Colliers Reaps Rewards Of M&A, Plans More Deals
Mergers and acquisitions helped propel Colliers International to a strong second quarter, and the Canada-based brokerage intends to execute more of these deals as the year goes on.
Colliers has been busy buying up smaller firms, particularly in the engineering sector, which contributed $436M in revenue to the company’s bottom line in Q2, an increase of 67% over the same period in 2024.
“Our long-term strategy to build a diversified professional services and investment management business with high-quality recurring revenue streams is clearly paying off,” CEO Jay Hennick said on an earnings call Thursday.
The company completed four tuck-in acquisitions of engineering companies and two involving real estate services companies since the beginning of the quarter, and it plans “several” more acquisitions in 2025, Hennick said.
In the second quarter, Colliers reported adding Canadian engineering platform Higher Ground Consulting and engineering and architectural consulting firm Terra Consulting Group. Colliers didn't disclose the terms of either deal.
The former focuses on a broad array of engineering consulting services, while the latter focuses especially on technology, specifically wireless and infrastructure design.
Colliers highlighted its enhanced engineering business for outperforming internal expectations. As the year goes on, gains from the acquisitions will taper off, but margins are still expected to tick up as operations of those outfits improve in terms of efficiency and productivity, Chief Financial Officer Christian Mayer said.
Company executives raised Colliers’ 2025 outlook but didn't offer specific percentages. Materials distributed by Colliers indicate swapping previous projections of growth in the high-single-digits to low-teens percentage range for a confident forecast of revenue growth in the low teens.
The outlook increase can be attributed to a combination of two main factors: a boost expected from completed acquisitions and “partial year effect of completed acquisitions” and “increased expectations for organic growth in our core operations,” Mayer said.
In Q2, new investments increased 64% year-over-year. Colliers raised $1B in new capital commitments and raised an additional $500M after the end of the second quarter, pushing the year-to-date total to $2.7B. With funds currently in the market or slated to launch in the remainder of the year, Colliers is on track to hit its $5B to $8B fundraising target.
The available capital “positions us very well to continue to seize opportunity,” Hennick said.
The firm’s overall Q2 revenues reached $1.35B, up approximately 18% from 2024, and its $1.72 earnings per share beat analyst expectations.
“While we continue to monitor the effects of global trade tensions and interest rate volatility, particularly on our real estate services segment, we remain optimistic,” Mayer told analysts and investors.
Internal revenue growth at Colliers was 4% in Q2, Mayer said.
Capital markets revenues were up 16%, led by the U.S. and Western Europe. This was an improvement on 10% growth in the first three months of the year and ahead of Colliers’ expectations, Mayer said.
A generally slow pace of leasing related to economic uncertainty and the shifts occurring in major asset classes such as office did eat into leasing, however.
Leasing across all sectors declined 5%, but it was industrial leasing figures that pulled the overall leasing numbers down. Colliers attributed the sector’s weakness to tariffs and macroeconomic concerns. Industrial leasing makes up about 40% to 45% of Colliers’ leasing business.
The Canadian company’s stock was trading up by nearly 2% at market close on Thursday following its quarterly earnings call.
