TPG will look at further acquisitions after its blockbuster deal to combine DTZ and Cushman & Wakefield, according to new chief executive Brett White (pictured).
Speaking to Estates Gazette after striking the deal, White said the new business would be branded as Cushman & Wakefield and would be armed with $1bn of new equity.
“We are eager to see the business continue to grow organically and through M&A,” said White. “I’ve been involved in a lot of transactions and this is the first merger of equals. They have very complementary footprints and highly complementary cultures.”
One firm was strong where the other was weak and vice versa, White said, pointing to Cushmans’ strength in New York and DTZ’s in China as examples. “These complementary footprints were another strong rationale for the transaction,” he added.
The new firm will turn over more than $5bn, and have 250 offices in 50 countries and will employ 43,000 employees. The DTZ name will survive in just two countries, China and the Netherlands, where there will be a shared brand.
“We are now truly a head-to-head competitor with CBRE and JLL,” said White, who will be chair and chief executive officer of the new business. “This combination is in response to what clients demand.”
White said the new business would look at further opportunities in capital markets, leasing and global occupier services and investment management, building out DTZ’s European operation globally.
Carlo Barel di Sant’Albano, international chief executive of Cushman & Wakefield, will stay on in a “senior position”. Tod Lickerman, currently DTZ’s chief executive, will become president of the combined business.
John Santora, currently Cushmans’ chief executive for North America, will become chief integration officer and chief operating officer. John Forrester, DTZ’s head of EMEA, will also have a “strong” leadership role in EMEA and will work with Sant’Albano on integration.
Sant’Albano said talks between the businesses had been active for six months. “In Europe this is going to make us a stronger platform across all major markets. It accelerates where we wanted to be by a few years.” He said the firm was well placed to capitalise on global capital flows between the west and the east.
Forrester said: “We will be the business both companies aspired to be in terms of the depth of our service, the quality of our talent and our presence in the major cities and the major food groups of the sector.
“We still have the ambition to grow as well – we’re not the complete article. I can think of a number of new areas where the business isn’t where we would like it to be, such as new homes sales in London. There are other things we could be doing in other parts of Europe as well.”
As well as TPG the other two members of the consortium behind the deal are PAG Asia Capital and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. TPG will hold 50% of the enlarged business, PAG 35% and Ontario 15%. Exor said this morning it expected the deal to complete in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Commenting on the decision to drop the DTZ brand, Forrester said: “The reality is that the logo of DTZ is not what clients buy. They have bought the best talent in the best markets across the world. It’s the end of one era and the beginning of the next.”
