Procter & Gamble Hires JLL for World Strategy

No cost was given for the deal. The 16-million-square-foot contract, begun in 2003 and renewed in August 2007, was rumored by sources to be about $700 million over five years, though Pete Bulgarelli, managing director and global account executive at JLL tells GlobeSt.com that the figure is "not quite" that amount. Procter & Gamble had been using different providers by region for its real estate needs, with JLL handling half of Asia. Just last week, P&G named JLL as one of its six suppliers of the year, out of 80,000 suppliers.

While the current contract is for only facility management, the new, three-year deal allows JLL to shape and lead how the brand giant P&G will handle all of its real estate. Specifically, the agreement encompasses portfolio management, transaction management, real estate brokerage, lease administration and strategic portfolio planning services.

Bulgarelli says it's too early to tell if there's any moves or plans to be made. "We're just kicking off the transaction," he says. However, he says his firm is seeing a rapid increase in requests by companies for these services. "In the past two-to-three years, even before the current downturn, companies have started more and more to look at multiple functions, and for properties in multiple regions," he says.

Companies are also becoming more cautious, and more deliberate, in their actions, looking to get more out of less with their real estate, Bulgarelli says. "There's potentially some consolidations with P&G, but they're a healthy, strong company, even now. They're looking to strategically grow as well."

Jim Fortner, a VP responsible for workplace and infrastructure solutions at P&G, agrees. "Managing a wider range of real estate strategies through one alliance partner enables us to increase efficiency and consistency, leverage scale and enhance service levels," he says in a statement.

Bulgarelli's division handles corporate real estate for about 1.2 billion square feet, he says. Other clients include Bank of America, Motorola and Whirlpool.