Jones Lang LaSalle to buy HFF in $2bn deal

Jones Lang LaSalle has agreed to buy capital markets services provider HFF in a cash and stock deal worth about $2bn.

Under the terms of the deal, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, HFF shareholders will receive $24.63 in cash and 0.1505 JLL shares for each of their shares. The price represents a premium of approximately 6% to HFF's closing price on Monday.

JLL noted that since 1998, HFF has closed more than $800bn in over 27,000 transactions, achieving record revenue in 2018 of more than $650m.

Christian Ulbrich, global chief executive officer of JLL, said: "Increasing the scale of our capital markets business is one of the key priorities in our Beyond strategic vision to drive long-term sustainable and profitable growth. The combination with HFF provides a unique opportunity to accelerate growth and establish JLL as a leading capital markets intermediary, with outstanding capabilities.

"We have long admired HFF for its expertise and leading reputation in the industry, as well as its client-first culture of teamwork, ethics and excellence, which aligns with our own. I believe that combining our organizations will deliver a range of compelling benefits for our clients, employees and shareholders."

JLL said the deal, due to complete in the third quarter of this year, is expected to deliver significant run-rate synergies of about $60m over two to three years.