Windfalls will be handed out later this year

Turner & Townsend partners are set to pick up huge windfalls once CBRE鈥檚 deal to take a majority stake in the consultant completes later this year.

T&T chairman and chief executive Vince Clancy confirmed to 好色先生TV that the 拢960m CBRE is paying for a 60% stake in the business will be split between the firm鈥檚 106 partners.

Turner & Townsend

T&T boss Vince Clancy said keeping the brand name was 鈥榚nshrined鈥 in the deal

The partners have different sized stakes in the business but the 拢960m figure works out at an average of just over 拢9m per partner.

Clancy said the deal with CBRE, which values T&T at 拢1.6bn, had been under discussion since the end of last year and added: 鈥淚鈥檝e known Bob Sulentic [CBRE鈥檚 president and chief executive] for a number of years and we started talking towards the end of last year and it accelerated to this point today.鈥

Clancy, who has been with the business since 1989, becoming chief executive in 2008, adding the title of chairman six years ago, said T&T had rebuffed several approaches from rivals and private equity firms over the years. 鈥淲e never saw anything that would propel us forward like this deal does.鈥

T&T also considered the possibility of a public listing more than a decade ago but was forced to put this back because of the financial crash in 2007/08.

鈥淪ince then, we鈥檝e moved to build more scale and we鈥檙e four times bigger than 2008,鈥 Clancy added.

T&T will unveil its next set of annual results in August with the firm set to post revenue of 拢665m in the year to April 2021 with earnings before interest and tax of 拢124m.

Clancy added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e debt free, we鈥檝e got cash in the bank. We had no need to sell. This [deal] is about driving the next stage of growth.鈥

Clancy said he will continue to work out of T&T鈥檚 office at One New Change in, near St Paul鈥檚 in London, with the firm鈥檚 new six-man board, which includes Sulentic, expected to split their meetings between CBRE鈥檚 Dallas headquarters, London and Leeds, where T&T is headquartered in the Horsforth area of the city.

Explaining the deal further, Clancy said CBRE had taken the stake in T&T for several reasons including accessing more PM and cost management work.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e interested in our infrastructure work and natural resources as well,鈥 he added.

The firm employs around 3,000 people in the UK and has 12 offices in its home market. In all, it has 7,000 staff and 112 offices.

Clancy said suggestions the move would usher in the disappearance of the T&T name were wide of the mark. 鈥淭he brand is staying. It鈥檚 enshrined in the deal.鈥

In its last set of accounts, CBRE reported income of $23.8bn (拢17.2bn) and profit of $752m (拢542m) in the year to December 2020.