Colliers agreed to acquire a fellow real estate services firm as it looks to seize the opportunity to grow its business during economic uncertainty.
The global firm with headquarters in Toronto said it struck a deal to buy Triovest from owner Coril Holdings in which Triovest will rebrand as Colliers and merge its operations into Colliers. The deal is expected to close this quarter, and when it does, it will solidify Colliers' position as the largest Canadian commercial real estate services firm.
Combined the firms have more than 3,000 professionals in Canada and manage more than 95 million square feet of commercial real estate. Colliers and Triovest also oversee more than $15 billion in projects under development.
"The addition of Triovest cements our position as the largest real estate services firm in Canada while strengthening our capabilities in asset and development management," said Brian Rosen, president and chief executive of Colliers Canada, in a statement.
The pending acquisition plays into Colliers' strategy to grow, even as countries try to determine how tariffs imposed and altered several times by the United States could affect their economies. Canada itself is in a trade dispute with the United States.
Colliers particularly sees the potential to expand in capital markets and investments. Triovest is involved in investment management.
"We also see three near-term catalysts that drive even stronger growth in 2025 and beyond," Colliers Global Chairman and CEO Jay Hennick said during the firm's fourth-quarter earnings call. "In Real Estate Services, our Capital Markets business is showing cyclical recovery as interest rates and asset valuation stabilize, albeit slower than we expected. While performance hasn't yet reached the 2021 peak, our significantly larger scale now positions us extremely well to deliver even stronger results in the future as the market recovers."
Colliers has approximately 23,000 employees across the globe is a major real estate services firm in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries.
Shift toward recurring revenue
The company has shifted a big chunk of its focus to engineering and investment management and other services that provide stable revenue streams. The move has made Colliers less vulnerable to dips in the economy that typically impact the amount of fees it earns from representing clients in transactions.
"Our recurring services now account for over 70% of earnings, providing our company with balance and stability through all market cycles, as well as multiple growth opportunities to continue to deliver value for shareholders," Hennick said last month in his annual letter to shareholders.
Founded in 1995, Triovest has grown into a national platform and one of the Canada's largest private commercial real estate services firms under Coril Holding's ownership, managing 36 million square feet of property and overseeing $2.5 billion in projects under development.
Triovest provides asset management, property management, development management and advisory services for all major commercial real estate asset classes. In 2024, Triovest generated approximately 70 million in Canadian dollars in revenue.
"After many years as a privately held company, we believe now is the time to accelerate Triovest's growth by merging its operations with Canadian-based Colliers, one of the top global players in commercial real estate," Coril President and CEO Deanna Zumwalt said in a statement. "Our firm has worked with Colliers for many years as a client, and we are confident that Triovest will now have access to greater resources and global client relationships that will benefit our clients and our people."