Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE:CWK) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 4, 2023 5:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Megan McGrath – Head-Investor Relations
John Forrester – Chief Executive Officer
Neil Johnston – Chief Financial Officer
Michelle MacKay – Chief Operating Officer
Conference Call Participants
Anthony Paolone – JPMorgan
Matt Filek – William Blair
Ronald Kamdem – Morgan Stanley
Michael Griffin – Citi
Patrick O’Shaughnessy – Raymond James
Operator
Good afternoon and welcome to the Cushman & Wakefield’s First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.
I’d now like to run the conference over to Megan McGrath, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Megan McGrath
Thank you, and welcome to Cushman & Wakefield’s first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our financial results for the period. This release, along with today’s presentation can be found on our Investor Relations website at ir.cushmanwakefield.com.
Please turn to the page on our presentation labeled cautionary note on forward-looking statements. Today’s presentation contains forward-looking statements based on our current forecasts and estimates of future events. These statements should be considered estimates only and actual results may differ materially.
During today’s call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures as outlined by SEC guidelines. Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, definitions of non-GAAP financial measures and other related information are found within the financial tables of our earnings release and the appendix of today’s presentation. Also, please note that throughout the presentation, comparisons and growth rates are to the comparable periods of 2022, and in local currency unless otherwise stated. For those of you following along with our presentation, we will begin on Page 4.
And with that, I’d like to turn the call over to our CEO, John Forrester.
John Forrester
Thanks, Megan, and thank you to everybody joining our call. First, I want to thank all our employees around the world that continue to deliver outstanding service and value to our clients through such fluid times. The first quarter, as anticipated, experienced similar trends to the fourth quarter of 2022 with significantly lower transaction activity versus the prior year, but continued strength in our property and facilities management business.
Fee revenue of $1.5 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $61 million reflect the quarter’s muted higher margin transactional activity, which we believe is currently sitting at or near trough levels. The current macro environment remains complex with elevated inflation in interest rates, as well as recent banking stress, all contributing in effect to recessionary conditions in commercial real estate. We expect the near-term outlook to remain challenging. However, an increasingly complicated economic and real estate environment is resulting in an ongoing flight to quality, and we believe that diversified global service providers of true scale like Cushman & Wakefield are best positioned to successfully navigate through economic cycles for both clients and talent.