CBRE has formed a pan-Nordic capital markets team as the region’s investment market grew to circa €43 bn of transactions in 2019.
The 58-strong team will be led by Sami Kiehelä as head of capital markets, Nordics. It will target expansion in both investment transactional business and corporate finance.
‘More than ever, a lot of investors are looking at the Nordics as one region and we are responding to our clients by delivering a more focused service to them,’ Helsinki-based Kiehelä said.
‘It is important for us to think “Nordically” and to exploit our strength which is being global and local.’
CBRE intends to expand further into corporate finance in the region this year. Last year the Finnish business added real estate debt advisory, hiring banker Anne Laukia from Handelsbanken as head of debt and structured finance.
CBRE’s preliminary number for Nordic transaction volumes in 2019 is about €43 bn. Sweden continues to be the largest market, with circa €19bn traded there last year.
Kiehelä pointed out that Sweden’s market alone is almost as big as the Netherlands, which transacts around €20 bn pa. ‘Our Netherlands business has the same number of people as we have across the whole of the Nordics. So it shows the potential to possibly double in size in future.
‘However, this is not about the number of people, although that will increase, and it is market dependent.’
With that in mind, he said CBRE expects similar levels of activity across the Nordics in 2020: ‘We expect the market to stay strong because there is significant appetite for investment here.’
The last three months have seen a number of experienced capital markets brokers and advisers switching firms. A Swedish team led by Richard Backman left JLL to set up a boutique firm called Tango Capital Markets; they previously worked at Tenzing, a local firm which JLL had bought in 2014.
JLL replaced the Tango departures by hiring Thomas Persson from Magnolia Bostand to become head of capital markets in the Nordics - like CBRE’s, also a new role. The group also took Daniel Anderbring and Sara Vesterlund from Cushman & Wakefield to head Swedish capital markets..
Cushman has announced the promotion of Kristoffer Sandberg as new head of Swedish capital markets to replace Anderbring.
