This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
GLOBAL real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is looking to join CBRE and JLL on the New York Stock Exchange, after filing for an initial public offering in the past week.
Cushman is seeking to raise US$1 billion with a valuation in excess of US$5 billion.
Part of proceeds from the IPO will be used to pay down the firm’s debt $3.07 billion.
The float of Cushman will open a new chapter in the agency’s fairy tale comeback story. The firm is owned by DTZ Jersey Holdings, backed by the private-equity giant TPG, which bought Cushman in 2015 for $2 billion.
DTZ was placed into administration in the United Kingdom and ASX-listed facilities manager UGL Limited acquired the agency from administrators in December 2011 for £77.5 million ($A119 million).
UGL merged DTZ with its own property business and flirted with the idea of floating the agency on the ASX.
UGL eventually decided to sell DTZ to a TPG-led consortium for $1.2 billion in 2014.
In the following year, DTZ bought Cushman and elected to operate under the more prominent Cushman & Wakefield brand.
At the time of the merger, the combined DTZ and Cushman company became the world’s second largest real estate firm with annual revenues of $5.5 billion, trailing behind CBRE’s $9 billion and ahead of JLL’s $4 billion.
However since that time, JLL has taken second place.
Cushman is currently placed third, behind CBRE and JLL, with revenues of $6.92 billion in 2017, behind CBRE’s $14.2 billion and JLL’s $7.9 billion.
Behind the three leaders are Colliers with annual revenue of $2.7 billion and Savills with £1.6 billion in 2017.
Australian Property Journal
