CBRE acquires Norland for £250 million CBRE Group has announced its acquisition of Norland Managed Services for £250 million. The commercial real estate services and investment firm, headquartered in Los Angeles, said the acquisition would add market-leading capability to self-perform building technical engineering services in its UK and European Global Corporate Services (GCS) business. Norland provides building technical engineering services to commercial real estate owners and occupiers in the UK and Ireland. It also boasts customers in the US and Singapore. Norland’s existing operations, which employ 4,000 people across 14 offices and serve in excess of 300 clients, will operate as CBRE | Norland once the deal has closed.
Norland Managed Services employs 4,000 people across 14 offices
Norland already serves a number of CBRE-managed accounts, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and State Street Corporation. Ian Entwistle, CEO of Norland, will lead CBRE | Norland as CEO. He said of the deal: “Our firms fit together very well, both culturally and operationally … [and] by uniting our building
BUSINESS BRIEFS technical engineering expertise with CBRE’s broad service offering and global reach, we foresee significant opportunities to expand our client base and accelerate our growth.” Norland reported revenue of £385 million for the fiscal year ended 5 April 2013, while CBRE ended the third quarter of 2013 with more than $500 million (just under £314 million) of cash on its balance sheet. CBRE is a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 firm with 37,000 employees (excluding affiliates) throughout more than 300 offices worldwide (excluding affiliates). The acquisition is expected to close before the end of 2013 and is subject to clearance from the European Commission.
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Integrated FM helps Mitie post strong growth Provision of energy consultancy and engineering maintenance services represent the “next stage” of integrated facilities management provision, according to Mitie Group. Speaking after publication of its financial report for the six months to September 2013, Mitie’s group finance director Suzanne Baxter told FM World that the company believes further development in its integrated FM offering will be led by energy services. “With most large portfolios these days, control of energy costs and security of supply are critical,” Baxter said. “Increasingly, we’re working alongside our clients to look at how their energy is purchased; whether it’s being sourced from the right www.fm-world.co.uk
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green suppliers, and whether there is sufficient diversity of supply rather than a complete reliance on the national grid.” Mitie also expects to see more clients adding the contractor’s engineering maintenance expertise into their integrated FM deals, with Baxter citing the requirements of clients such as Sky, where uptime of equipment is critical. The Mitie Group is reporting 10.1 per cent growth in the revenues of its FM division, much of it the result of its work with integrated FM clients. Across the group, revenue has risen 10.5 per cent to more than £1 billion, 5 per cent of which is the result of organic growth. Beyond expected growth of integrated FM deals in the financial
Servest acquires FSG Servest has announced the acquisition of Facilities Services Group (FSG) for an undisclosed sum, adding to its building maintenance and services division. The FM provider, which operates at more than 4,500 sites across the UK, has made a number of acquisitions over the past 18 months, including mechanical, maintenance and building services business Maxwell Stewart, 7 Day Catering and Stag Security.
Norse in turnover boost Norse Commercial Services is reporting a 13 per cent rise in annual turnover and a net profit of £2.7 million – the company’s best ever performance. The company’s forward order book is valued at almost £2 billion. Speaking at the company’s 25th anniversary annual general meeting, managing director Peter Hawes said that Norse Commercial Services’ performance compares favourably with its major national competitors, where it has what the company describes as an “industryleading” customer retention rate of 95 per cent.
Elior launches Ellipse The Mitie Group is reporting 10.1 per cent revenue growth in its FM division
sector, Baxter revealed there has been an increase in retail and manufacturing clients considering bundled and integrated FM options. “It’s where we’ve had buy-in at senior level and an opportunity to deliver an integrated model that we’ve seen the most success,” Baxter added.
Contract caterer and site services partner Elior UK has launched a new business, Ellipse, to provide dedicated reception services. The new arm of Elior offers integrated services including reception desk, switchboard, meeting room management and concierge services. Elior UK currently has £3 million worth of reception contracts. The creation of Ellipse is aimed at serving both new and existing customers. FM WORLD | 5 DECEMBER 2013 | 11
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