CBRE Agrees To Buy Onnec For £460 Million In Cash, With Up To £300 Million More In Earnout
CBRE expects the London-based data center infrastructure firm to add to core earnings per share immediately and to close around year-end.
CBRE agreed to buy Onnec Group Limited for an initial £460 million in cash, about $610 million, according to an 8-K the company filed Tuesday. A multi-year earnout of up to £300 million, about $400 million, could follow if Onnec meets growth thresholds.
What the 8-K and press release say
The 8-K furnishes a press release dated Tuesday announcing a definitive agreement. Onnec will sit inside CBRE's Critical Infrastructure Services line of business.
CBRE expects Onnec to generate about £370 million ($498 million) in revenue and more than £50 million ($67 million) of core EBITDA in 2027. The company also expects the deal to be immediately accretive to core earnings per share, meaning it should add to them.
CBRE expects that business line to produce nearly $4.5 billion of revenue in 2027, Onnec included. Its other services businesses, mainly Project Management and Advisory Services, are expected to add almost $2.5 billion of infrastructure services revenue, for a total of nearly $7.0 billion. That total excludes periodic data center land sales in the development business.
Onnec, founded in 1986 and based in London, designs, deploys and maintains network, fiber and data center infrastructure. Its roughly 800 employees serve hyperscalers, the largest technology companies, in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Asia Pacific.
What it changes
CBRE is adding installation and maintenance capacity in Europe and Asia Pacific. The release says Onnec's geographic presence lines up with the data center infrastructure services CBRE already delivers in the United States.
Chief Operating Officer Vikram Kohli said CBRE is "pursuing an explicit strategy to build a global infrastructure services business to complement our real estate services business."
CBRE shares closed at $134.23 on Tuesday, up about 2.65%, in a session that ended before the 8-K was accepted by the SEC at 5:04 p.m. ET.
The Wall Street Journal reported that infrastructure work generated about $450 million of CBRE earnings in 2025. Commercial Observer reported that CBRE bought Direct Line Global, a U.S. provider of technical infrastructure services for data centers, in June 2024.
What to watch
The deal needs customary regulatory approvals, and CBRE expects it to be completed around the end of the year.
Until the deal closes, the £300 million earnout is a ceiling that depends on Onnec hitting growth thresholds.
Sources
- 8-K Filing — CBRE GROUP, INC. (CBRE) — SEC EDGAR
- Exhibit cbre-ex99_1.htm — CBRE GROUP, INC. 8-K exhibit — SEC EDGAR
- CBRE Expands Data Center Footprint With $1B Acquisition Of Onnec Group — bisnow.com
- Exclusive | Real-Estate Giant CBRE Gets Deeper Into Data Centers With $1 Billion Deal - WSJ — The Wall Street Journal
- Simpson Thacher, A&O Guide CBRE's £760M Onnec Buy - Law360 Real Estate Authority — law360.com
- CBRE acquires data center services firm Onnec - DCD — datacenterdynamics.com
- CBRE Acquires Data Center Equipment Provider Onnec Group for $610M – Commercial Observer — commercialobserver.com
