Colliers International Group Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 31, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Strong second quarter results with revenues up 17% to $1.3 B and raising full-year outlook despite macro uncertainties.
  • Positive Sentiment: Engineering division net revenues jumped 70% year-over-year with 8% organic growth and a backlog exceeding 12 months of revenue.
  • Positive Sentiment: Closed the acquisition of Round Shield Partners, adding $5.4 B AUM and lifting total AUM to over $108 B pro forma.
  • Negative Sentiment: Leasing revenues fell 5% globally, weighed down by industrial leasing weakness in tariff-impacted markets.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Investment Management AUM rose 7% to $103.3 B with net margin up 42%, but fundraising remains below historical levels at $2.7 B year-to-date.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Colliers International Group Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Welcome to the Coherus International Second Quarter Investors Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. Legal counsel requires us to advise that the discussion scheduled to take place today may contain forward looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results may be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements contemplated in the forward looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward looking statements is contained in the company's annual information Form S filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and in the company's annual report on Form 40 F as filed with the U.

Operator

S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Today is first day, 07/31/2025. And at this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jay Hennick. Please go ahead, sir.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thanks for joining our second quarter conference call. As the operator mentioned, I'm Jay Hennick, Chairman and CEO of Colliers, and with me today is Christian Mayer, our CFO. This call is webcast and available in the Investor Relations section of our website along with the presentation slide deck. As you saw, we exceeded expectations with our strong second quarter results, highlighting the exceptional performance of our engineering division.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Our long term strategy to build a diversified professional services and investment management business with high quality recurring revenue streams is clearly paying off. All three divisions, real estate services, engineering and investment management, demonstrated strong momentum driven by organic growth, new revenue pipelines and acquisitions. We anticipate this positive trend to continue throughout the year, prompting us to raise our outlook despite macroeconomic uncertainties, as you'll hear from Christian in just a few minutes. Last week, we rebranded our investment management division into Harrison Street Asset Management, reflecting the strength and global recognition of the Harrison Street brand. We also expanded our leadership team, appointing Co Founder Chris Merrill as Global CEO and Zach Michaud and Steve Gordon as Managing Partners and Global CFO and COO, respectively.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Chris and the team remain significant shareholders consistent with our long standing partnership philosophy. As part of this initiative, we launched a dedicated private wealth channel by rebranding and expanding our Versus Capital subsidiary. The newly branded Harrison Street Private Wealth will continue to deliver highly differentiated alternative investment strategies to wealth managers, financial advisers and high net worth individuals. This rebranding significantly expands our Harrison Street's broad array of global investment products and capabilities. This week, we also completed the acquisition of Round Shield Partners, a premier European credit platform with $5,400,000,000 in AUM.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

This acquisition enhances our credit, student housing and hospitality capabilities. In addition, Round Shield's vertically integrated student housing platform offers an exciting opportunity to scale our combined operations across the region. Overall, AUM increased to $103,000,000,000 during the quarter and over $108,000,000,000 pro form a for the acquisition of Round Shield. Fundraising has improved over the past few quarters, and we expect this to continue, although still below historical levels. Operationally, we continue to deliver attractive risk adjusted returns for investors throughout our various investment strategies, including real assets, infrastructure and credit.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

This quarter, new investments increased 64% year over year, and currently, we have about $8,000,000,000 of capital to put to work, which positions us very well to continue to seize opportunity and deliver value to our investors. Realizations were also up 150% over the prior year, yielding substantial returns for our investors while providing necessary liquidity for reinvestment. Besides RoundShield, we also completed four tuck under acquisitions in engineering and two in real estate services since the beginning of the quarter. Our M and A pipeline remains robust, and we are confident in completing several additional tucks throughout the balance of the year. With our thirty year track record of value creation, visionary leadership and three high value growth engines, Colliers is well positioned to continue to seize opportunities and deliver enduring value for our shareholders.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Now I'll turn things over to Christian for his financial report, then we'll open the call to your questions. Christian?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Thank you, Jay, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, all non GAAP measures referenced today are defined in the materials accompanying this call. Revenue growth figures are presented in local currency terms. We delivered strong results in the second quarter with revenues of $1,300,000,000 up 17% year over year. Growth was led by our engineering segment supported by recent acquisitions as well as solid internal performance.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Overall, internal revenue growth came in at 4%. Adjusted EBITDA was CAD180 million for the quarter, a 15% increase from last year. In our Real Estate Services segment, revenue grew 4%. Recurring outsourcing revenues rose 6% with growth across property management, valuation and loan servicing. Capital markets revenues were up 16%, improving on the 10% growth reported in Q1 and ahead of our expectations.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Sales brokerage was strongest in The U. S. And Western Europe. Debt finance activity also surged led by significantly higher U. S.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Multifamily originations. Leasing revenues declined 5% globally coming in below expectations. While office leasing was strong, it was offset by weaker industrial volumes due to tariff related and other macroeconomic uncertainty. Segment net margin was down slightly to 11.9%, impacted by revenue mix and continued investments in recruiting. Our engineering net revenue jumped 70%, fueled by acquisitions and internal growth of 8%.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

The net margin rose to 13.7%, a substantial increase from last year with improvements coming from both acquisitions and enhanced productivity in our core operations. We continue to monitor any potential impacts from tariffs or government policy, but we've seen no significant effect on our backlogs to date. In Investment Management, net revenues declined 7% as expected due to catch up fees recognized in the prior year. However, the net margin improved 42% from 40% driven by disciplined cost control and lower incentive compensation. We have been very active on fundraising.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

During Q2, we raised £1,000,000,000 in new capital commitments. We also raised an additional $500,000,000 since quarter end, bringing total year to date fundraising to $2,700,000,000 The launch of Harrison Street Fund ten in May was the primary driver for fundraising during the quarter. With this fund and others currently in market or launching later this year, we remain well on track to achieve our 5,000,000,000 to 8,000,000,000 full year fundraising target. Assets under management stood at $103,300,000,000 at June 30, up 3% from March 31 and up 7% from a year ago, supported by new capital raised, deployment activity and favourable mark to market adjustments. Free cash flow remains strong.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

On a trailing twelve month basis, we converted 98% of adjusted net earnings into free cash flow, in line with our long term target. As we've noted before, our working capital light business model and modest CapEx result in strong free cash flows available for reinvestment and growth. Turning to our balance sheet. Our leverage ratio was 2.3x as of June 30. Second quarter leverage was slightly higher than anticipated, firstly, due to our increased pace of acquisitions and secondly, due to the recent depreciation of the U.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

S. Dollar, which increased the reported value of our foreign denominated debt. With the completion of the Asterisk and Round Shield acquisitions in July, we now expect our leverage to decline to just under 2x by year end. This assumes no additional major acquisitions. We have raised our full year consolidated outlook to reflect our strong year to date performance and the impact of recent acquisitions, including Round Shield.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Round Shield contributes approximately £35,000,000 in annual management fee revenue at margins consistent with our existing investment management division. While we continue to monitor the effects of global trade tensions and interest rate volatility, particularly on our Real Estate Services segment, we remain optimistic. Our outlook is supported by healthy pipelines across all three of our segments and the expectation of a modest improvement in market conditions through the second half of the year. That concludes my remarks. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Your first question is from the line of Anthony Paolone from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Anthony Paolone
Anthony Paolone
Executive Director at J.P. Morgan

Thank you and good morning. First question relates to leasing. I understand the industrial weakness that occurred in the quarter. Just wondering, did you find that to be a surprise? Like did the market change more dramatically than maybe you thought?

Anthony Paolone
Anthony Paolone
Executive Director at J.P. Morgan

And then also just what's it look like today? Has there been much of a rebound as you start to look at the second half of the year?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Tony, we'd expected leasing softness for the second quarter. I think we telegraphed that in our first quarter commentary. We compete in many markets. We have a very diversified business in 35 countries and strong positions in places like Canada, Australia and Western Europe that are heavily tariff impacted, and that was something we thought would weigh on our results, it did. Although I am I can report that July has been more positive in terms of trajectory on that, and that includes industrial leasing activity being trending more positively today.

Anthony Paolone
Anthony Paolone
Executive Director at J.P. Morgan

What's industrial as a percentage of your leasing revenue at this point?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

40%, 45.

Anthony Paolone
Anthony Paolone
Executive Director at J.P. Morgan

Okay. All right. And then just my second question. In Investment Management, can you talk a bit more about the branding that you announced? How much centralization perhaps might occur?

Anthony Paolone
Anthony Paolone
Executive Director at J.P. Morgan

Or just any other economic implications of just the reorganization of Investment Management?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Yes. So we're very excited about it for a number of reasons. When we and for those that have been long term shareholders, we curated this division one step at a time since 2016, and every one of the moves that we made were all complementary. So for example, the rebranding and integration of Versus, is a very well managed business, its focus was entirely on on the private wealth channel. And so how do we you know, internally, we were we were focused on how do we accelerate the growth and the and utilize the expertise of the Versus team across the entire platform.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

And so in addition to rebranding Harrison Street, it was a natural step as part of that initiative to add Verzuz. And and and and I would say going forward, we're looking for similar opportunities to leverage some of the expertise that we have throughout the platform, And I think you'll see more of it over the next couple of quarters.

Anthony Paolone
Anthony Paolone
Executive Director at J.P. Morgan

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Stephen Sheldon from William Blair. Please go ahead.

Stephen Sheldon
Research Analyst - Technology, Media & Communications at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

Hey, thanks. Nice results here. First one, on the guidance raise for the year. Can you help frame how much of that is driven by M and A completed since the last earnings call versus higher organic revenue and profit expectations? And specifically, are I guess, your underlying organic assumptions for the year also moving higher?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Stephen, that's a good question. We expect that out of our outlook increase, that half will come from the partial year effect of completed acquisitions and half will come from increasing expectations for organic growth in our core operations. In particular, we're seeing revenue acceleration in real estate services in the back half of the year. We've increased that slightly relative to our prior expectations. And engineering, as you can see, has been outperforming expectations in the first and second quarter with very strong organic growth, both top line as well as margin enhancement.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

So I mean those are the key drivers for the organic piece. And between the combination of the acquisitions and the organic growth improvement, that is the basis of the increase in outlook.

Stephen Sheldon
Research Analyst - Technology, Media & Communications at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

Great. That's helpful. And then as a follow-up, I also wanted to ask about the I'm branding consolidation under Harrison Street. Jay, you've been pretty vocal, I think, about investors undervaluing the I'm segment and the team considering a potential spin off. Does the rebranding set the stage even more for that?

Stephen Sheldon
Research Analyst - Technology, Media & Communications at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

And, generally, how serious are you about pursuing that if Colliers doesn't get the sum of the parts valuation you think it deserves?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

You know, we're we always look at, you know, our overall valuation, and we believe that the overall valuation, especially given the component parts of Colliers, is materially below where it should be. The steps we're taking in the I'm segment are probably steps we would have taken anyway. And, you know, for those that follow us for have followed us, you'll you'll know that that the the the the the our reluctance so far to accelerate doing anything, and and and we haven't made any final decisions about this, has been really around fundraising. The fundraising for the past couple of years has been softer than we've expected, but it's picking up now. So now is an appropriate time to make the changes necessary to augment our leadership team.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

All of our platforms have been working beautifully together. There's lots of collaboration going on, mostly around new investment products, new markets that we can take our existing expertise to things like infrastructure, data centers and now credit in a much bigger way are all exciting opportunities for for this platform, and it's and and it's brought a collaboration beyond, I think, what we would have anticipated. So we're very excited about it. The teams are incredible. They own direct equity in the in the business, which has always been consistent with our our philosophy of partnership.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

So we've got high hopes for that division. And what will be, will be.

Stephen Sheldon
Research Analyst - Technology, Media & Communications at William Blair & Company, L.L.C

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Stephen MacLeer from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
MD & Equity Research - Special Situations at BMO Capital Markets

Thank you. Good morning, guys. Wanted to circle around on the engineering business, which obviously had a strong Q2 and as you pointed out, a strong as we saw as well, strong Q1. You did reference the backlog. So I was just wondering if you could sort of characterize either quantitatively or qualitatively sort of what the backlog looks like for the balance of the year and then into 2026 and I guess even longer term, if you can get some color on that too.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Steve, we always strive to maintain a backlog in excess of twelve months of revenue. And that continues to be the case today despite and not despite, but regardless of the fact we've increased revenue significantly. So that backlog needs to grow significantly as the revenue on the trailing 12 basis grows in the business and we are able to do that. We are having success with gaining wins on contracts for new infrastructure projects, larger scale type projects as well in the private sector. So we feel very confident about our pipeline of revenue in that business and it's tracking right where we expect it to be in terms of our planning.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

We also strive to maintain a mix of private sector and public sector clientele in the segment, so we look at that carefully. And that balance gives our revenues additional resilience through all cycles of the economy, and that's something we strive to do as well.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
MD & Equity Research - Special Situations at BMO Capital Markets

Okay. That's helpful color, Kristian. Thank you. And then maybe just on the Harrison Street asset management. With the balance of fundraising kind of year to date being in the high $2,700,000,000 range and the long term the yearly target of 5,000,000,000 to $8,000,000,000 can you talk a little bit about where that back half growth is expected to come from?

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
MD & Equity Research - Special Situations at BMO Capital Markets

Is it in addition to Harrison Street ten? And are there maybe just some color around that as well.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Yes, Steve, as I noted, Harrison Street Fund ten launched very successfully in May, so just a few months ago. We have another significant closed end fund launching in the fourth quarter, the Basalt latest fund, it'll be their Fund V. We expect that will have a significant impact on our AUM growth for the full year in terms of fundraising. We also have a number of other products in the market, open ended products and others that are fundraising and that will be additive for the rest of the year.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We have a total of about 20 products in the market at various sizes right now, and that includes the RoundShield products that also offer. There's some overlap, obviously, with student housing and some hospitality, but 20 products in total. So we're optimistic that fundraising will finish the year nicely on fundraising, which sets us up beautifully for 'twenty six and beyond. So we're looking forward to that.

Stephen MacLeod
Stephen MacLeod
MD & Equity Research - Special Situations at BMO Capital Markets

That's great to hear. Thanks for that color, Jay. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Thanks.

Operator

The next question is from the line of Mitch Germain from Citizens Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Mitch Germain
MD - Real Estate Research at Citizens Capital Markets and Advisory

Thank you and congrats on the quarter. Is the goal to centralize the functions of the investment management platform like fundraising and other capabilities?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

It's to make them better. So I don't think that centralizing them necessarily is the ultimate goal, but it's to better enhance the distribution capabilities of all the segments of the platform.

Mitch Germain
MD - Real Estate Research at Citizens Capital Markets and Advisory

Okay.

Mitch Germain
MD - Real Estate Research at Citizens Capital Markets and Advisory

That's helpful. And then, Jay, do you think the is the 5,000,000 to $8,000,000 of fundraising, is that what you would consider to be a target in the current environment or kind of a longer term target based on the composition of that platform today?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

In the current environment. We think we can do much better. Historically, we've done much better than that, and we're much bigger today than we were before. You're seeing the data from all other firms in the space that are reporting. They're all having challenges around fundraising unless, of course, they have an insurance arm, which helps them quite a bit.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We don't have that. But everybody's having fundraising challenges. They were more challenging last year than they are this year. We think that we're doing a much better job both internally and externally. And it all comes down to the success of our products and the returns that we've been delivering to our investors.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

So our investor base keeps getting stronger. And as I said to one of the earlier questions, we're quite excited about 'twenty six and beyond and what it could mean.

Mitch Germain
MD - Real Estate Research at Citizens Capital Markets and Advisory

Thank you for that. Appreciate your time.

Operator

Next question is from the line of Daryl Young from Stifel. Please go ahead.

Daryl Young
Daryl Young
MD - Diversified Industrials, Industrials, Real Estate, Healthcare at Stifel Financial

Hey, good morning everyone. A question on the investment and management specifically you're gearing towards Europe, know, Harrison Street, Basalt, and now Round Shield all have good representation there. Is that a geography you're specifically targeting, or is potentially the timing of what acquisitions are available when? Just any color you can give on sort of the the European exposure.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Well, let's also not forget Colliers Global Investors, which has been in Europe for, you know, probably ten years now and have a a significant portfolio in hospitality, multifamily, etcetera. We see Europe as some white space for us. The beauty of Brown Shield is there with our in Europe. And it was, you know, it was all credit based. So, you know, we can help with our our our student housing business.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We can help with some seniors business by providing credit. And Round Shield also has, you know, and I wanna emphasize this, a vertically integrated business, which is new to is new to us and especially new in Europe where there isn't as much experience in managing student housing facilities. So we see a lot of opportunity collaborate with our existing products there. So all of all of this to say, it's just further increasing the size, scope, depth of management, and probably most important most importantly, investment strategies. In Europe, we have a significant business there, and it's growing.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

And so that really supports our business in North America as well.

Daryl Young
Daryl Young
MD - Diversified Industrials, Industrials, Real Estate, Healthcare at Stifel Financial

Okay. Great. And then just as a second question on I'm do you have the capabilities you're looking for now? I think historically, you've said you'd avoid traditional private equity as a vertical, but, just curious if there's any other, capabilities you'd like to add to continue scaling up the platform.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We're there are some additional capabilities we'd like that. We'd like to continue to to expand in a couple of areas, credit, in particular infrastructure, mid market infrastructure, where we have a very, very strong presence both in Europe and North America. Private equity is not something that we've targeted, not to say that we wouldn't, but it's not sort of a near term opportunity that we're pursuing. So, you know, we're we're we're always looking for white space. We're always looking for products and investment strategies where we can generate better returns for our investors so that we can introduce them to those new opportunities.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

And so that was one of the great things about RoundShield. Its results over a long period of time were stellar. And that helps to introduce RoundShield's products to our existing investor base.

Daryl Young
Daryl Young
MD - Diversified Industrials, Industrials, Real Estate, Healthcare at Stifel Financial

Got it. Okay. That's great. Congrats on a good quarter. I'll get back in the queue. Thanks.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Scott Fletcher from CIBC. Please go ahead.

Scott Fletcher
Director - Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets

Hi, good morning. Wanted to ask a question about engineering, strong quarter margin expansion looking quite good. Is there anything specific to call out on what drove that margins, whether it was more tilted to the M and A or just or the operation side? And just how we should expect that to play out going forward?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Yes, Scott. In terms of the engineering margins, the margin expansion came equally from acquisitions and from organic improvement in the productivity and efficiency and utilization of our staff. So we've made strides there and that's showing in the reported margins. So as you look ahead to Q3 and Q4 of this year, you'll see the gains from the acquisition piece become a little bit less. We do expect because we've lapped the Envelope acquisition and a few others, We do expect continuing enhancement in efficiency and productivity in the core operations.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

You'll see we expect margins to continue to tick up on a year over year basis for that reason.

Scott Fletcher
Director - Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets

Okay. And then sticking on the margin front, on the investment management side, has there been any change to the future view that margins should expand nicely in 2026, just given this year has had some additional investments and lapping some tougher costs?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Yes. Scott, our objective in investment management is that margins, as we scale the business, should improve over time. Today, we're in the low 40s range. Would expect over time, and this is a period of a couple of years, to get that margin to the 45% and even approaching 50% range as the business scales and we've had more success on fundraising, which is going to drive it.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

I might add to that. We are doing a lot of investment spending also in a bunch of areas around Harrison Street. And so that's going to keep pressure on, I think, Christian, the margins a bit for the next year or two as we continue to build out some of these capabilities, especially in the areas of our private wealth channel as an example, some distribution, etcetera. So we're hiring. And so that always has a puts a little bit of a damper on margins.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

But we're very focused on margins, so we're trying to balance that as Christian was talking about. But I just wanted to emphasize the fact that, you know, with the margins being in a good spot right now relative to our peers, that is with some significant investment that we're making.

Scott Fletcher
Director - Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets

Okay. Great. Good to hear. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Julien Bluing from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Julien Blouin
Julien Blouin
VP - Real Estate Investment Research at Goldman Sachs

Hello. This is Ryan Trieste on for Julien. Congrats on the strong quarter. On the engineering segment specifically, I was wondering what types of additional businesses you guys are looking to add in order to round out your offering there and what respective multiples you're able to acquire them at?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We we we're we're we're very active across the board in engineering, as you can see. Being global allows us to continue to augment our platforms in North America, Canada, US, in particular, Australia, New Zealand. And we are actively looking in in Europe. You asked about valuations. Valuations are interesting right now because we believe that we can continue to do tuck under acquisitions at very favorable rates.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Platform acquisitions, however, are higher value, and they're worth higher value, frankly. So I would say that if we were to enter the European marketplace, which we'd like to do over the next year or two, would we would expect to pay a more healthy valuation, for example, than we would in tucks. The rest of our business is we've got significant platforms, so we can continue to tuck Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U. S, and we're continuing to be very successful there. I I should also add that there's one or two other specialties in in in engineering that that command higher valuations as well.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

So if it's a significant platform within The United States that would add to our overall business mix, for example, power, I'm using that as an example just to give you a sense, that might be an evaluation that would be higher than normal. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. And we've been in the acquisition business now for thirty years, so we hope that we know when to pay up for something that's incredible and will add value to us and not.

Julien Blouin
Julien Blouin
VP - Real Estate Investment Research at Goldman Sachs

Thanks. That color is super helpful. And for my follow-up, is it possible for you guys to expand on the state of the fundraising environment versus on your real estate funds versus your alternative infrastructure funds? Thank you.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

I don't think we want to do that, to be candid. There's some competitive information in there that we want to hold on to. But we've and Christian, you may have a view on this, but we have consistently talked about our fundraising totals across all strategies and not been specific around where the fundraising is coming from other than your comments on the two big flagship funds that are in the marketplace now.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

I would just add to that, Jay, that we do and we have been seeing fundraising in all strategies. Our traditional real estate strategies, our infrastructure strategies, our alternative strategies, every single area has been active in fundraising year to date and we expect that to continue.

Julien Blouin
Julien Blouin
VP - Real Estate Investment Research at Goldman Sachs

I appreciate it. Thanks.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Himanshu Gupta from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Himanshu Gupta
Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets

Thank you and good morning. So on capital markets, looks like Q2 was ahead of expectations. So any asset class or geography which drove that good performance? And then how should we think about Q3 or back half of the year on Capital Markets? Thank you.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Himanshu, as I mentioned, our capital markets performance was led by The U. S. And Western Europe. And we're coming off a low base. So we had strong growth in Q2 of 16%.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

I would expect that we can repeat or enhance that level of year over year growth in Q3. In Q4, the comps are going get a bit tougher. If you recall, in 2024, there was a surge in capital markets activity, so the comps are getting a little bit tougher. But certainly, I think the momentum in capital markets is strong and should continue.

Himanshu Gupta
Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets

Got it. Thank you. And then on the leasing, I know some commentary has already been provided. Just wondering, in your guidance for the back half, what kind of growth are you expecting or incorporating in your guidance for leasing revenues?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Himanshu, we are still expecting on a full year basis to have mid single digit growth in leasing. As you've seen, leasing has been challenged the first half of the year. So that implies we're going to have some healthy uptick in leasing activity and we expect that anyways for Q3 and Q4 to deliver on that full year sort of mid single digit area in terms of growth.

Himanshu Gupta
Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets

Got it. Thank you. And then if I look at Q3, like capital markets seems to be sequentially improving, leasing obviously, outsourcing also looks like growth there. So should we expect like some nice margin expansion in Q3 on year over year basis on real estate side?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Hey, Manshu, we do expect some margin enhancement on a year over year basis in Q3 and in Q4 and hopefully on a full year basis as well.

Himanshu Gupta
Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets

That's very helpful. And maybe the last question, you know, switching gears on engineering. Englube acquisition, I think it's almost one year now since you made that acquisition. So as you look back one year, how has the acquisition performed relative to underwriting or your expectations?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Himanshu, you're right. This I think this week is the one year anniversary of our EnGlobe acquisition. Yeah. I can say, you know, from my perspective it's been a pleasure working with the team at Anglobe. We've done a lot of things together and integrated the business.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

They've been very active as well on acquisitions, which is part of the thesis around doing that transaction in the first place, was building out their Canadian presence. We've done that now I think with four acquisitions, if memory serves. So that's been very positive. The business is performing well. The backlogs are strong, as I mentioned in my general comments about engineering.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

That is also true of EnGlobe. So no, we're we're we think it's been a great a great first year, and we're we're excited about the future.

Himanshu Gupta
Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets

Got it. And maybe just a follow-up and that's my last question by the way. On engineering, should we expect like continued high single digit organic growth in the second half? I know first half has been pretty strong, overall engineering like second half of the year.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Yeah. I mean, in terms of organic growth for the second half of the year in engineering, I would expect something in the mid to high single digit range. We have had some strong performance year to date, but I think that growth will continue, perhaps not at the same not quite at the same rate, but certainly at very strong rates.

Himanshu Gupta
Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets

Got it. Thank you, and I'll turn it back. Thank you so much.

Operator

You. Your next question is from the line of Jimmy Shan from RBC Capital Market. Please go ahead.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Yes. Just a quick follow-up for me. One on Round Shield. I was wondering if you could share with us the rough multiple paid for the business or at least a rough range. And then in terms of capital allocation respect to acquisitions going forward, you mentioned you could do tuck ins in the engineering business, very attractive multiple.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

You know, and and I suspect this round shield is gonna be not as attractive We

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

can't hear we can't hear you. Can you speak up, please?

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Okay. Can you hear me better now?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Better. Yes.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Okay. My second question was more about whether we should expect more I'm acquisitions going forward versus the sort of the better multiples you're getting on on the engineering tuck ins that you've been doing in the last little while?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

So let me ask let me answer the second question, and Christian can deal with the first. We're always open for acquisitions. We're always talking to to several potential targets. So nothing is nothing is off the table from that that perspective. And and, yes, the valuations may be slightly higher in that business, but there is there's a lot of opportunity for us to accelerate growth. So we're looking at everything.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

And to your question specifically about Round Shield, I mean, that transaction and you know know credit managers in the market have traded at very high prices over the past number of years. It is a high growth area. So in our case, the Round Shield acquisition was done in the low teens area, and that's consistent with where the market is at for these. And I would add also that we've been active this year to date in all three of our segments, allocation of capital across real estate services and of course engineering where we've been very active and now also investment management. That's a good place to be for us is having that balanced approach to capital allocation where it makes sense and where we see the most opportunity.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Okay. And then, sorry, one more follow-up on the leasing side. Just trying to understand sort of the weakness a little bit better. Is it fair to say that your industrial leasing outside of The U. S.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Is fairly decent sized business and that probably could explain some of that relative to some of your peers?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We can't we still can't hear you, buddy. You gotta speak up. You gotta speak up. It's very hard to hear you.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Okay. Apologize. Give me my phone. Is that

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

That's good. Now we're Okay.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

All right. Probably a bad headset. Yes. No, my second question was about leasing and understanding the weakness there and whether or not you have a larger size of industrial leasing outside of The U. S.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

That might explain some of the relative weakness that we're seeing weakness relative to your peers?

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Jimmy, we have a significant industrial leasing practice globally, including in The U. S. But as I mentioned earlier, we do have perhaps larger exposure to markets like Canada and Australia and Western Europe than some of the others. So that is potentially a contributing factor here.

Jimmy Khing Shan
Jimmy Khing Shan
MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets

Thanks.

Operator

Your last question is from the line of Frederic Bastien from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Frederic Bastien
Frederic Bastien
MD & Head of Industrial Research at Raymond James Financial

I guess, guys, can you hear me?

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

We can hear you. We It can hear was very difficult on the other one.

Frederic Bastien
Frederic Bastien
MD & Head of Industrial Research at Raymond James Financial

Okay. Couple of questions. First of all, as the global trade uncertainty adversely impacted any of the engineering business because you did deliver exceptional organic growth on that front. Just curious what the if there was any impact, if at all.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Frederic, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we have been in close contact with our teams and with our clients on this front. We have not seen any significant impacts on sort of government policy related matters or on tariff related matters in our engineering practice, thankfully. So that is not something that is causing us any concerns as it relates to our backlog at the moment.

Frederic Bastien
Frederic Bastien
MD & Head of Industrial Research at Raymond James Financial

Okay. That's good. The other thing I noticed is on the investment management side. I appreciate that your revenues will swing around depending on the pass through performance fees that sometimes you have to report. But I was surprised to see EBITDA come down sequentially. And I look back a couple of years of results, and I noticed Q2 is actually always your weakest during the year. Is there anything particular about Q2 that makes it makes this trend? Just curious.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

Frederic, there might be a little bit of timing expenses in there in the second quarter with investor conferences and that sort of thing. But the real that's maybe part of it. But the bigger factors here, we did have higher co investment income in the first quarter than the second quarter. So that explains part of the difference. And the final point I'll make is around catch up fees, which are highly accretive to the bottom line.

Christian Mayer
Christian Mayer
CFO at Colliers International Group

We had some of those in Q1 of this year, and we did not have any in Q2. So that is also a contributing factor.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call over to Jay Hennick for closing comments. Sir, please go ahead.

Jay Hennick
Jay Hennick
Global Chairman & CEO at Colliers International Group

Thank you, everyone, for participating in today's call. We look forward to equally strong third quarter results. And again, thanks for participating.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you for your participation, and have a nice day.

Executives
    • Jay Hennick
      Jay Hennick
      Global Chairman & CEO
    • Christian Mayer
      Christian Mayer
      CFO
Analysts
    • Anthony Paolone
      Executive Director at J.P. Morgan
    • Stephen Sheldon
      Research Analyst - Technology, Media & Communications at William Blair & Company, L.L.C
    • Stephen MacLeod
      MD & Equity Research - Special Situations at BMO Capital Markets
    • Mitch Germain
      MD - Real Estate Research at Citizens Capital Markets and Advisory
    • Daryl Young
      MD - Diversified Industrials, Industrials, Real Estate, Healthcare at Stifel Financial
    • Scott Fletcher
      Director - Equity Research at CIBC Capital Markets
    • Julien Blouin
      VP - Real Estate Investment Research at Goldman Sachs
    • Himanshu Gupta
      Director & Equity Research Analyst - REITs at Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets
    • Jimmy Khing Shan
      MD - Real Estate & Global Research at RBC Capital Markets
    • Frederic Bastien
      MD & Head of Industrial Research at Raymond James Financial
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