Permira funds acquire majority stake in Engel & Völkers

Frank­furt — Perm­ira, the global private equity firm, has announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in Engel & Völkers. Engel & Völkers is a leading global plat­form for real estate consul­tants in the high-end segment. The Völkers family and part of the manage­ment retain just under 40 percent of the shares. Company foun­der Chris­tian Völkers beco­mes Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board. The parties have agreed not to disc­lose the finan­cial terms of the transaction.

Since its foun­da­tion in Hamburg in 1977, Engel & Völkers has deve­lo­ped into one of the world’s most respec­ted addres­ses in the brokerage of high-quality real estate. Today, around 11,500 inde­pen­dent real estate consul­tants operate on the Engel & Völkers plat­form in 900 loca­ti­ons in more than 30 count­ries. You will bene­fit from first-class sales manda­tes, digi­tal tools, a compre­hen­sive range of services and one of the world’s most renow­ned brands in the real estate industry.

The tran­sac­tion fits Perm­ira Funds’ global stra­tegy of inves­t­ing in market-leading plat­forms with trans­for­ma­tio­nal poten­tial. Due to its unique brand, Engel & Völkers has access to high-quality and exclu­sive sales manda­tes and has thus been able to estab­lish a leading market posi­tion. The number of real estate consul­tants on the plat­form has been signi­fi­cantly increased by a highly attrac­tive and diffe­ren­tia­ted range of services and holds considera­ble further growth poten­tial. The Perm­ira funds will support Engel & Völkers in further digi­tiz­ing its busi­ness model and taking the next steps in its inter­na­tio­na­liza­tion. In the course of the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, among other things, the offe­ring for real estate consul­tants is to be further impro­ved and the tech­no­lo­giza­tion of inter­nal proces­ses in marke­ting, mandate acqui­si­tion and the recruit­ment of quali­fied real estate consul­tants is to be driven forward.

Dr. Jörg Rocken­häu­ser, Mana­ging Part­ner DACH at Perm­ira, said: “Chris­tian Völkers, Sven Odia and the entire Engel & Völkers team have built one of the most respec­ted brands and plat­forms in real estate brokerage. Some of the best real estate consul­tants in the world are active for the company today. We are very much looking forward to support­ing the family busi­ness in its digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion toge­ther with Chris­tian Völkers and the manage­ment. With our exper­tise in digi­tiz­ing successful compa­nies, we want to help further acce­le­rate growth. We see great oppor­tu­ni­ties to signi­fi­cantly expand the ecosys­tem around Engel & Völkers in today’s digi­tal world, opening up new areas of growth.”

Chris­tian Völkers (photo left), foun­der of Engel & Völkers, said: “Our great ambi­tion is to constantly deve­lop the company and drive inno­va­tion. Toge­ther with Perm­ira, we can streng­then Engel & Völkers even more as a global indus­try pioneer and imple­ment my vision for the digi­ta­liza­tion of the brand. We look forward with enthu­si­asm to a successful future in which we will still achieve a lot together.”

Sven Odia (photo right), CEO of Engel & Völkers, added: “We are very plea­sed to have gained such a strong part­ner in Perm­ira, which has an excel­lent track record in the tech sector in addi­tion to many years of exper­tise. By the end of the year, we expect over 1 billion euros in brokerage reve­nue from more than 11,500 real estate consul­tants who are writing their own success stories under the Engel & Völkers brand. The basis for this is our outstan­ding brand name and our leading tech and service plat­form. The impres­sive growth trajec­tory is the ideal time to now set the course for an even stron­ger future in the long term, deve­lop new stra­te­gies and further expand the brand’s poten­tial, espe­ci­ally in the tech-opera­­ted business.”
Subject to custo­mary tran­sac­tion condi­ti­ons, the acqui­si­tion is expec­ted to close in the fourth quarter.

About Perm­ira

Perm­ira is a global private equity firm that supports successful compa­nies with growth ambi­ti­ons. Foun­ded in 1985, the company advi­ses funds with a total volume of around 50 billion U.S. dollars (44 billion euros) and invests in compa­nies over the long term through majo­rity and stra­te­gic mino­rity share­hol­dings. Perm­ira advi­sed funds have comple­ted over 250 private equity tran­sac­tions in four key sectors: Tech­no­logy, Consu­mer Goods, Services and Health­care. The company has an exten­sive track record in services and has alre­ady inves­ted €10.7 billion in 40 compa­nies in proptech, finan­cial services and other busi­ness services. Perm­ira employs more than 350 people in 15 loca­ti­ons in Europe, North America and Asia, inclu­ding the Frank­furt office.

In Germany, the funds advi­sed by Perm­ira are inves­ted in Team­Viewer, Best­Se­cret, Neur­ax­ph­arm and Flix­Mo­bi­lity, among others. www.permira.com.