Avison Young, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, a global commercial real estate services firm, enters the Polish market with the acquisition of UK-based GVA advisory company.
The acquisition was completed on 1 February. Effective immediately, the two companies, Avison Young and GVA, are combined under one unified brand - Avison Young. As a result of the transaction, Avison Young expanded widely in the European markets acquiring additional offices located in the UK, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain and Poland.
The Polish office is located in Warsaw and managed by Michał Ćwikliński, commercial real estate market professional with many years of experience in CEE investment transactions. Michał comments the acquisition: “I am excited about the finalized acquisition. Avison Young is a company with many years of tradition, focused on consequent development and global expansion. Over the past 10 years, it has grown from 300 real estate professionals in 11 offices in Canada to now approximately 5,000 real estate professionals in 120 offices in 20 countries and is constantly growing. The company has ambitious plans to expand in Poland and Europe, by acquiring key market professionals as well as whole teams and companies. Operating under GVA brand our investment and technical advisory teams conducted significant projects and concluded considerable transactions, gained clients’ trust and won several market awards. We will continue with this trend. I am convinced that GVA and Avison Young merger will give added value and reinforce our Polish activities in the commercial real estate market.”
GVA companies altogether bring to Avison Young a broad portfolio of national and international clients, including UK public institutions, multinational corporations, major space users, developers, owners, lenders and investors.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. As a result of the merger, Avison Young increases its revenue to 25 times its 2008 level to approximately C$1 billion, which reflects the best scale of the growth.
Credit Suisse and KPMG LLP acted as Avison Young’s financial advisors in the acquisition of GVA; and Gowling WLG (UK), DLA Piper LLP (US and UK) and Stikeman Elliott LLP (Canada) served as Avison Young’s legal advisors.
