Matthew Pullen, head of CBRE's Global Corporate Services EMEA,says the Zurich portfolio's size is definitely in the upper quarterof portfolio assignments in his region of the world. Terms of thetransaction management and strategic consulting contract bars CBREfrom 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 peergroup in Mainland Europe by implementing early-generationoutsourcing. "It's fair to say the Mainland Europe market is lessmature than the UK and US in outsourcing," he says, "but there is arapid movement to centralization of shared services. It's all aboutglobalization of industries to remain competitive in their industrysectors." And, it's the first time that Zurich has put its Mainlandportfolio up for grabs.

CBRE holds Zurich's global data management contract and asecondary position for its North America transaction management andstrategic consulting. Chicago-based UGL Equis Corp. has the leadfor the North America assignment. Zurich also is entrenched inLatin America and Asia Pacific.