Nai Pickard

NAI poised for massive growth

NAI Global, the premier real estate network of independent commercial real estate agencies, and the leading real estate company C-III Capital Partners LLC (C-III), jointly announced about the acquisition of the corporate rights of NAI Global by C-III Capital Partners LLC. C-III is a leading commercial real estate company, engaged in a broad range of activities, including primary and special loan servicing, loan origination, fund management and principal investment. A property asset portfolio of C-III is $150 billion.

NAI Global manages a network of 5,000 professionals from 350 offices in 55 countries throughout the world and complete over $45 billion in transactions annually. The signing of this agreement will open huge possibilities for the NAI network, with a new asset base the company is going to broaden the range of its services and raise to a new level. The transaction should be fully completed in the 3-rd quarter of 2011. NAI Global will continue to operate as a separate company under its current management following the acquisition.

NAI is already one of the leading commercial real estate agency groups in the world with 5000 professionals operating from more than 350 offices on all continents & a transaction annually of $45 billion. But now NAI is poised to further expand across the world due to its acquisition by C-III Capital Partners LLC (C-III), a leading commercial real estate services company with a property asset portfolio of $150 billion. C-III is engaged in a broad range of activities, including primary and special loan servicing, loan origination, fund management and principal investment. NAI Global will continue to operate as a separate company under its current management following the acquisition.

“The acquisition by C-III gives us the financial strength to fully execute the strategic plans initiatives agreed by our headship Board in 2010, - said Jeff Finn, President & CEO of NAI Global. – Foremost among these is to establish market leadership in key global centres such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, Hong Kong, alongside New York and to strengthen our pursuit of Corporate Solutions and Capital Markets and to expand our base of Asset/Property Management, Project/Facilities Management and Valuation Services. This will be achieved by bolstering our infrastructure and support through enhanced research, training, technology, management and marketing programs.”

“For us at NAI Pickard this is most exciting news, - said Terry Pickard, Founder & Chairman of NAI Pickard. – While other RE players have been struggling for the last nearly 3 crisis years, the NAI network actually managed to grow during this period and have opened several new offices in countries such as Poland, Holland,  India, China & Vietnam, all due to NAI’s unique structure and the right strategy. Now is the next stage - from the world’s premier network of managed commercial real estate companies to the world’s premier commercial real estate company. Rarely do you find partners so perfectly strategically aligned as NAI Global and C-III. This is a natural fit and extremely thrilling news for the industry.”

 “We have an exciting future to look forward to, - said NAI Pickard Managing Partner Sergiy But. - The merger with C-III will open up for us broader marketing possibilities and enable us to fulfill aggressive development plans in Europe. Now we will have one of the biggest property companies in the world behind us.”
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

C-III Capital Partners LLC

C-III Capital Partners LLC is a leading commercial real estate services company engaged in a broad range of activities, including primary and special loan servicing, loan origination, fund management and principal investment. The company’s principal place of business is located in Irving, TX, and it has additional offices in New York, NY, Greenville, SC and Nashville, TN.

C-III is led by Andrew L. Farkas, who founded and was Chairman and CEO of Insignia Financial Group, which he grew into one of the world’s largest commercial real estate companies before it merged with CBRE in 2003.

C-III commenced operations with the purchase of Centerline Capital Group’s institutional real estate debt fund management and commercial mortgage loan servicing businesses in March 2010. Since that time, C-III has successfully launched mortgage origination, investment sales and title insurance businesses from scratch, and expanded its principal investment, loan origination fund management and primary and special loan servicing businesses.

C-III’s portfolio comprises approximately $150 billion in real estate assets. C-III Asset Management LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of C-III Capital Partners, is the primary servicer for approximately $20 billion and the named special servicer for approximately $127 billion of commercial real estate loans. C-III Asset Management is rated CPS 2- by Fitch and Above Average by Standard and Poor's as a primary servicer, and is one of the highest rated special servicers in the industry with ratings of CSS 1- by Fitch and Strong by Standard and Poor's.