Yahoo Finance Jones Lang (JLL) Acquires Building Engines for $300 Million
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated JLL — popularly known as JLL — recently shelled out $300 million in cash for the acquisition of the reputed building operations platform, Building Engines. The move comes as part of the company’s focus on technology to solve real-estate challenges like the siloed ecosystem of property management technologies.
Building Engines serves more than 1,000 customers across 35,000 buildings, including several JLL customers. Its cloud platform streamlines the whole lot — from work orders to maintenance scheduling and tenant engagement — in one place. JLL plans to bring together the fragmented property management software ecosystem and make Building Engines the building operations ‘system of record’.
Per Sharad Rastogi, president of JLL’s technology arm, JLL Technologies (JLLT), "With this acquisition, we see a major opportunity to bring the property management software ecosystem together in one easy-to-use open platform for real estate investors."
JLL has plans to capitalize on Building Engines' open application programming interface (API) infrastructure to integrate the platform mostly with the broader real estate ecosystem. This includes the product portfolio developed by JLL Technologies, the segment that builds and invests in technology, and products through venture arm, JLL Spark.
More than 150 employees of Building Engines have come onboard. Building Engines will retain its name. With Building Engines’ focus on improving net operating income across the world's commercial real estate portfolios, this acquisition seems a strategic fit for JLL.
JLL has a diversified range of real estate product and services, and an extensive knowledge of domestic and international real estate markets, which helps it operate as a single-source provider of real estate solutions. Its superior client services and strategic investments in technology and innovation are expected to help the market share rise and win relationships. The company’s data-driven and experiential technology platform provides a competitive edge and will likely boost client engagements.
JLL currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). In the past six months, shares of the company have surged 14% against the industry’s decline of 4.7%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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Other Key Picks
Some other key picks from the REIT sector include CBRE Group, Inc. CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield plc CWK and Kennedy-Wilson Holdings, Inc. KW.
CBRE Group Inc. carries a Zacks Rank of 1 at present. The 2021 earnings per share for CBRE Group is expected to increase 62.1% year over year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CBRE’s 2021 earnings per share has been revised 1.9% upward in a month.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cushman & Wakefield’s ongoing-year earnings per share has moved 10.3% north to $1.60 over the past month. The long-term growth rate for Cushman & Wakefield is projected at 10%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cushman & Wakefield’s 2021 earnings per share suggests an increase of 97.5% year over year. Currently, CWK carries a Zacks Rank of 1.
Kennedy-Wilson holds a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. The 2021 earnings per share for Kennedy-Wilson is expected to increase 58.3% year over year.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KW’s 2021 earnings per share has been revised 12.4% upward in a month to $3.45.
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