CB Richard Ellis has snatched a major banking contract away from rival Jones Lang LaSalle.
The agent has taken control of Bank of America’s 5.6m sq ft EMEA, Asia and Latin America portfolio – a contract that JLL has held since 1991.
The contract appointment has increased CBRE’s management stake in BoA’s global portfolio by 14% – from 48.3m sq ft to 55m sq ft.
JLL will continue to advise BoA on the majority of its global portfolio, including India and Canada. In the US, it advises the bank alongside CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield and North Carolina-based Lincoln Harris.
The UK contract will cover full estates management and will run for three years, providing a base fee of around £250,000 pa.
CBRE will also take over BoA’s proposed relocation from 5 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, E14, to Merrill Lynch’s 700,000 sq ft City HQ at Newgate Street, EC1, and will handle a search for 150,000 sq ft of overflow space for the bank.
BoA began a review of its global property advisers and the services they provide earlier this year following its $50bn (£30.4bn) takeover of Merrill Lynch in January.
Jeremy Day, King Sturge’s head of UK corporate real estate, said: “JLL’s relationship with Bank of America represented one of the very first truly global real estate mandates, and they will be disappointed to lose it, but global clients must now regularly review their real estate advisory procurement.”
The BoA contract is the second major UK banking instruction CBRE has won in recent weeks. In June, it was appointed alongside JLL to help trim Lloyds Banking Group’s portfolio in a bid to cut costs by £1.5bn. CBRE is advising on offices, JLL on its retail holdings.
CBRE, BoA and JLL all declined to comment.
