CBRE Group Inc., the world's largest commercial property brokerage, said it plans to continue to cut costs as a sluggish real estate market dinged revenues and profits in the third quarter.
The firm said a hoped-for recovery in the business this year would likely now not happen until the second half of 2024, as high interest rates and economic uncertainty continue to take their toll on property markets.
"We don't have a recession now, but there's a lot of uncertainty around the cost of capital," CEO and President Bob Sulentic told investors during a third quarter earnings call Friday morning.
CBRE said it identified $150 million of cost reductions throughout the company, primarily focused on its transaction-focused business lines. A spokesman for CBRE declined to share further details of these cost-cutting measures with CoStar News.
Chief Financial Officer Emma Giamartino told investors she would provide additional details on the efforts to cut costs when CBRE provides its 2024 financial guidance next year.
CBRE is the first brokerage to report earnings for the past quarter, offering a glimpse at what's to come from other major publicly traded rivals in the coming weeks. The firm said third-quarter revenue increased by 4.5% to nearly $7.9 billion, which after backing out subcontractor work actually dropped by 4.2% to $4.4 billion
Profit fell 55.6% to 61 cents a share.
“Commercial real estate capital markets remained under significant pressure in the third quarter," Sulentic told investors. "As a result, we experienced a sustained slowdown in property sales and debt financing activity, which drove the decline in core earnings-per-share. This decline was exacerbated by delays in harvesting development assets which we will sell when market conditions improve."
The firm said office and industrial leasing continues to be a challenge with large occupiers holding off on decisions as uncertainty in the economy continues to weigh on the future. On the bright side, Sulentic said CBRE saw continued growth from the global workplace services business, which helped offset weakness in other units.
“Interest rates have increased more than 100 basis points since we reported second quarter results 90 days ago, continuing the sharpest rise in rates in nearly 40 years," Sulentic added. "The unexpected jump in rates has pushed back the capital markets recovery.”
Sulentic and his executives had previously expected a capital markets recovery by the end of this year into early 2024. Because that recovery is now likely to be delayed as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates higher for longer, CBRE said it now doesn't expect earnings to fully recover until 2025.
Even with these business challenges, CBRE's leadership team said it has funds earmarked to capitalize on the current environment and plans to continue to seek merger and acquisition opportunities to help it bolster its bottom line. Year-to-date, Sulentic said CBRE has committed $370 million in co-investments and development strategies he believes will bring "quite attractive returns," to the company when the market cycle changes.
CBRE is also looking to acquire land for future projects as "good land sites now become available," Sulentic told investors. The firm is focusing its efforts on land tied to industrial and multifamily development. He added any would-be deals secured at this time in a real estate cycle often "become your best profit deals."
As it searches for merger and acquisition opportunities, CBRE said dealmaking has been slowed by the current cost of capital and the gap between what sellers are seeking and what buyers are willing to pay. As it waits, CBRE repurchased 500 million of its shares in the third quarter.
"We are looking to take advantage of opportunities, but we are fully committed to maintaining our balance sheet," Giamartino said during the earnings call. "The cost of capital is rising, and our risk appetite has reduced slightly. Seller prices need to come down before we can do deals."
New Partnership
In addition to releasing financial results, CBRE said it is bolstering its capital capabilities through an agreement to partner with the investment banking team from Sera Global, a company established by Brookfield Business Partners. A CBRE spokesman said the deal between Brookfield and CBRE is not an merger or acquisition.
The Sera team is expected to enhance CBRE's existing global investment banking capabilities with offices throughout the globe, including New York, London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Madrid and Seoul. In adding Sera to the CBRE mix, Sera Global CEO Leo van den Thillart has joined CBRE as global head of investment banking.
"When we partnered with Brookfield, our goal was to create an industry-leading capital advisory practice," Van den Thillart said, in a statement. "As part of our next chapter with CBRE, we look forward to delivering on that vision through a truly integrated global investment banking team.”
Chris Ludeman, global president of capital markets for CBRE, said the agreement "will allow us to better advise our clients around the world in defining their growth strategies and accessing capital to achieve their goals."