However, the economic performance of the world's leading commercial real estate consultancy - active at all levels, from transaction advice to property management - was only slightly affected.

Over the first nine months of the year, CBRE once again saw its sales move into double-digit growth territory, while its operating profit leapt. The market was one step ahead of these good results, as evidenced by the Group's valuation, which has been on fire for several months. Could the worst be over?

Management was exceptionally opportunistic and disciplined with share buy-backs: the vast majority were carried out between the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, at a valuation multiple of around fifteen times earnings - compared with over forty times earnings today.

These transactions coincided with investors' extreme apprehension about the commercial real estate sector, which had been severely hit by the combined effects of rising interest rates, the spread of work-at-home schemes, and maximum stress in the US banking sector.

In the U.S., prices for certain office towers had plummeted by over 60% from the highs recorded just before the pandemic. Fortunately for CBRE and its brokerage services, this rout quickly aroused keen interest among distressed investors.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Dallas-based group has been announcing that the situation is improving, and confirming that the worst is now behind it. In any case, it is completing an exceptional ten-year cycle, which has seen its sales and profits triple over the period - despite the distortions observed in recent years.

In any case, these changes in the economic climate validate the resilience of its business model. If the recent upheavals led to the departure of the company's renowned CEO Darcy Stacom, it was clearly due to strategic disagreements and internal power struggles rather than anything else.