The world’s largest commercial real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis has reported strong earnings and revenue growth in the third quarter, with net income up 361 percent to US$57.0 million from US$12.4 million over the same period last year.
Net income, excluding selected charges, totalled US$62.4 million on-year compared with US$21.6 million in Q3 last year. Revenue for the third quarter also rose 24 percent to US$1.3 billion from US$1.0 billion in Q3 2009, representing the strongest year-over-year quarterly revenue growth since Q4 2007.
“Our global platform, service line depth, industry-leading brand and financial stability are driving our strong performance in this improved market environment,” said Brett White, chief executive of CBRE. “This is evident in our third quarter financial results, where we demonstrated solid revenue growth across all our business segments as well as strong operating leverage. Business momentum remains positive heading into year-end, notwithstanding sluggish global economic activity.”
Property sales revenue in Q3 jumped 63 percent globally, reflecting a slow return of liquidity to the investment market, which has helped drive demand for commercial real estate, as well as CBRE’s improving market share in key markets globally. Global leasing revenue also rose 27 percent in Q3, while property and facilities management climbed 7 percent, with notable growth in the Asia Pacific and EMEA.
In the Asia Pacific region, which includes Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Q3 revenue jumped 27 percent to US$167.4 million from US$131.6 million a year ago, while operating income surged 28 percent to US$13.6 million from US$10.6 million. These were attributed to better revenue performance in several countries, particularly Singapore, Japan, India and Australia.
“The Asia Pacific region of CB Richard Ellis was the strongest performing region of the company’s three geographic regions in revenue terms, during Q3 2010 versus Q3, 2009,” said Chris Brooke, president and CEO of CBRE Asia.
In the nine months ended 30 September 2010, revenue across Asia was 30 percent higher compared to the same period last year. “This revenue growth was underpinned by an increased number of investment transactions, strong demand for office leasing services and continued high levels of residential sales activity, particularly in China and Singapore, and further adoption of commercial real estate outsourcing,” added Mr. Brooke.
The residential project marketing business in Singapore and mainland China continued to see improvement in the Q3 as well, with CBRE securing a number of significant appointments, including The Bay, a 538,000 sq ft luxury residential project in Shanghai’s financial district, the Season’s Park, a 1.8 million sq ft residential development being undertaken by Keppel Land and the first phase of the Sino-Singaporean Eco-City project in Tianjin.
In Singapore, CBRE also marked major transactions in the third quarter, such as the sale of DBS Towers 1 and 2 to Overseas Union Enterprise for US$662 million, the sale of Chevron House to Germany’s Deka Immobilien for approximately US$416 million and the transaction of Fortis Tower for around US$71.7 million.