CBRE Group, Inc. Reports Financial Results for Third-Quarter 2022

• GAAP EPS Rose 7% to $1.38
• Core EPS Declined 19% to $1.13

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE) today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022.

Consolidated Financial Results Overview

The following table presents highlights of CBRE performance (dollars in millions, except per share data; totals may not add due to rounding):

“Lower third quarter core earnings-per-share reflected a sharp deterioration in the macro environment, particularly with regard to capital availability for transactions,” said Bob Sulentic, CBRE president and chief executive officer. “Nevertheless, core earnings-per-share was well above any third quarter in our history, except for last year’s especially strong result – even in light of a seven-cent drag in this year’s quarter from foreign currency effects. This underscores the resiliency we’ve built into the business.

“In contrast with last year’s strong third quarter, the capital markets environment weakened materially after Labor Day, causing both sales and loan originations to fall sharply. Unlike sales and financing, leasing performed very well, led by office. Parts of our business that are more resilient or secularly favored, including occupier outsourcing, valuations, property management, loan servicing, investment management and project management, posted solid results for the quarter.”

Advisory Services Segment

The following table presents highlights of the Advisory Services segment performance (dollars in millions; totals may not add due to rounding):

Note: all percent changes cited are vs. third-quarter 2021, except where noted.

Property Leasing

• Leasing activity continued to rebound in most global markets with revenue rising 14% (17% local currency).
• The Americas paced the growth with leasing revenue up 19% (same in local currency).
• Significant foreign currency headwinds masked strong growth in overseas markets. Combined EMEA/APAC leasing revenue was flat in U.S. dollars but rose 13% in local currency. Growth was notably strong in Continental Europe.
• Global leasing revenue rose across all major property types, led by office.

Capital Markets

• A constrained capital environment and difficult comparisons with third-quarter 2021 caused global sales revenue to fall 11% (7% local currency).
• Investment activity remained strong in international markets. Combined EMEA/APAC sales revenue rose 3% (17% in local currency), with continued strength in Continental Europe and the United Kingdom.
• In the Americas, sales revenue fell 16% (same local currency), with a notable decline in activity in September following relatively flat performance in July and August.
• Global sales revenue declined across all major property types, except retail.
• Most debt capital sources significantly curtailed their lending as the quarter progressed. As a result, global mortgage origination revenue slumped 28% (same local currency).

Other Advisory Business Lines

• Loan servicing revenue slipped 1% (flat local currency). The servicing portfolio edged up 1% from second-quarter 2022 to approximately $350 billion.
• Property management net revenue rose 4% (10% local currency).
• Valuation revenue was flat (up 7% local currency).

Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) Segment

The following table presents highlights of the GWS segment performance (dollars in millions; totals may not add due to rounding):

Note: all percent changes cited are vs. third-quarter 2021, except where noted.

• GWS revenue rose 8% (14% local currency), excluding $325 million of Turner & Townsend (60% interest acquired on November 1, 2021) revenue.
• Net revenue increased 8% (13% local currency), excluding $284 million from Turner & Townsend.
• Project management net revenue growth was particularly strong even before the Turner & Townsend contributions, driven by office space redesigns and fit outs.
• Facilities management achieved strong net revenue growth, supported by significant expansion work for existing clients, notably in the technology sector.
• The GWS new business pipeline rose significantly from second-quarter 2022, with a diversified mix of prospects in the energy, financial and professional services, industrial and technology sectors.
• Excluding contributions from Turner & Townsend, GWS segment operating profit was up 5% in local currency but decreased 2% in U.S. dollars.

Real Estate Investments (REI) Segment

The following table presents highlights of the REI segment performance (dollars in millions):

Note: all percent changes cited are vs. third-quarter 2021, except where noted.

Real Estate Development

• Operating profit⁽⁸⁾ fell by approximately $82 million compared with an especially strong third quarter of 2021. Most of the decline was anticipated due to asset sales being predominantly weighted to this year’s first half versus weighted to last year’s second half. In addition, the timing of some expected third-quarter asset sales slipped to 2023. For the first nine months of 2022, development operating profit was up $110 million from the prior-year period.
• The in-process portfolio ended the quarter at $19.5 billion, up $0.2 billion from second quarter 2022.
• The development pipeline increased $2.0 billion from second-quarter 2022 to $13.5 billion, a record level.
• Industrial and multifamily assets continued to comprise two-thirds of the in-process portfolio.

Investment Management

• Revenue rose 9% (19% local currency) to $147 million.
• Growth was driven by higher asset management fee revenue, up 9% (19% local currency), and incentive fees, up 23% (40% local currency).
• Operating profit decreased 12% (4% local currency) to $43.6 million, due to lower co-investment gains.
• Assets Under Management (AUM) decreased by $3.0 billion from second-quarter 2022 to $143.9 billion, largely driven by adverse currency movement. In local currency, AUM increased by $2.2 billion.

Corporate and Other Segment

• Non-core operating profit increased by $177.5 million⁽⁹⁾, primarily due to an increase in fair-value adjustments on the company’s investment interest in Altus Power, Inc. (NYSE:AMPS). An increase in the share price during the quarter drove the higher valuation of our equity holdings in Altus Power. The company also converted its warrant position into common shares in the quarter after Altus Power issued a redemption notice for the warrants.

• Corporate overhead expenses decreased by roughly $26.5 million (21.5)%, driven by lower stock compensation and bonus expense to align with the company’s expected full-year operating performance.

Capital Allocation Overview

• Free Cash Flow – During the third quarter of 2022, the company’s free cash flow was $689.6 million. This reflected cash from operating activities of $753.9 million, less total capital expenditures of $64.3 million. Net capital expenditures totaled $59.4 million.⁽¹⁰⁾
• Stock Repurchase Program – The company repurchased approximately 5.1 million shares for $408.3 million ($80.14 average price per share) during the third quarter of 2022. During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, repurchases totaled approximately 16.8 million shares for nearly $1.4 billion ($84.03 average price per share). There was $2.6 billion of capacity remaining under the company’s authorized stock repurchase program as of September 30, 2022.
• Acquisitions and Investments – During the third quarter of 2022, CBRE completed three in-fill acquisitions for a total of $19.2 million in cash and deferred consideration. In addition, during the third quarter of 2022, the company made a $100 million investment in VTS, a Proptech company that helps leasing agents better serve property owners and enables property managers to create more engaging experiences for building tenants.

Leverage and Financing Overview

• Leverage – CBRE’s net leverage ratio (net debt⁽¹¹⁾ to trailing twelve-month core EBITDA) was 0.21x as of September 30, 2022, which is substantially below the company's primary debt covenant of 4.25x. The net leverage ratio is computed as follows (dollars in millions):

• Liquidity – As of September 30, 2022, the company had approximately $4.5 billion of total liquidity, consisting of approximately $1.1 billion in cash, plus the ability to borrow an aggregate of approximately $3.3 billion under its revolving credit facilities, net of any outstanding letters of credit.

Conference Call Details

The company’s third quarter earnings webcast and conference call will be held today, Thursday, October 27, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Investors are encouraged to access the webcast via this link or they can click this link beginning at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time for automated access to the conference call.

Alternatively, investors may dial into the conference call using these operator-assisted phone numbers: 877.407.8037 (U.S.) or 201.689.8037 (International). A replay of the call will be available starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 27, 2022. The replay is accessible by dialing 877.660.6853 (U.S.) or 201.612.7415 (International) and using the access code: 13733050#. A transcript of the call will be available on the company's Investor Relations website at https://ir.cbre.com.

About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2021 revenue). The company has more than 105,000 employees (excluding Turner & Townsend employees) serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com. We routinely post important information on our website, including corporate and investor presentations and financial information. We intend to use our website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Such disclosures will be included in the Investor Relations section of our website at https://ir.cbre.com. Accordingly, investors should monitor such portion of our website, in addition to following our press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and public conference calls and webcasts.

Safe Harbor and Footnotes

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the company’s future growth momentum, operations and business outlook. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company’s actual results and performance in future periods to be materially different from any future results or performance suggested in forward-looking statements in this press release. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws, the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any of them to reflect actual results, any changes in expectations or any change in events. If the company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: disruptions in general economic, political and regulatory conditions and significant public health events or the outbreak of war, particularly in geographies or industry sectors where our business may be concentrated; volatility or adverse developments in the securities, capital or credit markets, interest rate increases and conditions affecting the value of real estate assets, inside and outside the United States; poor performance of real estate investments or other conditions that negatively impact clients’ willingness to make real estate or long-term contractual commitments and the cost and availability of capital for investment in real estate; foreign currency fluctuations and changes in currency restrictions, trade sanctions and import/export and transfer pricing rules; disruptions to business, market and operational conditions related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of government rules and regulations intended to mitigate the effects of this pandemic, including, without limitation, rules and regulations that impact us as a loan originator and servicer for U.S. Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs); our ability to compete globally, or in specific geographic markets or business segments that are material to us; our ability to identify, acquire and integrate accretive businesses; costs and potential future capital requirements relating to businesses we may acquire; integration challenges arising out of companies we may acquire; increases in unemployment and general slowdowns in commercial activity; trends in pricing and risk assumption for commercial real estate services; the effect of significant changes in capitalization rates across different property types; a reduction by companies in their reliance on outsourcing for their commercial real estate needs, which would affect our revenues and operating performance; client actions to restrain project spending and reduce outsourced staffing levels; our ability to further diversify our revenue model to offset cyclical economic trends in the commercial real estate industry; our ability to attract new user and investor clients; our ability to retain major clients and renew related contracts; our ability to leverage our global services platform to maximize and sustain long-term cash flow; our ability to continue investing in our platform and client service offerings; our ability to maintain expense discipline; the emergence of disruptive business models and technologies; negative publicity or harm to our brand and reputation; the failure by third parties to comply with service level agreements or regulatory or legal requirements; the ability of our investment management business to maintain and grow assets under management and achieve desired investment returns for our investors, and any potential related litigation, liabilities or reputational harm possible if we fail to do so; our ability to manage fluctuations in net earnings and cash flow, which could result from poor performance in our investment programs, including our participation as a principal in real estate investments; the ability of our indirect subsidiary, CBRE Capital Markets, Inc., to periodically amend, or replace, on satisfactory terms, the agreements for its warehouse lines of credit; declines in lending activity of U.S. GSEs, regulatory oversight of such activity and our mortgage servicing revenue from the commercial real estate mortgage market; changes in U.S. and international law and regulatory environments (including relating to anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, trade sanctions, tariffs, currency controls and other trade control laws), particularly in Asia, Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, due to certain conflicts and the level of political instability in those regions; litigation and its financial and reputational risks to us; our exposure to liabilities in connection with real estate advisory and property management activities and our ability to procure sufficient insurance coverage on acceptable terms; our ability to retain, attract and incentivize key personnel; our ability to manage organizational challenges associated with our size; liabilities under guarantees, or for construction defects, that we incur in our development services business; variations in historically customary seasonal patterns that cause our business not to perform as expected; our leverage under our debt instruments as well as the limited restrictions therein on our ability to incur additional debt, and the potential increased borrowing costs to us from a credit-ratings downgrade; our and our employees’ ability to execute on, and adapt to, information technology strategies and trends; cybersecurity threats or other threats to our information technology networks, including the potential misappropriation of assets or sensitive information, corruption of data or operational disruption; our ability to comply with laws and regulations related to our global operations, including real estate licensure, tax, labor and employment laws and regulations, as well as data privacy and protection regulations, and the anti-corruption laws and trade sanctions of the U.S. and other countries; changes in applicable tax or accounting requirements; any inability for us to implement and maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting; the effect of implementation of new accounting rules and standards or the impairment of our goodwill and intangible assets; and the performance of our equity investments in companies that we do not control.

Additional information concerning factors that may influence the company’s financial information is discussed under “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk” and “Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, our latest quarterly report on Form 10-Q, as well as in the company’s press releases and other periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Such filings are available publicly and may be obtained on the company’s website at www.cbre.com or upon written request from CBRE’s Investor Relations Department at investorrelations@cbre.com.

The terms “net revenue,” “core adjusted net income,” “core EPS,” “business line operating profit,” “segment operating profit on revenue margin,” “segment operating profit on net revenue margin,” “core EBITDA,” “net debt” and “free cash flow,” all of which CBRE uses in this press release, are non-GAAP financial measures under SEC guidelines, and you should refer to the footnotes below as well as the “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section in this press release for a further explanation of these measures. We have also included in that section reconciliations of these measures in specific periods to their most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP for those periods.

Totals may not sum in tables in millions included in this release due to rounding.

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The following measures are considered “non-GAAP financial measures” under SEC guidelines:

These measures are not recognized measurements under United States generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). When analyzing our operating performance, investors should use these measures in addition to, and not as an alternative for, their most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of these measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Our management generally uses these non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate operating performance and for other discretionary purposes. The company believes these measures provide a more complete understanding of ongoing operations, enhance comparability of current results to prior periods and may be useful for investors to analyze our financial performance because they eliminate the impact of selected charges that may obscure trends in the underlying performance of our business. The company further uses certain of these measures, and believes that they are useful to investors, for purposes described below.

With respect to net revenue, net revenue is gross revenue less costs largely associated with subcontracted vendor work performed for clients. We believe that investors may find this measure useful to analyze the company’s overall financial performance because it excludes costs reimbursable by clients that generally have no margin, and as such provides greater visibility into the underlying performance of our business.

With respect to Core EBITDA, business line operating profit/loss, and segment operating profit on revenue and net revenue margins, the company believes that investors may find these measures useful in evaluating our operating performance compared to that of other companies in our industry because their calculations generally eliminate the accounting effects of acquisitions, which would include impairment charges of goodwill and intangibles created from acquisitions, the effects of financings and income tax and the accounting effects of capital spending. All of these measures may vary for different companies for reasons unrelated to overall operating performance. In the case of Core EBITDA, this measure is not intended to be a measure of free cash flow for our management’s discretionary use because it does not consider cash requirements such as tax and debt service payments. The Core EBITDA measure calculated herein may also differ from the amounts calculated under similarly titled definitions in our credit facilities and debt instruments, which amounts are further adjusted to reflect certain other cash and non-cash charges and are used by us to determine compliance with financial covenants therein and our ability to engage in certain activities, such as incurring additional debt. The company also uses segment operating profit and core EPS as significant components when measuring our operating performance under our employee incentive compensation programs.

With respect to free cash flow, the company believes that investors may find this measure useful to analyze the cash flow generated from operations after accounting for cash outflows to support operations and capital expenditures. With respect to net debt, the company believes that investors use this measure when calculating the company’s net leverage ratio.

With respect to core EBITDA, core EPS and core adjusted net income, the company believes that investors may find these measures useful to analyze the underlying performance of operations without the impact of strategic non-core equity investments (Altus Power, Inc. and VC investments) that are not directly related to our business segments. These can be volatile and are often non-cash in nature.

Core net income attributable to CBRE Group, Inc. stockholders, as adjusted (or core adjusted net income), and core EPS, are calculated as follows (in thousands, except share and per share data):

Core EBITDA is calculated as follows (in thousands, totals may not add due to rounding):