Savills is aiming to take on competitors like CBRE and JLL with its $1 billion deal to buy Eastdil Secured.
The combination of the two companies “creates a global real estate powerhouse, well positioned as a leading provider of capital markets solutions with a complete service offering,” Savills explained in a 20-page memo announcing the deal Thursday.
“This acquisition is a significant step forward for both of us, bringing to the global investment community a much-needed choice of leading advisory partner to deliver a comprehensive suite of investment banking, strategic, financial, development, leasing and other ‘boots on the ground’ property solutions,” Savills CEO Simon Shaw said.
Savills said the acquisition will make it a major player in big-ticket real estate deals and help drive its North America expansion.
“The transaction positions the enlarged group as the number two global adviser on transactions over $100 million, enabling both transactional share gain and creating a significant ‘halo effect’ on the group’s ancillary leasing, consultancy and property management service lines,” the company said.
(That ranking appears to be based on Eastdil’s deal count from 2011-2025, which fell off after its start team of Doug Harmon and Adam Spies left in 2016.)
The U.K.-based Savills agreed to buy Eastdil for $921.25 million and take on its debt of $191.25 million, valuing the company at $1.1 billion. The valuation represents a multiple of 9.9x on Eastdil’s 2025 earnings of $113 million on $633 million in revenues, an 18 percent profit margin.
Savills said transaction revenue will make up 48 percent of its 2025 revenue following the combination of the two brokerages, compared to 38 percent before.
The deal primes Savills to elbow in on some of its biggest competitors in the space.
With a market capitalization of $1.8 billion, Savills trails behind CBRE ($39 billion), JLL ($13.6 billion), Cushman & Wakefield ($2.8 billion) and Newmark ($2.6 billion) in terms of size.
Savills was founded in 1855. Nearly 60 percent of its $3.4 billion 2025 revenue came from Europe and the Middle East; North America accounted for about 13 percent. The company expanded into the U.S. with its 2014 purchase of Studley. It bought the project management firm Macro Consultants in 2020 and the life sciences brokerage T3 Advisors in 2021.
The company expects Eastdil’s high-margin sales business to help drive earnings.
“Eastdil Secured is scaled for significant growth,” Savills said.
The Eastdil way
Eastdil was founded in 1967 by Ben Lambert, who died in 2021. The company was acquired by Wells Fargo in 1999. Roy March led a buyout of the company in 2019, financed by the Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings and Guggenheim Investments.
Eastdil will keep its name under the Savills umbrella. But there are sure to be changes for the real estate investment banking firm that built its identity through its idiosyncratic culture.
For one, Eastdil’s leadership team and senior employees will own shares in Savills, which will be locked up for six years.
A total of 85 employees own 39 percent of Eastdil’s equity. They’ll now own 6.3 percent of Savills. Eastdil investor Guggenheim Investments will see its 39 percent share in the company converted to 5 percent of Savills; Temasek will go from 25 percent to 4 percent; Wells Fargo from 3 percent to .5 percent.
Eastdil has long been unique in the brokerage industry in that its producers pool their profits and then divvy them up amongst themselves, rather than working on straight commissions.
Savills said Eastdil will retain that structure, but now a portion of bonuses “over a certain threshold” will be paid through a mix of cash and Savills shares.
The company’s stock fell about 5 percent at the start of trading Thursday over concerns of tension in the Middle East.
Eastdil’s Roy March said Savills greater resources will help the company grow.
“This transaction marks the beginning of a new chapter for Eastdil Secured, which will accelerate our growth, create opportunities for our team and significantly enhance our ability to provide best-in-class real estate investment banking services for our valued clients globally,” he said.
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