Cushman & Wakefield stock pops at IPO

Cushman
& Wakefield went public on Thursday. It operates in 70
countries.
Kim
Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

• Cushman & Wakefield shares jumped by as much as 7%
  in the company’s initial public offering (IPO) on
  Thursday. 
• The company plans to use the bulk of the proceeds from
  its IPO to pay down debt. 
• It operates more than 3.5 billion square feet of
  commercial real estate and employs about 48,000 people in
  70 countries.

Shares of the commercial-real-estate giant Cushman &
Wakefield rose by as much as 7% in their trading debut on
Thursday. 

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, the company said it priced
the shares on sale at its initial public offering at $17, the
midpoint of its estimated range, and raised $765 million. It sold
45 million shares. 

Cushman & Wakefield operates more than 3.5 billion
square feet of commercial real estate and employs
about 
48,000 people in 70 countries, the
filing said. 
It posted a net loss of $220.5
million last year on revenue of $6.92 billion. Its revenues have
increased every year since 2015.

The company had $3.1 billion in debt last year, and warned
potential investors that its “substantial indebtedness” may make
it more vulnerable to competitors. 

Cushman & Wakefield does not plan to pay out dividends
to investors “for the foreseeable future.” It will use the bulk
of its IPO proceeds to reduce this debt.  

Cushman & Wakefield’s IPO follows the Nasdaq listing in
December by its fellow commercial brokerage Newmark
Knight Frank. 

The stock is listed on New York Stock Exchange with the
ticker CWK. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and UBS were
the lead underwriters of the IPO.

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