NEW YORK CITY—Coming off of its acquisition of DTZ and, later, Cassidy Turley, a TPG-led consortium is reportedly gearing up to make bid on rival Cushman & Wakefield, a source close to the companies revealed to GlobeSt.com earlier this week. Both companies were given time to respond to the rumors, but neither DTZ nor C&W would comment on the potential offer.
According to our source, Brett White, former CBRE head and current executive chairman of DTZ, is looking to raise the financing necessary to make its bid. Indeed, the Australia Financial Review revealed that the firm aims to raise $1.3 billion in the US Term Loan B Market, on top of its $1 billion of existing facilities and private equity provided by TPG. The sources also claimed that White planned to meet with lenders—some of the biggest in the business—in New York City yesterday to muster up support.
The TPG consortium may be willing to pay up to $2 billion for C&W, which would be at the high end of the firm's current valuation. TPG's plan, according to our source, is to bring C&W under its umbrella, merging it with DTZ. Should this occur, it would create the second-largest CRE services firm in the US, based on revenue, after CBRE. It would also bolster DTZ's presence in major tier-one markets in the US and abroad.
Final bids on C&W are said to be due in a matter of days.
C&W last traded in 2007, when Exor SpA, the Italian investment group of the Agnelli family paid $565.4 million for a 67.5% interest in the firm, which since then has grown to 81%. Last February, Exor retained advisors to look into a potential sale of its controlling stake in C&W. At the time, company officials were said to prefer a privately held buyer, and would be unwilling to sell to a direct competitor, preferring a private equity group or sovereign wealth fund. Such a provision seemingly ruled out Ft. Worth-based TPG and New York City-based BGC Partners, both of which own large CRE brokerages, as potential buyers, as well as a merger with a standalone firm such as CBRE Group.
TPG teamed up with Hong Kong investment manager PAG and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan of Canada to buy DTZ for $1.2 billion last year, followed by the $557-million acquisition of Cassidy Turley. These deals created a company with annual revenue of nearly $3 billion. The C&W buy, if it goes through, would be another step toward the firm's goal of being a dominant player in the international commercial real estate scene.
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Sule Aygoren
Aygoren oversees the editorial direction and content for ALM’s Real Estate Media Group, including Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. In her tenure with ALM, she’s held roles of increasing responsibility, including Managing Editor. Aygoren has received several awards for her coverage including Best Trade Magazine Report from the National Association of Real Estate Editors and the James D. Carper Award for Young Journalists. Under her direction, Forum has received four national NAREE awards for Best Commercial Real Estate Trade Magazine.
