CBRE Expands Data Center Footprint With $1B Acquisition Of Onnec Group
The world’s largest commercial real estate firm is upping the ante on its artificial intelligence data center bet with a new deal worth more than $1B.
)
CBRE announced plans on Tuesday to acquire Onnec Group Ltd., a data center infrastructure provider, for $610M in cash and up to $400M more in growth incentives. The London-based Onnec installs and services data center equipment for technology companies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The firm is slated to have an immediate impact on CBRE’s bottom line, as Onnec is expected to generate nearly $500M in revenue and more than $67M of core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization next year.
The deal, coupled with CBRE’s acquisition of Direct Line Global in 2024, takes the Dallas-based CRE titan into “where the actual compute happens,” CEO Bob Sulentic said to The Wall Street Journal.
Onnec will join CBRE’s critical infrastructure services line, which the company anticipates will generate nearly $4.5B of its total revenue next year.
“CBRE is pursuing an explicit strategy to build a global infrastructure services business to complement our real estate services business,” CBRE Chief Operating Officer Vikram Kohli said in a statement.
“The acquisition is also consistent with our ongoing effort to build resilient businesses that benefit from secular tailwinds.”
Data center supply in the nation’s eight primary markets surged by almost 34% year-over-year during the first half of 2026, CBRE reported. Despite that record supply, vacancy in those primary markets fell to a record-low 1.4% as capacity was absorbed as quickly as it was completed.
CBRE is now positioned to be part of nearly every stage of a data center’s build, from brokering land deals and originating debt to project management and infrastructure installation.
Infrastructure work on data centers and other projects generated around $450M in earnings for CBRE in 2025. That accounted for 14% of the company’s total earnings and was a significant step up from the 3% it was responsible for in 2021.
The CBRE acquisition will also help Onnec better serve its customers, Chairman Barry Horgan said.
“As part of CBRE, we gain the platform and expertise to broaden our capabilities, creating even greater value for our clients, and provide new opportunities for our employees, while staying true to the customer-focused approach that has driven our success,” Horgan said in a statement.
J.P. Morgan Securities served as financial adviser for the acquisition, with Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett as legal adviser to CBRE. Goldman Sachs International was Onnec’s financial adviser, and Freshfields LLP was its legal adviser.
