Cushman & Wakefield, one of the oldest and largest global real estate services providers, has filed a preliminary prospectus to take the company public, reported the Real Estate News Exchange.
The prospectus filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not state the number of shares to be offered, nor the pricing.
According to its prospectus, Cushman intends to use its IPO proceeds to help pay down debt, in particular a $460 million loan that carries an 8.87% interest rate. It also plans to use its IPO cash to pay some deferred obligations stemming from the acquisition of a rival and will then invest the remainder in its business.
In the filing, the Chicago-based company said it has 48,000 employees in approximately 400 offices and 70 countries. The 101-year-old firm, which reported revenues of $6.9 billion last year, manages approximately 3.5 billion square feet of commercial real estate space on behalf of institutional, corporate and private clients.