CBRE Names M&A Pro Croft Young As New CIO
CBRE has tapped senior investment banker Croft Young as its new chief investment officer in a move set to further the brokerage firm’s mergers and acquisitions activity.
Young comes to the Dallas-based firm from Morgan Stanley, where he is a managing director in the real estate investment banking group, according to a news release. He will join CBRE in July.
“We are excited that Croft has decided to join CBRE,” President and CEO Bob Sulentic said in a statement. “He has an exceptional M&A track record in the real estate sector and couples this with strong strategic and leadership skills.”
Croft’s 14-year tenure at Morgan Stanley included $175B of strategic and capital transactions, according to the release. Mergers and acquisitions facilitated by Croft included the $4B all-cash sale of Industrial Property Trust to Prologis back in July 2019 as well as the acquisition of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International by French company Accor SA in 2016.
“It feels fantastic to be joining an industry leader recognized for its innovation and deeply committed to excellence and growth,” Young said in a statement. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues to leverage CBRE’s many strengths across its diversified global platform to create value for all our stakeholders.”
The addition of Croft comes amid a ramp-up of M&A activity in the brokerage space. KLNB in February acquired Edge Commercial Real Estate, expanding the homegrown Washington, D.C., firm’s tenant representation and multifamily service lines.
In March, SSH Real Estate acquired property management company Advantage Building & Facilities Services, a move that grew the company’s geographical reach as well as its property management offerings.
The industry is looking to M&As as a means of weeding out competition and consolidating what many consider to be a "very fragmented ecosystem," PwC Global Real Estate Deals Leader Tim Bodner told Commercial Search.
By acquiring other firms, brokerages are able to expand their scale both from a size and services perspective.
“Many of these businesses’ customers like to go to one provider,” Bodner told Commercial Search. “If you are not able to offer the full ecosystem of services it is really hard to compete, in particular in the brokerage side of these businesses, which is a transactional business with lower margins.”
CBRE is no stranger to M&A activity, having spent $2.7B on 36 acquisitions across a number of sectors, including construction technology, real estate IT and field force automation, according to Tracxn.
The firm acquired Trammell Crow Co. for more than $2B in 2006 and Full Spectrum Group for $110M in November, according to Tracxn. The addition of Young will strengthen the firm’s position as a major player in the M&A space, per the release.
