DTZ, backed by Fort Worth private equity firm TPG Capital, has cemented its role as a major global commercial real estate player with its winning bid for Cushman & Wakefield.
Sources say DTZ beat out eight other suitors to acquire C&W—a move that comes just months after it acquired Cassidy Turley. (Here are details on that deal, and here’s an interview with DTZ executives on its local impact.) DTZ is owned by a TPG-led investment group that also includes PAG Asia Capital and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which acquired DTZ last November in a $1 billion deal.
It’s paying $2 billion for Cushman & Wakefield, according to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news late Sunday night. The seller is Exor SpA, an Italian holding company formed in the late 1920s to handle investments for the Agnelli family, which founded and controls the car manufacturer Fiat.
DTZ Will Assume Cushman & Wakefield Name
Former CBRE chief executive officer Brett White, who was named executive chairman of DTZ this past March, will take the helm of the combined DTZ/C&W operation. The company will operate as Cushman & Wakefield, although sources say it may retain the DTZ brand in some international markets, such as China, where it dominates, and the U.K., where it also has a major presence.
The combined entity will generate more than $5 billion in annual revenue and have 43,000 employees at 250 offices in 50 markets worldwide, WSJ reports. This puts it neck and neck with JLL ($5.4 billion in annual revenue) for the No. 2 spot globally, behind world leader CBRE, which generated revenue of about $9 billion last year.
Locally, JLL still has an edge. According to D CEO’s annual list of the top 25 firms in North Texas (ranked by number of local brokers), the top three are CBRE (with 185 brokers), JLL (with 167), and DTZ/C&W (with a combined 106).
It’s too early to tell how local leadership will shake out. DTZ is acquiring Cushman & Wakefield, but an emphasis is being placed on the word “merger.”
The North Texas operations of DTZ are currently being run by Bret Bunnett, one of the co-founders of Capstar, which was merged into Cassidy Turley in 2011. During its first 12 months as Cassidy Turley, the firm added 7 million square feet to its leasing portfolio. The company was primarily known for its project leasing prowess until it scored a coup in luring a team of market-leading tenant rep brokers—including Randy Cooper and Craig Wilson—away from, ironically, Cushman & Wakefield in late 2011. The team has gone on to broker some of the biggest leases in North Texas, including State Farm’s 2 million-square-foot-plus deal at CityLine in Richardson.
Steve Everbach became market leader of Cushman & Wakefield’s Dallas office in April 2012. Last year, his responsibilities were expanded to include leadership of the company’s U.S. agency leasing operations. Since taking the helm locally, Everbach, a 2014 finalist for D CEO’s Commercial Real Estate Executive of the Year award, has doubled the size of C&W’s local presence through both new hires and by helping to engineer the acquisition of Cousins Properties’ leasing and property management business in Dallas and Atlanta. Prior to joining C&W, Everbach led agency leasing and property management operations in Dallas-Fort Worth for JLL.
