CBRE Group, Inc. Reports Strong Financial Results for Third-Quarter 2017

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG) today reported strong financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017.

“We are pleased to produce another quarter of excellent results, with double-digit revenue growth and adjusted earnings per share up 28%,” said Bob Sulentic, CBRE’s president and chief executive officer. “Our performance is the direct result of our focused strategy to produce exceptional outcomes for our clients and the commitment of our more than 75,000 people to executing our strategy.”

“The strength of our performance in the third quarter was broad-based. Each of our three global regions produced solid organic growth. Leasing returned to double-digit growth, and was especially strong in the U.S. Revenue growth accelerated in our occupier outsourcing business, as we continue to capitalize on our commanding position in this growing sector. Global property sales saw healthy growth, despite a generally tepid market for transaction activity, reflecting the strength of our brand and ability to take market share. Finally, we also had excellent performance in both of our real estate investment businesses.”

Mr. Sulentic added: “We continue to see healthy momentum across most of our businesses and regions and are increasing our full-year 2017 guidance for adjusted earnings per share to a range of $2.58 to $2.68.”

Third-Quarter 2017 Results

• Revenue for the third quarter totaled $3.5 billion, an increase of 11% (10% local currency¹). Fee revenue² increased 10% (9% local currency) to $2.3 billion.
• On a GAAP basis, net income increased 88% and earnings per diluted share increased 87% to $196.3 million and $0.58 per share, respectively. Adjusted net income³ for the third quarter of 2017 rose 31% to $219.5 million, while adjusted earnings per share³ improved 28% to $0.64 per share.
• The adjustments to GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2017 included $28.2 million (pre-tax) of non-cash acquisition-related amortization and $5.1 million (pre-tax) of net carried interest incentive compensation expense. These costs were partially offset by a net tax benefit of $10.2 million associated with the aforementioned adjustments.
• EBITDA⁴ increased 43% (42% local currency) to $406.4 million and adjusted EBITDA⁴ increased 18% (17% local currency) to $411.6 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin on fee revenue increased 120 basis points to 17.7%. The company’s regional services businesses – the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) – produced combined adjusted EBITDA growth for the quarter of 12% (11% excluding the impact of all currency movement including hedging activity).

Third-Quarter 2017 Segment Review

The following tables present highlights of CBRE segment performance during the third quarter of 2017 (dollars in thousands):

Excluding the impact of all currency movement including hedging activity, adjusted EBITDA growth rates for the third quarter of 2017 were: 8% in the Americas, 12% in EMEA, 31% in APAC and 17% in Global Investment Management.

CBRE’s revenue growth was strong in all three of its regional services businesses in the third quarter.

• APAC posted a 22% (21% local currency) revenue increase, supported by outsized growth in Greater China, India, Japan and Singapore.
• In the Americas, revenue increased 11% (same local currency), with double-digit growth in occupier outsourcing and leasing. Brazil, Canada and the United States all exhibited strong overall growth.
• EMEA revenue rose 9% (7% local currency), paced by strong gains in the United Kingdom.

Revenue growth across CBRE’s global business lines was almost entirely organic.

• Global occupier outsourcing achieved growth of 14% (13% local currency) in both revenue and fee revenue. Almost all of this growth was organic.
  • Growth was broad-based across the three global regions, led by India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Leasing revenue rose 13% (12% local currency), with double-digit growth in APAC and the Americas.
  • APAC leasing revenue surged 17% (same local currency), with especially strong growth in Australia, Greater China, India and Japan.
  • Americas leasing revenue rose 14% (13% in local currency), and 16% in the United States, paced by strong performance in New York City.
  • In EMEA, Germany, Italy and Spain led the way to 7% (4% local currency) growth for the region.
• The capital markets businesses – property sales and commercial mortgage origination – produced global revenue growth of 5% (4% local currency) on a combined basis.
• Global property sales revenue rose 9% (same local currency), reflecting market share gains in an environment where global market volumes were relatively flat year over year.
  • This performance was paced by robust growth in APAC, which increased 33% (same local currency), led by Australia, Greater China and Japan.
  • Americas sales revenue improved 7% (same local currency), as robust gains in Brazil and Canada offset relatively flat revenue in the United States. CBRE extended its market-leading position in U.S. investment sales with market share increasing approximately 190 basis points versus last year’s third quarter, according to Real Capital Analytics.
  • EMEA’s revenue was flat (2% decline local currency) – reflecting fewer large transactions in continental Europe – although growth remained strong in the United Kingdom.
• Commercial mortgage origination revenue declined 12% (same local currency), driven almost entirely by lower gains from mortgage-servicing rights associated with U.S. Government Sponsored Enterprises financing activity, which more than doubled in the prior-year third quarter.
• Recurring revenue from the loan servicing portfolio increased 24% (same local currency). At the end of the third quarter, CBRE’s loan servicing portfolio totaled approximately $165 billion, up 27% from the year-earlier third quarter.
• Property management services produced solid growth of 9% (8% local currency) for revenue and 11% (10% local currency) for fee revenue.
• Valuation revenue increased 6% (4% local currency).
• CBRE’s real estate investment businesses – Global Investment Management and Development Services – produced combined adjusted EBITDA growth of 70% (69% local currency) in the third quarter.
  • In the Global Investment Management segment, assets under management (AUM) totaled $98.3 billion, up $10.4 billion, or $2.6 billion excluding the Caledon Capital acquisition, which was completed in August 2017. Positive foreign currency movement added $2.2 billion to AUM versus the prior-year quarter.
  • In the Development Services segment, projects in process totaled $5.9 billion, down $1.2 billion from the third quarter of 2016, while the pipeline totaled $5.4 billion, up $1.7 billion in the same period. Fee-only and build-to-suit projects constitute more than 50% of the pipeline.

Nine-Month 2017 Results

• Revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 totaled $9.9 billion, an increase of 7% (8% local currency). Fee revenue increased 6% (7% local currency) to $6.4 billion. This growth was almost entirely organic.

• On a GAAP basis, net income increased 70% to $523.1 million and earnings per diluted share increased 69% to $1.54 per share. Adjusted net income for the first nine months of 2017 rose 26% to $586.6 million, while adjusted earnings per share improved 26% to $1.72 per share.
• EBITDA increased 31% (32% local currency) to $1.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA increased 14% (same in local currency) to $1.1 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin on fee revenue increased approximately 120 basis points to 17.5%.

Conference Call Details

The company’s third quarter earnings conference call will be held today (Friday, November 3, 2017) at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. A webcast, along with an associated slide presentation, will be accessible through the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.cbre.com/investorrelations.

The direct dial-in number for the conference call is 877-407-8037 for U.S. callers and 201-689-8037 for international callers. A replay of the call will be available starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on November 3, 2017, and ending at midnight Eastern Time on November 10, 2017. The dial-in number for the replay is 877-660-6853 for U.S. callers and 201-612-7415 for international callers. The access code for the replay is 13671701. A transcript of the call will be available on the company’s Investor Relations website at www.cbre.com/investorrelations.

About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2016 revenue). The company has more than 75,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate investors and occupiers through approximately 450 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.

The information contained in, or accessible through, the company’s website is not incorporated into this press release.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our future growth momentum, operations, financial performance (including adjusted earnings per share), currency movement, market share, and business outlook. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company’s actual results and performance in future periods to be materially different from any future results or performance suggested in forward-looking statements in this press release. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any of them to reflect actual results, any changes in expectations or any change in events. If the company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: disruptions in general economic and business conditions, particularly in geographies where our business may be concentrated; volatility and disruption of the securities, capital and credit markets, interest rate increases, the cost and availability of capital for investment in real estate, clients’ willingness to make real estate or long-term contractual commitments and other factors affecting the value of real estate assets, inside and outside the United States; increases in unemployment and general slowdowns in commercial activity; trends in pricing and risk assumption for commercial real estate services; the effect of significant movements in average cap rates across different property types; a reduction by companies in their reliance on outsourcing for their commercial real estate needs, which would affect our revenues and operating performance; client actions to restrain project spending and reduce outsourced staffing levels; declines in lending activity of U.S. Government Sponsored Enterprises, regulatory oversight of such activity and our mortgage servicing revenue from the commercial real estate mortgage market; our ability to diversify our revenue model to offset cyclical economic trends in the commercial real estate industry; our ability to attract new user and investor clients; our ability to retain major clients and renew related contracts; our ability to leverage our global services platform to maximize and sustain long-term cash flow; our ability to maintain EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margins that enable us to continue investing in our platform and client service offerings; our ability to control costs relative to revenue growth; economic volatility and market uncertainty globally related to uncertainty surrounding the implementation and effect of the United Kingdom’s referendum to leave the European Union, including uncertainty in relation to the legal and regulatory framework that would apply to the United Kingdom and its relationship with the remaining members of the European Union; foreign currency fluctuations; our ability to retain and incentivize key personnel; our ability to compete globally, or in specific geographic markets or business segments that are material to us; our ability to identify, acquire and integrate synergistic and accretive businesses; costs and potential future capital requirements relating to businesses we may acquire; integration challenges arising out of companies we may acquire; the ability of our Global Investment Management business to maintain and grow assets under management and achieve desired investment returns for our investors, and any potential related litigation, liabilities or reputational harm possible if we fail to do so; our ability to manage fluctuations in net earnings and cash flow, which could result from poor performance in our investment programs, including our participation as a principal in real estate investments; our leverage under our debt instruments as well as the limited restrictions therein on our ability to incur additional debt, and the potential increased borrowing costs to us from a credit-ratings downgrade; the ability of our wholly-owned subsidiary, CBRE Capital Markets, Inc., to periodically amend, or replace, on satisfactory terms, the agreements for its warehouse lines of credit; variations in historically customary seasonal patterns that cause our business not to perform as expected; litigation and its financial and reputational risks to us; our exposure to liabilities in connection with real estate advisory and property management activities and our ability to procure sufficient insurance coverage on acceptable terms; liabilities under guarantees, or for construction defects, that we incur in our Development Services business; our and our employees’ ability to execute on, and adapt to, information technology strategies and trends; changes in domestic and international law and regulatory environments (including relating to anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, trade sanctions, currency controls and other trade control laws), particularly in Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, due to the rising level of political instability in those regions; our ability to comply with laws and regulations related to our global operations, including real estate licensure, tax, labor and employment laws and regulations, as well as the anti-corruption laws and trade sanctions of the U.S. and other countries; our ability to maintain our effective tax rate at or below current levels; changes in applicable tax or accounting requirements, including potential tax reform under the current U.S. administration; and the effect of implementation of new accounting rules and standards.

Additional information concerning factors that may influence the company’s financial information is discussed under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” and “Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2017 and June 30, 2017, as well as in the company’s press releases and other periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Such filings are available publicly and may be obtained on the company’s website at www.cbre.com or upon written request from CBRE’s Investor Relations Department at investorrelations@cbre.com.

Note – CBRE has not reconciled the (non-GAAP) adjusted earnings per share forward-looking guidance included in this press release to the most directly comparable GAAP measure because this cannot be done without unreasonable effort due to the variability and low visibility with respect to costs related to acquisitions, carried interest incentive compensation and financing costs, which are potential adjustments to future earnings. We expect the variability of these items to have a potentially unpredictable, and a potentially significant, impact on our future GAAP financial results.

The terms “fee revenue,” “adjusted net income,” “adjusted earnings per share” (or adjusted EPS), “EBITDA” and “adjusted EBITDA,” all of which CBRE uses in this press release, are non-GAAP financial measures under SEC guidelines, and you should refer to the footnotes below as well as the “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section in this press release for a further explanation of these measures. We have also included in that section reconciliations of these measures in specific periods to their most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP for those periods.

¹ Local currency percentage change is calculated by comparing current-period results at prior-period exchange rates versus prior-period results.

² Fee revenue is gross revenue less both client reimbursed costs largely associated with employees that are dedicated to client facilities and subcontracted vendor work performed for clients. Certain adjustments have been made to 2016 fee revenue to conform with current-year presentation.

³ Adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share (or adjusted EPS) exclude the effect of select charges from GAAP net income and GAAP earnings per diluted share as well as adjust the provision for income taxes for such charges. Adjustments during the periods presented included non-cash amortization expense related to certain intangible assets attributable to acquisitions, integration and other costs related to acquisitions, cost-elimination expenses and certain carried interest incentive compensation expense (reversal) to align with the timing of associated revenue.

⁴ EBITDA represents earnings before net interest expense, write-off of financing costs on extinguished debt, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. Amounts shown for adjusted EBITDA further remove (from EBITDA) the impact of certain cash and non-cash charges related to acquisitions, cost-elimination expenses and certain carried interest incentive compensation expense (reversal) to align with the timing of associated revenue.

⁵ Revenue in the Development Services segment does not include equity income from unconsolidated subsidiaries and gain on disposition of real estate, net of non-controlling interest. EBITDA includes equity income from unconsolidated subsidiaries and gain on disposition of real estate, net of non-controlling interests, and the associated compensation expense.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The following measures are considered “non-GAAP financial measures” under SEC guidelines:

These measures are not recognized measurements under United States generally accepted accounting principles, or “GAAP.” When analyzing our operating performance, investors should use them in addition to, and not as an alternative for, their most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Our management generally uses these non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate operating performance and for other discretionary purposes. The company believes that these measures provide a more complete understanding of ongoing operations, enhance comparability of current results to prior periods and may be useful for investors to analyze our financial performance because they eliminate the impact of selected charges that may obscure trends in the underlying performance of our business. The company further uses certain of these measures, and believes that they are useful to investors, for purposes described below.

With respect to fee revenue: the company believes that investors may find this measure useful to analyze the financial performance of our Occupier Outsourcing and Property Management business lines and our business generally. Fee revenue excludes costs reimbursable by clients, and as such provides greater visibility into the underlying performance of our business.

With respect to adjusted net income, adjusted EPS, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA: the company believes that investors may find these measures useful in evaluating our operating performance compared to that of other companies in our industry because their calculations generally eliminate the accounting effects of acquisitions, which would include impairment charges of goodwill and intangibles created from acquisitions—and in the case of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA—the effects of financings and income tax and the accounting effects of capital spending. All of these measures may vary for different companies for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance. In the case of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, these measures are not intended to be measures of free cash flow for our management’s discretionary use because they do not consider cash requirements such as tax and debt service payments. The EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA measures calculated herein may also differ from the amounts calculated under similarly titled definitions in our credit facilities and debt instruments, which amounts are further adjusted to reflect certain other cash and non-cash charges and are used by us to determine compliance with financial covenants therein and our ability to engage in certain activities, such as incurring additional debt and making certain restricted payments. The company also uses adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS as significant components when measuring our operating performance under our employee incentive compensation programs.

Net income attributable to CBRE Group, Inc., as adjusted (or adjusted net income), and diluted income per share attributable to CBRE Group, Inc. shareholders, as adjusted (or adjusted EPS), are calculated as follows (dollars in thousands, except share data):

EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, are calculated as follows (dollars in thousands):

Revenue includes client reimbursed pass through costs largely associated with employees that are dedicated to client facilities and subcontracted vendor work performed for clients, both of which are excluded from fee revenue. Reconciliations are shown below (dollars in thousands):