purposes only) is unaudited and is estimated based on the Company's
internal database.

Unaudited Production Volume by Platform
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(dollars in thousands)
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Platform 2012 2011
---------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
Production Volume # of Transactions Production Volume # of Transactions
-------------------- ----------------- -------------------- -----------------
Debt Placement $ 4,689,124 159 $ 2,252,468 112
Investment Sales 2,794,288 71 2,824,353 60
Structured Finance 160,074 9 106,271 5
Loan Sales 136,183 8 197,025 6
---------- ----------------- ---------- -----------------
Total Transaction Volume $ 7,779,669 247 $ 5,380,117 183
======== ========== ================= ======== ========== =================
Average Transaction Size $ 31,497 $ 29,400
Fund/Loan Balance # of Loans Fund/Loan Balance # of Loans
-------------------- ----------------- -------------------- -----------------
Private Equity Discretionary Funds $ 1,653,000 $ 2,005,500
Loan Servicing Portfolio Balance $ 28,188,669 2,148 $ 25,590,641 2,055

First Quarter Production Volume Results

Production volumes for the first quarter of 2012 totaled approximately
$7.8 billion on 247 transactions, representing an increase in production
volumes of 44.6% and an increase of 35.0% in the number of transactions
when compared to first quarter of 2011 production of approximately $5.4
billion on 183 transactions. The average transaction size for the first
quarter of 2012 was $31.5 million, approximately 7.1% higher than the
comparable figure of approximately $29.4 million for the first quarter
of 2011.

--
Debt Placement production volume was approximately $4.7 billion in the
first quarter of 2012, representing an increase of 108.2% from first
quarter of 2011 volume of approximately $2.3 billion.

--
Investment Sales production volume was slightly less than $2.8 billion
in the first quarter of 2012, representing a slight decrease of 1.1%
from first quarter of 2011 volume of approximately $2.8 billion.

--
Structured Finance production volume was approximately $160.1 million
in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 50.6% from the first
quarter of 2011 volume of approximately $106.3 million.

--
Loan Sales production volume was approximately $136.2 million for the
first quarter 2012, a decrease of 30.9% from the first quarter 2011
volume of $197.0 million.

--
At the end of the first quarter of 2012, the amount of active private
equity discretionary fund transactions on which HFF Securities has
been engaged and may recognize additional future revenue was
approximately $1.7 billion compared to approximately $2.0 billion at
the end of the first quarter of 2011, representing a 17.6% decrease.

--
The principal balance of HFF's Loan Servicing portfolio increased to
approximately $28.2 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2012
from $25.6 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2011,
representing an increase of approximately 10.1%.

Business Comments

Pursuant to the Company's strategic growth initiatives, HFF continued to
expand its total employment and production ranks to their highest levels
since the Company went public in January 2007. HFF's total employment
reached 520 as of March 31, 2012, which represents net increases of 77,
or 17.4% and 22, or 4.4%, over the comparable totals of 443 and 498 as
of March 31, 2011 and December 31, 2011, respectively. HFF's total
number of producers reached 211 as of March 31, 2012, which represents
net increases of 33, or 18.5% and 20, or 10.5%, over the comparable
totals of 178 and 191 as of March 31, 2011 and December 31, 2011,
respectively. The increase in the total number of associates and
producers over the past twelve months is due to the strategic addition
of numerous new transaction teams located in our Dallas, TX, Denver, CO,
Los Angeles, CA, Portland, OR, and Washington D.C. offices; the opening
of new office locations in Tampa, FL and Denver, CO; and the promotion
of a number of analysts to producer status as well as the recruitment of
a number of individual transaction professionals. This significant
growth over the past twelve months illustrates the Company's continuing
commitment to take advantage of strategic opportunities as they arise in
an effort to serve its clients and grow its market share.

"Due primarily to the unprecedented quantitative easing by the U.S.
Federal Reserve and other global central banks, we continue to see
improvement in most of the core sectors of the U.S. commercial real
estate capital markets, especially in the public markets. Although there
have been minor temporary pullbacks along the way, these improved
conditions coupled with a slowly-improving economy continue to benefit
certain sectors of the private debt and equity markets for select
commercial real estate transactions, especially core properties in the
major tier one markets and distressed assets in select major markets,
when compared to the transaction environment in 2009 and in the first
nine months of 2010," said John H. Pelusi, Jr., HFF, Inc.'s chief
executive officer.

"That said, there remain numerous headwinds which have the potential to
negatively impact these improving conditions in the global economy and
in the U.S. capital and commercial real estate markets. Global concerns,
such as the Eurozone's continuing inability to solve its sovereign debt
crisis and the inter-related capital issues in the majority of the
European banks, the continued unrest and tensions in the Middle East,
sovereign debt concerns in the U.S. coupled with serious budget issues
at the federal, state and local levels combined with continuing high
unemployment levels, have the potential to derail the slowly-improving
economic and capital market conditions in the U.S. Generally speaking,
the U.S. commercial real estate property level fundamentals, while
continuing to improve in select major markets and in select property
types such as multi-housing, remain soft, and they may also be
vulnerable to rising interest rates that might come into play when the
global central banks begin to remove the liquidity they have injected
into the global financial system. Given that property level fundamentals
have historically lagged the U.S. economy, we expect them to remain soft
for select property types, especially in secondary and tertiary markets
throughout 2012. These aforesaid headwinds have the potential to
adversely impact transaction volumes relative to past historical norms
in the U.S.," said Mr. Pelusi.

"Since the fourth quarter of 2009, we have been continuously investing
in our business and aggressively pursuing our strategic growth
initiatives through both organic promotions and recruitment. During this
period we have grown our headcount by more than 38% with the addition of
a net total of 144 new, highly talented associates, including 52 new
transaction professionals. In the past twelve months alone, we have
grown our head count by 17.4% with the addition of a net total of 77
new, high-quality, talented associates, including 33 net new producers
(an 18.5% increase), and our net growth in associates and producers
during this period when compared to other comparable periods, as well as
our total headcount of 520 associates, including 211 transaction
professionals, are all new high-watermarks for the Company. We believe
our prudent investment in these talented associates combined with the
continued mentoring of our current team of high-quality, talented
associates by our Leadership Team will continue to pay long term
dividends, enabling us to better serve our clients, best position the
Company to take advantage of future strategic opportunities as they
arise, capture additional market share and take advantage of the
forecasted transaction volumes that are likely to arise from the more
than $1.7 trillion of commercial real estate loans that are set to
mature between now and 2017," said Mr. Pelusi.

"During this quarter, we believe we also grew our market share, as
evidenced by our healthy transaction activity across most of our capital
markets services platforms and the resulting year-over-year quarterly
revenue growth of nearly 25%. We also were able to continue to
strengthen our balance sheet and our cash position during the quarter
when compared to our balance sheet and cash position in first quarter of
2011," said Mr. Pelusi.

"We believe our 211 transaction professionals, who have an average
tenure of approximately 17.1 years in the commercial real estate
industry, coupled with our enhanced disciplined management oversight
from our Leadership Team, will enable us to continue to provide
value-add winning solutions for our clients as they navigate these
constantly changing inefficient capital markets. We remain grateful to
our clients who continue to show their confidence in our ability to
create and execute winning strategies for them. Finally, we would like
to thank our associates who continue to demonstrate their ability to
quickly adapt, innovate and share their collective knowledge from each
transaction to provide superior value-added services to our clients,"
added Mr. Pelusi.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This earnings press release contains two non-GAAP measures, EBITDA and
Adjusted EBITDA, which, as calculated by the Company are not necessarily
comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies.
Additionally, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of
financial performance or liquidity under GAAP and should not be
considered as alternatives to the Company's other financial information
determined under GAAP. For a description of the Company's use of EBITDA
and Adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA
with net income attributable to controlling interest, see the section of
this press release titled "EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation."

Earnings Conference Call

The Company's management will hold a conference call to discuss first
quarter 2012 financial results on Tuesday, May 1st, at 8:30 a.m.
Eastern Time. To listen, participants should dial 866-804-6926 in
the U.S and 857-350-1672 for international callers approximately 10
minutes prior to the start of the call and enter participant code 11458850.
A replay will become available after 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on May
1st and will continue through June 1st,
2012, by dialing 888-286-8010 (U.S. callers) and 617-801-6888
(international callers) and entering participant code 14235057.

The live broadcast of the Company's quarterly conference call will be
available online on its website at
www.hfflp.com
on Tuesday, May 1st, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The
broadcast will be available on the Company's website for one month.
Related presentation materials will be posted to the "Investor
Relations" section of the Company's website prior to the call. The
presentation materials will be available in Adobe Acrobat format.

About HFF, Inc.

Through its subsidiaries, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. and HFF
Securities L.P., the Company operates out of 20 offices nationwide and
is one of the leading and largest full-service commercial real estate
financial intermediaries in the U.S. providing commercial real estate
and capital markets services to both the users and providers of capital
in the commercial real estate sector. The Company offers clients a fully
integrated national capital markets platform including debt placement,
investment sales, private equity and structured finance, investment
banking and advisory services, loan sales and commercial loan servicing.

Certain statements in this earnings press release are
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal
securities laws. Statements about our beliefs and expectations and
statements containing the words "may," "could," "would," "should,"
"believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "target,"
"project," "intend" and similar expressions constitute forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
Company's actual results and performance in future periods to be
materially different from any future results or performance suggested in
forward-looking statements in this earnings press release. Investors,
potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these
factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.
Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this
earnings press release and, except to the extent required by applicable
securities laws, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to
update or revise any of them to reflect actual results, any changes in
expectations or any change in events. If the Company does update
one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn
that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to
differ materially include, but are not limited to: (1) general economic
conditions and commercial real estate market conditions, including the
current conditions in the global markets and, in particular, the U.S.
debt markets; (2) the Company's ability to retain and attract
transaction professionals; (3) the Company's ability to retain its
business philosophy and partnership culture; (4) competitive pressures;
(5) the Company's ability to integrate and sustain its growth; and (6)
other factors discussed in the Company's public filings, including the
risk factors included in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form
10-K.

Additional information concerning factors that may influence HFF,
Inc.'s financial information is discussed under "Management's Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,"
"Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk" and
"Forward-Looking Statements" in the Company's most recent Annual Report
on Form 10-K, as well as in the Company's press releases and other
periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such
information and filings are available publicly and may be obtained from
the Company's web site at
www.hfflp.com
or upon request from the HFF, Inc. Investor Relations Department at investorrelations@hfflp.com.

HFF, Inc.
Consolidated Balance Sheets (1)
(dollars in thousands)
(Unaudited)
March 31, December 31,
2012 2011
---------------- ------------------
ASSETS
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 125,900 $ 141,843
Accounts receivable, receivable from affiliate and prepaids 8,234 3,918
Mortgage notes receivable 139,051 154,449
Property, plant and equipment, net 5,387 4,315
Deferred tax asset, net (2) 158,721 155,780
Intangible assets, net 17,379 16,849
Other noncurrent assets 1,222 1,297
------- -------
Total assets $ 455,894 $ 478,451
=== ======= ==== =======
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
Warehouse line of credit $ 139,051 $ 154,449
Accrued compensation, accounts payable and other current liabilities 21,220 39,725
Long-term debt (includes current portion) 667 569
Deferred rent credit and other liabilities 4,504 3,508
Payable under the tax receivable agreement (2) 154,124 149,800
------- -------
Total liabilities 319,566 348,051
Class A Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, 175,000,000 369 360
shares authorized,
36,911,900 and 35,983,965 shares
outstanding, respectively
Class B Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share, 1 share - -
authorized, 1 share
issued and outstanding
Additional paid in capital (2) 70,260 64,049
Treasury stock (1,055) (490)
Retained earnings 66,190 62,914
------- -------
Total parent stockholders' equity 135,764 126,833
Noncontrolling interest (2) 564 3,567
------- -------
Total equity 136,328 130,400
------- -------
Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 455,894 $ 478,451
=== ======= ==== =======

Notes:

(1) The noncontrolling interest adjustment on the consolidated financial
statements of HFF, Inc. relates to the ownership interest of Holdings in
the Operating Partnerships as a result of the initial public offering
and after giving effect to the Operating Partnerships units held by
Holdings that have been subsequently exchanged for shares of Class A
common stock of HFF, Inc. As the sole stockholder of Holliday GP (the
sole general partner of the Operating Partnerships), the Company
operates and controls all of the business and affairs of the Operating
Partnerships. The Company consolidates the financial results of the
Operating Partnerships, and the ownership interest of Holdings in the
Operating Partnerships is reflected as a noncontrolling interest in HFF,
Inc's consolidated financial statements. The noncontrolling interest
presented in the Company's Consolidated Operating Results is calculated
based on the income from the Operating Partnerships.

(2) During the three months ending March 31, 2012, Holdings exercised
its exchange right under the Company's amended and restated certificate
of incorporation and exchanged 845,947 units in each of the Operating
Partnerships for 845,947 shares of HFF, Inc.'s Class A common stock. As
in the past, the Company intends to make an election under Section 754
of the Internal Revenue Code, which allows for the step-up in basis of
the Operating Partnerships assets to fair market value at the time of
the exchanges. As a result of this increase in tax basis, the Company is
entitled to additional future tax benefits of approximately $5.1 million
and has recorded this amount as a deferred tax asset on its consolidated
balance sheet. The Company is obligated, however, pursuant to its tax
receivable agreement with Holdings, to pay to Holdings 85% of the amount
of cash savings, if any, in U.S. federal, state and local taxes that the
Company actually realizes as a result of the increases in tax basis and
as a result of certain other tax benefits arising from the Company
entering into the tax receivable agreement and making payments under
that agreement. Therefore, the Company increased its payable under the
tax receivable agreement by approximately $4.3 million. Additionally,
due to the exchange transactions that occurred during the three month
period ended March 31, 2012, the Company acquired an additional 2.3% in
the Operating Partnerships and therefore the Company increased its Class
A common stock at par value by approximately $8,000 and increased its
additional paid in capital by $3.1 million while decreasing the
noncontrolling interest by $3.1 million to reflect the ownership change.
As of March 31, 2012, the Company owned 99.6% of the Operating
Partnerships.

EBITDA Reconciliation

The Company defines EBITDA as net income attributable to controlling
interest before interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and
amortization and net income attributable to the noncontrolling interest.
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA, adjusted to exclude: i) income
from the initial recording of mortgage servicing rights acquired and
retained; ii) stock-based compensation expense; and iii) (increase)
decrease in payable under the tax receivable agreement. The Company uses
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in its business operations to, among other
things, evaluate the performance of its business, develop budgets and
measure its performance against those budgets. The Company also believes
that analysts and investors use EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as
supplemental measures to evaluate its overall operating performance.
However, both EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have material limitations as
analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation, or as a
substitute for analysis of the Company's results as reported under GAAP.
The Company finds EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as useful tools to assist
in evaluating performance because they eliminate items related to
capital structure and taxes, including, with respect to Adjusted EBITDA,
the Company's tax receivable agreement. Note that the Company classifies
the interest expense on its warehouse lines of credit as an operating
expense and, accordingly, it is not eliminated from net income
attributable to controlling interest in determining EBITDA and Adjusted
EBITDA. The items that the Company has eliminated from net income
attributable to controlling interest in determining EBITDA are interest
expense, income tax expense, depreciation of fixed assets and
amortization of intangible assets, and net income attributable to the
noncontrolling interest. Some of these eliminated items are significant
to the Company's business. For example, (i) interest expense is a
necessary element of the Company's costs and ability to generate revenue
because it incurs interest expense related to any outstanding
indebtedness, (ii) payment of income taxes is a necessary element of the
Company's costs, and (iii) depreciation and amortization are necessary
elements of the Company's costs.

The items that the Company has eliminated from EBITDA in determining
Adjusted EBITDA are: (i) stock-based compensation expense, which is a
non-cash charge, (ii) income recognized on the initial recording of
mortgage servicing rights that are acquired with no initial
consideration, which is also a non-cash income amount that can fluctuate
significantly based on the level of mortgage servicing right volumes,
and (iii) the increase (decrease) in payable under the tax receivable
agreement which represents changes in a liability recorded on the
Company's consolidated balance sheet that is determined by the ongoing
remeasurement of related deferred tax assets and, therefore, can be
income or expense in the Company's consolidated statement of income in
any individual period. Any measure that eliminates components of the
Company's capital structure and costs associated with the Company's
operations has material limitations as a performance measure. In light
of the foregoing limitations, the Company does not rely solely on EBITDA
and/or Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure and also considers its
GAAP results. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measurements of the
Company's financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered
as alternatives to net income, operating income or any other measures
derived in accordance with GAAP. Because EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are
not calculated in the same manner by all companies, they may not be
comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies.

Set forth below is an unaudited reconciliation of consolidated net
income attributable to controlling interest to EBITDA and Adjusted
EBITDA for the Company for the three months ended March 31, 2012 and
2011:

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the Company is calculated as follows:
(dollars in thousands)
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
-------------------------------------
2012 2011
---------------- --------------------
Net income attributable to controlling interest $ 3,276 $ 4,049
Add:
Interest expense 9 10
Income tax expense 2,177 2,821
Depreciation and amortization 1,516 955
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest 121 298
------ ------
EBITDA $ 7,099 $ 8,133
Adjustments:
Stock-based compensation (a) 1,649 624
Initial recording of mortgage servicing rights (1,479) (1,423)
Increase (decrease) in payable under the tax receivable agreement 9 -
Adjusted EBITDA $ 7,278 $ 7,334
====== ====== ====== ======

(a) Amounts do not reflect expense associated with the stock component
of estimated incentive payouts under the Company's firm profit
participation bonus plan or office profit participation bonus plans that
are anticipated to be paid in respect of the applicable year. Such
expense is recorded as incentive compensation expense within personnel
expenses in the Company's consolidated statements of income during the
year to which the expense relates. Following the award, if any, of the
related incentive payout, the stock component expense is reclassified as
stock compensation costs within personnel expenses. See Note 2 to the
Company's consolidated financial statements included in the quarterly
report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending March 31, 2012, for further
information regarding the Company's accounting policies relating to its
firm profit participation bonus plan and office profit participation
bonus plans.

Stock-based compensation expense for the three months ended March 31,
2012 reflects $0.3 million expense recognized during such period that
was associated with restricted stock granted in March 2012 under the
Company's firm profit participation bonus plan or office profit
participation bonus plans in respect of 2011. Stock-based payments under
such plans were first made in 2012 in respect of 2011. See Note 3 to the
Company's consolidated financial statements included in the quarterly
report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending March 31, 2012, for further
information regarding the Company's accounting policies relating to its
stock compensation.

SOURCE: HFF, Inc.

HFF, Inc.
John H. Pelusi Jr., (412) 281-8714
Chief Executive Officer
jpelusi@hfflp.com
or
Gregory R. Conley, (412) 281-8714
Chief Financial Officer
gconley@hfflp.com
or
Myra F. Moren, (713) 852-3500
Director, Investor Relations
mmoren@hfflp.com

Copyright Business Wire 2012

/quotes/zigman/442188/quotes/nls/hf

Add to portfolio

HF

HFF Inc. Cl A

US

: U.S.: NYSE

$
14.03

-0.42
-2.91%

Volume: 134,867
May 14, 2012 4:02p

P/E Ratio12.99
Dividend YieldN/A

Market Cap$533.38 million
Rev. per Employee$531,368

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

PHILADELPHIA, Apr 23, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Virtual
Piggy, Inc.

/quotes/zigman/6562890/quotes/nls/vpig VPIG
+24.04%

today announced that it will
provide its youth-friendly purchasing service to the fantasyland
building site Kidlandia.

Kidlandia is an online virtual world that provides children with a
magical place to learn as they enjoy creating and exploring their own
personal kingdoms, and their software is licensed by Snapfish, Walmart
and Walgreens for social merchandise. Kidlandia users will
be able to purchase virtual goods, games and other items in its store
with the Virtual Piggy payment option in a secure COPPA compliant way.

“Children love to be creative and with Kidlandia we aim to provide
the structure for them to build and manage their own kingdoms, and we’re
thrilled to welcome HRH Virtual Piggy into our world,” said Brian
Backus, Founder and King of Kidlandia. “Partnering with
Virtual Piggy makes perfect sense for us as their service allows
families to set up and manage their online finances and teaches kids
valuable lessons about spending and budgeting in a safe, child-friendly
context.”

Virtual Piggy’s online payment solution is parent approved and
managed. When making purchases through Virtual Piggy, children do not
share any personal information making it completely COPPA compliant and
TRUSTe certified.

“Through this partnership we can provide a safe parent-approved
mechanism for children to gain even more from their Kidlandia
experience,”
said Dr. Jo Webber, Virtual Piggy Founder and CEO. “Long
live the King.”

About Virtual Piggy, Inc.

Virtual Piggy, Inc. is the first e-commerce solution that enables
kids to manage and spend money within a parent-controlled environment.
The technology company delivers online security platforms designed
for the Under 18 age group in the global online market, and also enables
online businesses the ability to function in a manner consistent with
the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and similar
international children’s privacy laws. Virtual Piggy
enables the Under 18 audience to play, transact and socialize in a
secure online environment guided by parental permission, oversight and
control. The company is based in Philadelphia, PA and on
the Web at:
www.virtualpiggy.com

About Kidlandia

Kidlandia builds and distributes personalized Virtual Playgrounds, and
provides software for on-demand social merchandise. Partners that
license Kidlandia’s software include Snapfish, Walmart, and Walgreens.
Kidlandia holds character licenses for Disney, Nickelodeon, and Marvel
personalized merchandise. Founded in 2008, Kidlandia is based in San
Francisco.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50247931&lang=en

SOURCE: Virtual Piggy Inc. Virtual Piggy, Inc.

Bender/Helper Impact
Melisa Gotto/Sabrina Khan, 310-473-4147
melisa_gotto@bhimpact.com
sabrina_khan@bhimpact.com

Copyright Business Wire 2012

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Add to portfolio

VPIG

Virtual Piggy Inc.

US

: OTCBB

$
2.27

+0.44
+24.04%

Volume: 1.08M
May 11, 2012 3:59p

P/E RatioN/A
Dividend YieldN/A

Market Cap$169.65 million
Rev. per EmployeeN/A

Financial Glossary

Words used in this article:

The prohibited items were taken during the first week of weapons screening at Brookdale, Southdale and Ridgedale courts.

Portland police said Sunday the burglary probably occurred between 10:30 am and 3:30 pm while the vans marked with the Klamath Falls institutes logo were parked in an overflow lot in North Portlands Delta Park.

The teams coach Greg Stewart said Sunday he believes the vans were targeted because they had the logo.

I think that definitely could have been part of it, Stewart said. I think it had to be a crew, no less than three, so that somebody served as a lookout, he said.

Two backpacks were found near a garbage can in the park, but there were no suspects as of Sunday, Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman, said.

Stewart said there is also speculation the vans were followed from the hotel to the park because one of the players parents said he noticed two vehicles trailing them.

Stewart said the thieves had to be sophisticated because the vans were in a lot passed through by hundreds of people attending events in Delta Park.

There were so many cars around that for someone not to see what was going on, these people had to be very well-organized, he said.

The vans were locked, and there was some damage on each drivers side door, probably from a tool used to get inside, Stewart said.

Team members planned to leave directly from the park to return to Klamath Falls, so all of their belongings not needed for the games were inside. Among the stolen items were an iPad, laptop computers, backpacks with textbooks, wallets with credit cards, identifications and Social Security cards.

In the three to four hour window between when the items were taken and when Stewart was alerted to the burglary, more than $2,000 had been charged to three cards at stores in the Clackamas Town Center area, he said. All of the cards stolen have since been canceled.

The team and other staff involved in the burglary met Sunday with the schools dean of students to discuss what to do about identity theft.

The team has played games at Delta Park in the past and never had security concerns, Stewart said, but in the future, the school will take greater measures to keep the vans safe.

If were traveling with school vehicles, were going to have to put alarms on them, he said. Well probably have to make sure theres absolutely no gear in there.

Anyone with information should reference Portland Police Bureau case 12-36010 in an email to CrimeTips@PortlandOregon.gov.

Councilman Eric Garcetti calls for public-private partnerships to help reverse years of cutbacks. Mayor Villaraigosas latest budget seeks an additional $4-million reduction.

“Monetary policy is one thing but it’s a very limited
tool,” Fisher said today in Los Angeles at a conference
sponsored by the Milken Institute. He also said the central bank
has disrupted pricing in the bond market in its program of
selling short-term securities for the purchase of long-term
debt.

The Fed’s program to extend the average duration of its
balance sheet, known as Operation Twist, is allowing the
government to borrow money at a lower cost, he said as part of a
panel discussion.

“By providing monetary accommodation, we’re saying, in
essence, Congress, you better eat your vegetables, or we’ll
serve you a big plate of monetary cookies,” said Fisher, who
doesn’t vote on monetary policy this year.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at
cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net;
Aki Ito in San Francisco at
aito16@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Christopher Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net

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