- The Chicago-based real estate firm raised $765 million in its IPO.
(Bloomberg)—Commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield rose as much as 7 percent in its trading debut after raising $765 million in its initial public offering.
The Chicago-based firm sold 45 million shares for $17 each after offering them for $16 to $18 apiece, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The shares were up about 4.6 percent this morning.
Cushman & Wakefield, whose owners include private equity firms TPG and PAG Asia Capital, has said it will use the proceeds to reduce debt and for general corporate purposes. It will also tap the proceeds to make deferred payments to employees who worked for Cassidy Turley, a brokerage that its predecessor agreed to buy in 2014.
Led by CEO Brett White, the firm has been expanding, including hiring Doug Harmon, the broker behind some of New York’s highest-profile commercial-property deals.
Cushman & Wakefield has changed hands several times since 1917, when it was incorporated in New York. Previous owners have included media conglomerate RCA and the Rockefeller Group.
In 2015, Cushman & Wakefield merged with DTZ, a property services company that TPG, PAG Asia and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board purchased a year earlier from UGL, an Australian construction engineering firm.
Global President John Forrester said in an interview after shares began trading that he expects some of the company's newly raised capital and cash flow to be deployed to continue its streak of acquisitions.
Forrester said he was encouraged by the investor response, calling it a testament to a company's health. "It's great for third-party investors to feel as good about the company as we always have," he said.
Last year, Cushman & Wakefield had a net loss of $221 million on revenue of $6.9 billion, according to an IPO filing. The firm said its 48,000 employees at 400 offices in 70 countries manage about 3.5 billion square feet of commercial real estate.
The shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CWK.
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