6M-SF Zurich Portfolio Now in CBRE's Hands

LONDON-Zurich Financial Services Group has outsourced a six-million-sf [560,000 m2] portfolio with 520 offices in nine countries to CB Richard Ellis, which was up against stiff competition for a virgin opportunity. The deal reflects a trend on Mainland Europe for phased-in outsourcing.

Matthew Pullen, head of CBRE’s Global Corporate Services EMEA, says the Zurich portfolio’s size is definitely in the upper quarter of portfolio assignments in his region of the world. Terms of the transaction management and strategic consulting contract bars CBRE from disclosing many details, but the package is class A office, retail and back-office space in Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, the UK and its native land, Switzerland. “The competition was pretty stiff for this,” Pullen says.

Pullen explains that Zurich has become an innovator in its peer group in Mainland Europe by implementing early-generation outsourcing. “It’s fair to say the Mainland Europe market is less mature than the UK and US in outsourcing,” he says, “but there is a rapid movement to centralization of shared services. It’s all about globalization of industries to remain competitive in their industry sectors.” And, it’s the first time that Zurich has put its Mainland portfolio up for grabs.