LOS ANGELES—CBRE Group's program of acquisitions in recent years has paid off in boosting the global services firm's bottom line, says president and CEO Bob Sulentic. First-quarter results, reported Thursday, saw CBRE boost its net income and earnings per share by 58% year over year, while revenues were up globally 5% to US$3 billion from a year ago.

“We have been keenly focused for some time on a strategy to make CBRE a more balanced and capable enterprise that produces highly differentiated outcomes for our clients,” Sulentic says. “In support of this strategy, we have made targeted organic investments and acquisitions aimed at bolstering our talent base, service offering and operating platform.

“These investments have allowed us to significantly improve our ability to provide integrated solutions to our clients around the world as well as our digital and consultative capabilities,” he continues. “All of this has positioned us to better satisfy our clients and take market share.”

The results were “clearly reflected in our first quarter results, with excellent top- and bottom-line organic growth across our regional services businesses globally,” he adds. “This growth came against a backdrop of lower sales market volumes in many parts of the world. Our earnings were further enhanced by the steps we took in late 2015 and 2016 to calibrate our costs while also investing in our strategy.”

On a percentage basis, the commercial mortgage services platform grew at the fastest pace, with revenue up 13%, driven by increased originations with life insurance companies. CBRE's loan servicing portfolio stood at approximately $150 billion, up about $18 billion, or 14%, from the year-ago period.

Thus far in 2017, CBRE has made further investments in its strategy via acquisitions, two of which occurred during Q1: Floored Inc., a leading software as a service (SaaS) platform for commercial real estate, and Capstone Financial Solutions LLC, a technology-enabled national commercial mortgage services specialist. Post-Q1, the company acquired Mainstream Software Inc., a facilities management SaaS platform.

“We are pleased with the excellent performance our people produced in the first quarter,” says Sulentic. “As we look ahead, we are increasingly energized by our market position and prospects. Our business has positive momentum and our people—supported by our increasingly robust operating platform—are well positioned to capitalize on a generally favorable macro environment.”

He adds, though, that Q1 is “typically our seasonally lightest quarter for revenue and earnings, and the impact of our cost savings actions is particularly pronounced this quarter. As always, we caution against extrapolating first quarter performance to the full year and we are not updating guidance only three months into the year.”

Instant Insights /

CBRE's Income, Earnings Up 58% Y-O-Y

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