DTZ returns to the game

What is the atmosphere like in the company after the change in ownership?

Alan Colquhoun, the head of Central and Eastern Europe, DTZ: I joined DTZ for the first time in 1993 and I can honestly say that the current optimism is comparable to the earlier years of its operations in Central and Eastern Europe. The globalfinancial crisis impacted badly on DTZ, more so than on our competitors, but the potential we now have fills me with optimism. DTZ has always been considered a leading company on the global market, often punching above its weight, and now under the new ownership of the DTZ Investment Consortium(TPG Capital (TPG), PAG Asia Capital (PAG) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan), we are truly a top global player. With the acquisition of Cassidy Turley in the US closing at the end of last year, the combined revenues will catapult DTZ into the number three position globally.

How much did Cassidy Turley cost? What is the significance of this acquisition for DTZ?

I cannot comment as the pricehas not been officially disclosed. Since the beginning of the year we have been operating under one brand: DTZ. Through the purchase of Cassidy Turley, the DTZ Investment Consortium has achieved something that DTZ struggled with over the last two decades! I think that the involvement of such financially strong entities as our new owners will significantly speed up our development and growth globally. And the acquisition of Cassidy Turley is probably not the last acquisition by our new owners.

And what about our region?

So far I cannot see any huge opportunities that would make much sense for us in Central and Eastern Europe in the short term, but we continue to grow organically, employing new specialists to expand our existing strong businesses across the region. For example, our Polish capital markets team has tripled in size over the past year and most recently has hired a shopping centre specialist, Monika Woźniak-Zawioła, who has joined us from ECE. In Hungary we have recently redeployed Geoff Hargreave into a new business development role, relocating him from our partner company in Ukraine. We are also planning to add new staff to our smallest CEE office in Bratislava during the first half of 2015.

How many people currently work for DTZ in Poland?

Precisely 233. In 2013 we were dealing with a considerable reshuffling of the market – and this not only applied to DTZ. This led to my return, among other factors.

What is the concept for the growth of the company in  Poland. Which segments is DTZ now going to be focusing on?

It will be focusing on the entire commercial property spectrum. Of course we want to be strong on the investment market, having extended our team threefold to nine experienced persons with an additional agent due to join us in January. We are currently working on three large transactions and I hope that we will be able to inform you about them soon. Services for the retail sector are another sector where we feel strong and where we want to become even stronger. We are also focusing on project management, which has already seen considerable growth – but that is not the end of it, which I take great satisfaction from. The warehouse and logistics segment is also attracting our attention. This is currently dominated by one player, but we are planning to take a slice of that cake for ourselves and have recently recruited an experienced professional from within the logistics sector, Marc Le Bozec, to head up our industrial and logistics team. Our office agency team – consistently one of the best on the market in my opinion – continues to go from strength to strength under the excellent leadership of Barbara Przesmycka, who has been with us for eleven years already.

There is a lot that needs rebuilding...

I’m not going to hide the fact that we have lost a certain part of our market share, but we are very quickly making up for lost time. Not everything can be put down to staff departures. We have also had some bad luck, when a few large real estate portfolios changed owners and the new ones were cooperating with other agencies. Acquiring new contracts does not happen straight away, it is a process. We have recently won a tender for the management of a large property portfolio owned by one of the biggest domestic funds, as well as a few smaller properties. In Poland we still manage more than 850,000 sqm of commercial properties and over 1.3 mln sqm in the region. While our Polish portfolio once stood at 1.1 mln sqm, our present share is still among the largest of any international agency and we have done well to quickly bounce back from a low point of around 600,000 sqm earlier in 2014. And please believe me that our competitors have been observing this with much interest and sometimes, I am sure, with some concern! I can see great progress, which is very satisfying for me, but the work has not finished yet... We would like to be going up one position in the market share ranking every year from now onwards.