CBRE acquires property engineering firm in £250m deal
CBRE has acquired property engineering specialist Norland Managed Services for £250m.
The property consultancy, which has a large operation in Birmingham, has also agreed to £50m of deferred contingent consideration as well as a payment for excess working capital and related items as part of the deal.
London-based Norland is a provider of commercial building technical engineering services in the UK and Ireland.
It is particularly well known for its expertise in critical environments, such as data centres and trading floors – a growing market segment requiring specialised knowledge and experience.
It has 4,000 employees in 14 offices, including a local operation based in Coleshill.
CBRE says the acquisition will allow it to self-perform building technical engineering services, providing its client base with fully integrated outsourcing services.
CBRE’s Bill Concannon said: “Norland is a strong complement to our global platform. We will have the ability to self-perform building technical engineering services in Europe, as we already do for more than 850m sq ft of client properties in North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
“This transaction will significantly enhance our service offering, enable us to provide an integrated suite of outsourcing services and deepen our relationships with global and multi-national occupiers.”
Following the closing of the transaction, Norland’s existing operations will operate as CBRE | Norland.
Ian Entwisle, CEO of Norland, said: “We know each other well, and both firms are highly focused on delivering exceptional customer service and value.
“By uniting our building technical engineering expertise with CBRE’s broad service offering and global reach, we foresee significant opportunities to expand our client base and accelerate our growth.”
Entwisle will lead the CBRE | Norland operations as CEO.
Norland reported revenue of £385m for its fiscal year ended April 5, 2013.
BofA Merrill Lynch acted as sole financial advisor to CBRE and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted as CBRE’s legal advisor.
