The parent of Colliers International, FirstService, has announced plans to separate the business.
FirstService Corporation said its board of directors had approved a plan to separate into two independent publicly traded companies – Colliers International and FirstService Corporation.
The separation comes just three years FirstService completed the acquisition of all the assets of Colliers’ operations in the UK.
The former will be one of the top three global leaders in commercial real estate and the latter will be a North American leader in residential property management and services, the company said.
Jay Hennick, founder and chief executive of FirstService, said: “We are taking the next bold but logical step in unlocking even greater value for FirstService shareholders by separating our company into two billion-dollar public companies.”
For the year ended 31 December 2014, pro forma revenue at Colliers totalled $1.7bn. FirstService’s was $1.1bn.
The proposed transaction is subject to final approval from FirstService’s board.
On completion it is expected to result in FirstService Corporation being listed, and the current publicly traded company called FirstService changing its name to Colliers International Group. They will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
One of the motivations for the split was to create two “different and compelling investment opportunities”, said the company.
