Savills is pleased to announce the acquisition of a substantial shareholding in the well established real estate business, currently trading as CBRE in Malaysia.
Savills is pleased to announce the acquisition of a substantial shareholding in the well established real estate business, currently trading as CBRE in Malaysia.
The transaction will see Savills team up with seasoned real estate professionals; Christopher Boyd, Allan Soo and Paul Khong who own the entire business, with close to 300 staff, having offices in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor. As one of the most established real estate service providers in Malaysia, the already strong team offers a full range of real estate services to local and international clients and from 1st March 2015 the operating businesses will change names from CBRE and trade under the Savills brand.
Commenting on the new partnership, Christopher Boyd, executive chairman of the rebranded Savills Malaysia Business said; “We are delighted to be joining forces with Savills. We felt the time was right for us to leverage our own market knowledge with Savills know-how and client base and we felt this could best be done through a sale of a significant stake in the business. We chose Savills as our partner as they have a very good cultural fit with our own team and an excellent Asia Pacific and global platform within which we could work.”
Chris Marriott, chief executive officer for Savills in South East Asia said, “We are very excited to be forming this new partnership in Malaysia, soon after our expansion into Indonesia, as this extends our already strong offering in the ASEAN region. Chris, Allan and Paul, who share a similar approach and principles to doing business, have built a very strong practice in Malaysia and I am delighted that Savills can now offer our services through their high quality, professional team.” In addition, Marriott added, “With the upcoming establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, I see cross border trade and investment growing in this region, with Savills being a major player in the continuing growth of the region’s real estate service industry.”
Robert McKellar, chief executive officer of Savills Asia Pacific commented, “I am delighted that we have a strong platform in Malaysia which continues to represent a key market for our client requirements. The management team is extremely experienced and capable of delivering the highest quality service to our global client network.”
The Malaysian business is a full service agency and advisory business with skills in investment and capital markets, corporate real estate, retail consultancy, property and project management in addition to a strong consultancy and valuation business. The merger will look to take advantage of Savills global strengths and leverage off its recent acquisition of Studley tenant advisory business in North America.
The Group’s businesses will be known as Savills (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Savills (KL) Sdn Bhd., Savills (Penang) Sdn Bhd., Savills (Johor) Sdn Bhd., and Savills (Project Management) Sdn Bhd.
The merger sees the discontinuation of the Business’ association with CBRE/CB Richard Ellis, although the Malaysia operations will continue to service long-standing joint appointments by agreement.