Last week, the CBRE Group, Inc. (CBRE) announced that it agreed to form a joint venture with Excellerate Property Services (Excellerate) to meet the growing demand for high-quality real estate services in Africa and the Middle East.

The joint venture, CBRE Excellerate, will merge CBRE’s facilities management operations in Africa and the Middle East with several of Excellerate’s businesses, including corporate real estate services, facilities management, valuation and project management services as well as property management services outside of South Africa.

Broll Property Group, the leading African commercial property services firm, has been in an affiliate agreement with CBRE since 2004 to serve their global clients in key countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa among others. This development will see that agreement come to an end as the Broll Group aims to conclude a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) acquisition deal. The BEE programme was launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving black (Blacks, Coloureds and Indians) South African citizens economic privileges not available to Whites.

Speaking on the development Chair of the Broll Group, Jonathan Broll explained:

“As South African society changed, we realised we have a responsibility to ourselves, our shareholders and the public to conclude a BEE deal as soon as possible. After a protracted period of negotiations to be acquired by CBRE, it became apparent that an agreement satisfying this condition would not be reached. I believe that events have therefore unfolded to the advantage of all parties…”.