Going Further with Cushman & Wakefield

South that is!

CRE Brokers soaking up the sun in Bermuda

As is often the case with algorithmic ad delivery, the targeting is logical but its relevance often misguided. I have been following developments at Cushman & Wakefield CWK 0.00%↑ since last year. As a result, when I visit the Financial Times website, it is festooned with Cushman & Wakefield’s paradoxical ad campaign which reads “We Didn’t Come This Far, To Come This Far.”¹

Exactly how far CWK has come and how much further it will go is pertinent as they filed a proxy this week to move their parent company’s corporate domicile from the U.K. to Bermuda.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Koan-like ad campaign

As a private equity hydra created by TPG, one can assume the company’s U.K. domicile resulted from some sort of legal or tax-related expediency as TPG jammed together U.K.-based DPZ, Cassidy Turley, and the legacy C&W. As I covered last year, the goal was to create a third brokerage franchise that would compete with the dual reign of and CBRE 0.00%↑ & JLL 0.00%↑ .

Brett White, the would-be Cushman CEO (now Executive Chairman) at the time said the transaction would create a “third formidable competitor at the highest end of this industry.”

This has not happened. See the post linked below for a full accounting of CWK's current situation. As ten31’s Hiten Samtani aptly covers, CWK has spent most of the last year “balance-sheet babysitting,” and in May of last year, TPG and its partners in the CWK deal began aggressively cutting bait.

Something's Gotta Give

I theorized then and still believe CWK is an attractive target for its largest competitors. Last year, some tea leaves in the proxy set up management for change of control payouts, but I overlooked the challenge that the U.K. domicile presented for a potential deal.