Kuala Lumpur, May 18 – WTW today announced that CBRE Group, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire a significant interest in its operating companies in Peninsular Malaysia, C H Williams Talhar & Wong Sdn Bhd, WTW Real Estate Sdn Bhd and WTW Property Services Sdn Bhd. The business will rebrand as CBRE | WTW and be led by Mr Foo Gee Jen and Mr Danny SK Yeo, current leaders of WTW and highly respected real estate professionals in Malaysia.
The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2016. WTW’s Non-Executive Chairman, Mohd Talhar Abdul Rahman, said “WTW’s long-standing success the over last 55 years is a testament to the trust and support of our clients and to the dedication and commitment of our people in serving and fulfilling that trust.
We are confident that CBRE is the right strategic partner whose scale and reach globally can help our clients expand their activities beyond our shores more fruitfully, and can help bring greater meaningful inbound investment into the Malaysian real estate market.”
Malaysia – like the rest of South East Asia – is well positioned to benefit from the well-directed increase in economic and investment activities that can be expected from the liberalisation of capital inflows into the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). This expectation is based on the region’s prospects for long-range growth potential and correspondingly, its higher investment appeal.
The Malaysian Economic Transformation Programme (METP), which is expected to generate US$400 billion in investments by 2020 catalyses that growth for Malaysia. Steve Swerdlow, CEO CBRE Asia Pacific, said “CBRE | WTW, alongside our existing occupier outsourcing business in Malaysia, will provide a deep, broad platform that provides clients with access to a comprehensive suite of market-leading real estate services.
CBRE | WTW creates powerful advantages for clients of both firms, combining WTW’s valuation, agency and capital markets expertise with CBRE’s full-service offering.” CBRE’s occupier outsourcing business – called Global Workplace Solutions – serves a blue-chip list of occupiers across a wide range of industries, particularly financial services, healthcare, industrial/manufacturing, life sciences, technology and telecommunications. CBRE manages a market-leading 5.2 billion square feet of commercial property and corporate facilities across the globe.