Cushman & Wakefield, a leading global real estate services firm, has entered into an exclusive affiliate arrangement across sub-Saharan Africa with Excellerate Property Services, the holding company behind leading brands including property and facilities manager JHI, to offer a comprehensive range of real estate services across the region.
The new venture, which will be branded Cushman & Wakefield Excellerate, provides an integrated platform serving the sub-Saharan African continent from an established network of 32 offices in 11 sub-Saharan countries. These include 22 offices across South Africa, the largest African commercial property market, as well as strategically important locations including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.
Excellerate Property Services has over 13,000 employees, more than $450m in transaction volume, $142m revenues, 90m sq ft of assets under management, 30m sq ft of facilities under management and operates under brands including JHI and Excellerate Facility Management.
Staff from former DTZ affiliate, DTZ Leadenhall, have also joined Cushman & Wakefield Excellerate. The legacy Cushman & Wakefield alliance partner, ProAfrica, will follow its own initiatives outside of the new Cushman & Wakefield affiliate platform.
John Forrester, Chief Executive EMEA, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “This is a game-changing development for us in Africa that extends our delivery of all service lines across the sub-Saharan continent, via a single provider. First and foremost as a firm we are responsive to our clients’ needs and this partnership provides them with a first class, transparent, in-country platform across the region. We will continue strengthening our capabilities across EMEA to ensure we have the best people and platform to deliver outstanding results for our clients.”
Marna van de Walt, CEO of Excellerate Property Services, said: “We are very excited about the potential of Cushman & Wakefield Excellerate which provides our existing clients with integrated access to a global platform. We will remain fully focused on our strengths which are an energetic and entrepreneurial approach and providing clients with value adding advice that comes from a deep understanding of local markets across Africa.”
Nomzamo Radebe, CEO of JHI Properties, reiterated these sentiments by saying “We are excited about widening our global network through this affiliation with Cushman & Wakefield and the opportunities it provides for our service delivery lines across Africa.”
Jonathan Turner, Senior Director and Cushman & Wakefield relationship manager for Africa, said: “Many multinational corporates we work with are already active in Africa or looking to enter a growing market with major opportunities in the telecoms, banking, technology, energy and consumer goods sectors in particular”.
“Our global strength, combined with Excellerate Property Services’ in-region expertise, trusted brand and client base creates a market-leading sub-Saharan Africa platform, providing clients with the scale, flexibility and strong corporate governance expected by global corporations. Cushman & Wakefield Excellerate also lays the foundation for further growth in Africa by increasing Cushman & Wakefield’s capability to service both international and intraregional requirements, for occupiers and investors alike”.
“We thank ProAfrica for their years of support and service on behalf of clients and we are working with them in managing the associated run-off of their activity on our behalf.”
In addition to Cushman & Wakefield’s 5,000 people in 40 countries in EMEA, the firm’s strong relationships across the region with affiliates extends delivery into markets where Cushman & Wakefield does not currently have a wholly owned presence. EMEA clients include nine of the top 20 Forbes global brands and 82% of the top 50 cross-border investors.
