Agnelli family puts Cushman & Wakefield up for sale

Exor SpA, the investment arm of Italy's Agnelli family, is putting 98-year-old real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield up for sale,

the

Wall Street Journal

reported.

Cushman is the world's third-largest property-services firm, the article noted. The Agnelli family controls Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.

The Agnelli family acquired a 67.5% stake in Cushman in late 2006 for $565.4 million and has since raised its holding to 81%. Cushman employees hold the other 19% of the company, the


Journal


article said. According to the report, the company could be sold for as much as $2 billion.

The


Journal


report noted that the Agnellis took control of Cushman just before the real estate market crashed. In 2009, Cushman posted a loss of $127 million, and high-performing brokers left the company. Glenn Rufrano, a turnaround specialist, was named CEO in 2010, but he clashed with Exor's chief operating officer, Shahriar Tadjbakhsh. Rufrano left in 2013, before the end of his contract, “following a dispute over his desire to reinvest Cushman's profits rather than pay them to Exor,” the article said.

Today, commercial real estate is fetching record prices, and a sale at the estimated price “would be a vindication for the Agnelli family,” the


Journal


article said.

The Agnellis' involvement with Cushman began in the mid-1980s, when Fiat acquired a minority stake in Rockefeller Group Inc., which owned Cushman, the article said. Rockefeller Group was later purchased by Mitsubishi Estate Co.

Exor would prefer to sell to a privately owned company and is not interested in selling to a direct competitor or taking Cushman public, the


Journal


report said.

A


Financial Times




report

said, “A sale of Cushman & Wakefield will raise expectations the Agnelli family may be building a war chest for acquisitions, especially in the context of comments by Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne that the auto industry is in need of more consolidation. Exor raised €2 billion in 2013 by selling its 15 per cent stake in SGS, the Swiss product-inspection provider, and a sale of Cushman would further add to its cash pile.” (Sources:


Wall Street Journal


, Feb. 25, 2015;


Financial Times


, Feb. 26, 2015.)