Good day, and welcome to the Cushman & Wakefield First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Megan McGrath, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. and welcome to Cushman & Wakefield's first quarter 2026 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 in our presentation labeled Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements based on our current forecast 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. Before I pass the call over to Michelle, a quick reminder that on April 8, 2026, we filed an 8K with the SEC outlining several changes to our reporting presentation effective January 1st of this year. To better align our reporting with industry peers, we will no longer report service line fee revenue, along with the following non-GAAP measures, adjusted EBITDA margin, segment operating expenses, and fee-based operating expenses. As a result, our discussion of revenue and associated growth rates will now be inclusive of gross contract costs. Further detail on these changes, as well as two years of recasted historical financials, can be found in the 8K filed with the SEC, which is also available on our IR website. Lastly, comparisons discussed on today's call are against the first quarter of the prior year in local currency. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Michelle McKay.

Thank you, Megan, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We delivered strong first quarter results, demonstrating consistent execution of our strategy and measurable progress toward our long-term financial targets. We delivered 9% revenue growth, exceeding our long-term guidance range. We generated mid-teens adjusted EBITDA growth as operating leverage continued to build. And we delivered 67% adjusted EPS growth, reflecting both strong business performance and the structural improvements that we have steadily made to our balance sheet. These outcomes are deliberate. The product of a strategy designed for durability and growth. Supported by our solid first quarter performance and continued strength in our pipelines, we remain confident in our full-year guidance of 15% to 20% adjusted EPS growth. I want to focus on the breadth of our growth, which is a key driver in our consistency of our performance. In high-growth asset classes, clients are shifting capital and demand towards specialized sectors, including logistics, life sciences, and AI-related industries. AI is a structural tailwind for the business, supporting leasing activity across geographies and fueling growth in our data center-related services. With 50 technical advisory data center projects underway in APAC now and expanding global mandates, this is a long-duration opportunity that continues to scale. In capital markets, we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, including 22% growth in the Americas, with institutional client revenues up 32%. This reflects the compounding returns from our talent and platform investments and the increasing connectivity within our institutional franchise. In leasing, we achieved the highest first quarter revenue in company history, growing 17%. Performance was broad-based across industries, deal sizes, and geographies, with growth in 15 of our top 20 cities in the Americas. That breath matters. It reinforces both the sustainability of the growth and our ability to consistently capture share. In services, revenue grew 7%, reflecting steady progress as clients increasingly consolidate toward providers that can deliver integrated multi-service capabilities at scale. Project management growth of 15%, driven by international performance, underscores our ability to manage increasingly technical work streams for a growing global client base. And taken together, this is what consistency looks like. Diversified growth, scalable margins, and disciplined capital allocation. With that, I'll turn the call over to Neil to discuss the quarter in more detail.

Thank you, Michelle, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, all comparisons are against the first quarter of the prior year and in local currency. First quarter revenue was $2.5 million, up 9%, fueled by broad strength across our service lines and continued positive momentum from our growth initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA grew 15% to $111 million as we drove operating leverage across our platform. Adjusted EPS of 15 cents was up 67% as we benefited from the strength of our core business and the capital structure improvements we have made. Continuing our balance sheet transformation, earlier this week, we announced our decision to redeem $100 million of the $650 million outstanding on our 2028 notes. Once completed, this will mark approximately $600 million in total debt prepayments since the start of 2024 and further progress towards our target of reaching two times net leverage in 2028. Taking a look at our revenue performance by service line for the quarter, leasing grew 17% in the quarter with America's leasing up 19%. Our leasing growth in the Americas was broad-based with double-digit growth in core, mid-sized, and large leasing deal sizes. By asset class, office demand remained solid, and we saw particular strengths in industrial, including data centers. EMEA and APAC leasing increased 10% and 9% respectively, with particular strength in Germany, the Netherlands, and greater China. Turning to capital markets, we reported 14% global growth in the quarter. Our continued strong performance in capital markets reflects the work we've done to add top talent and strength in our platform. Office was up 11% globally, performing especially well in the Americas, with gains across all deal sizes and particular strengths in New York City, Northern California, and Phoenix. Industrial grew 25% with double-digit growth in each of our regions. Our services business expanded 7% globally, with continued strength in project management in both EMEA and APAC, while the Americas benefited primarily from new business wins and expanded client mandates in our facilities management business. To reiterate what we said at our recent Investor Day, we are focused on driving steady, profitable growth in our services business as we continue to move up the value chain with our clients. Turning to cash flow, our first quarter use of cash was in line with historical working capital trends, including the annual payments of U.S. bonuses, and reflects typical seasonal patterns in our business. Our trailing 12-month free cash flow was approximately 70% of adjusted net income, in line with our target range of a 60% to 80% free cash flow conversion rate. We closed the quarter with approximately $600 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $1.6 billion in total liquidity. Our net leverage ratio at the end of the quarter was 3.1 times, a near full-turn improvement from the same time last year. Moving now to our 2026 outlook, which remains unchanged, we continue to anticipate revenue growth of 6% to 8% and adjusted EPS growth of 15% to 20%. Finally, I'd like to give an update on our three-year targets we provided at our 2025 investor day, given the recent changes in our reporting as disclosed in our April 8K. The previous three-year fee revenue growth target of 6% to 8% has been transitioned to a gap revenue growth target and remains at 6% to 8% growth. While we will no longer provide specific EBITDA margin targets, we continue to expect to achieve roughly 150 basis points of margin expansion over the three-year period. Our targets of annual adjusted EPS growth of 15% to 20%, free cash flow conversion of 60% to 80%, and net debt leverage of two times by 2028 remain unchanged. With that, I'll turn the call over back to Michelle.

Thanks, Neil. Over the last three years, we have intentionally reshaped this company into one that is more focused, more agile, and better positioned to lead through market transformations, allowing us to compound profitable growth. Quarter after quarter, we are converting strategy into performance, delivering predictable results, resilient growth across our business lines, and durable earnings through changing market conditions. Our consistency of execution is not by chance, it is by design, and it is a defining characteristic and a key differentiator of this company. Importantly, consistency for us is not only reflected in our financial performance, but also in how we lead our clients with clarity and tailored strategies during periods of transformation. The work that our think tank, including the continued expansion of our AI impact research, reflects that mindset. Today, we are proud to launch part two of our AI series. The first part, which focused on introducing our AI dashboard, engaged over 15,000 clients and stakeholders, cementing our position as a true thought leader in this space. Today's release goes even deeper, examining how AI is likely to reshape economic growth, employment patterns, and space demand by sectors, roles, and geographies. By translating complex macro and technological shifts such as AI into clear, actionable insights, we continue to support better decision-making for occupiers and investors. I will close today with this. We are confident in our outlook, grounded in the visibility we see across our businesses, and the durability of our model. Thank you to our teams for delivering another strong quarter and to our shareholders for their continued confidence. And with that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. We ask that all callers limit themselves to one question and one follow-up. If you have additional questions, you may re-queue and those questions will be addressed time permitting. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from a line of Julian Bluen with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, thank you for taking my question. Just wondering on the leasing results, they were pretty impressive in the quarter. Can you remind us how much of that was driven by some of the recruitment initiatives over the last year? And from a recruitment standpoint more generally, how do you feel you stand today across your different segments?

Thanks, Julian. It's Michelle. In terms of recruiting in general, we're doing extraordinarily well. We're building out the capital markets platform still, but we've had a significant number of hires there. First quarter, we had a significant number of leasing recruits land as well. In industrial leasing, that's been a consistent bright spot for us over the past two years. So we expect to continue to do some really strong leasing there. We've recently landed some teams in Boston. And our expectation is that fundamentals will continue to be strong in U.S. industrial as minimal supply is out there. Let me give you just a couple of data points around that too for leasing and industrial in particular. Demand is accelerating in Q1. Absorption in the U.S. was up 52% year over year, so this is a great place to recruit. New and modern facilities are winning. Larger users are seeking modern logistics facilities to support automation, higher power requirements. That's becoming the primary driver of demand, And construction is down 60% from peak levels in 2022, which is going to help vacancy drift lower. But also importantly, the industrial leasing market is now 80% larger by dollar volume than it was pre-pandemic. And so as those leases roll over transaction values, they're going to be significantly higher. So net-net tightening market there, very similar dynamics in U.S. office leasing for us as well, where demand on a four-quarter rolling net absorption exceeded $5.2 million in Q1, which is the strongest level since the pandemic. Leasing, obviously, unfortunately gets overlooked sometimes relative to capital markets, but it's doing extraordinarily well.

Thank you. That's very helpful. And then I think you noted in the slides that the strong services growth out of EMEA was driven by improved facilities management in the U.K. and Ireland. and strong project management in France. Just wondering how sustainable those improvements are going forward. Should that higher growth carry for the rest of the year? And is this sort of evidence that the restructuring that you did last year is really taking hold, or actually the year before?

Yeah, Julian, as we look at services, certainly very pleased with what we're seeing internationally. Project management, you didn't mention that. that was an area of particular strength both in APAC and in EMEA. We certainly are seeing very nice improvement in margins in EMEA. It's our fifth quarter of margin expansion, and some of that is as a result of the structural work we did around our services businesses. So, in general, we feel very good about where services are going and the growth we're seeing.

Our next question comes from the line of Seth Berge with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks for taking my question. I guess the first one would be just, you know, one of the topics at Investor Day was the ability to kind of cross-sell and, you know, drive that by 200% by 2028. I guess where, you know, within kind of the 1Q results, can we start to see, you know, evidence of that and how you're tracking that? Or can you share any color on that initiative?

Yeah, certainly. Part of this is motivating teams in a cross-sell capacity. We've recently brought together the GOC, which is our next top 50 group of leaders, and align them on our compensation structure, which involves KPIs associated with the cross-sell. So we're starting to make good movement there. We're tracking a series of KPIs to ensure that's happening. We hit our targets over the course of the next three years.

Great. And then I guess just, you know, a quick question on kind of guidance with tracking 9% kind of ahead of the revenue target. You know, I know 1Q is a bit seasonally weak, but, you know, just thoughts on kind of, you know, leaving the guidance unchanged, tracking ahead with a strong first quarter.

Yeah, sure. I can address that. Look, certainly very pleased with the first quarter we had. Solid first quarter, solid leasing, certainly services was right in line with expectations. We do continue to see strong momentum in April, and pipelines look good. But we started the year with a feeling of very ambitious targets, and so we remain very confident in achieving those targets. But at this point, yeah, at this point, seeing everything pointing towards a solid year.

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pallone with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Thanks. Maybe I'll start with the last item you mentioned, Neil, and maybe Michelle. As you kind of look into April, May, June, whatever the sort of visibility looks like right now, can you talk about where there's been any changes or particular places of strength, property type or business segment-wise? especially since a lot of the first quarter, which was very good, was locked up before the war in some of the geopolitical matters.

Yeah, Tony, we're still seeing significant strength in April, and that really is across every business line and segment type.

And then my follow-up is you mentioned 50 data center projects and APAC, and just wondering if you were calling that out just as you were going around the globe and calling out different items, or if that's kind of where the bulk of your data center business is, or if there's any big geographic differences in your capabilities on the data center front, like in APAC versus the U.S. or EMEA.

Yeah, let me talk a little bit about that. We pulled that out because obviously that's a pretty substantial number, and that involves project planning, project development, construction and delivery, cost consulting, and technical due diligence. but in the Americas, we recently won a five-year project management mandate with a blue-chip tech firm. And this also focused on higher value, more technical services in the form of project control. We've won several leasing deals in the Americas since the beginning of the year. In EMEA, we've recently won five mandates in the Nordics for pre-construction advisory service. So it is across the globe that we are seeing business and execution in data centers.

Our next question comes from the line of Brendan Lynch with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. One on the office leasing, it's been really strong to start the year, as you suggested. Do you get the sense that companies are still catching up from not leasing sufficient space over the past couple of years? And if so, how far are we through this process?

I mean, I'd say there's a bit of that. You can talk about sub-leaf space, which is trending lower and down about 25% from the peak. So businesses are taking their space back. But we also have this really interesting supply dynamic that exists in the industrial market as well, where the U.S. construction pipeline is 85% below its Q1 2020 peak. So the dynamic is driving demand into the best-located Class A space. And so there's a bit of a scarcity play going on here as well. Lease terms are holding. And so it is not, you know, a single quarter event. The fundamentals are aligning to really support sustained activity in the office leasing sector.

Are you getting the sense that companies are leasing space in anticipation of future growth as well? That was kind of the trend years ago, and that kind of dissipated a bit. But now I'm sure they're seeing the lack of space that's on the market. Are they getting more assertive in trying to lock up space for a longer term than they have in recent years?

Yeah, they're getting more confident, where I think if you weren't sure if you were going to take the extra 20,000 square feet and you found an asset that you really like to take space in, you're going to go forward with that.

Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Sheldon with William Blair. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, good morning. So, yeah, great to see the continued acceleration in services. So I think kind of commentary here has been the pipelines are good, but just curious what you're seeing in the pipelines there and how different that might look between the different businesses within services, especially with the push you're making into more technical areas. So, yeah, we'd just love an update on the services pipeline.

Yeah, sure, Stephen. Look, as I said in the script, overall, our global services businesses are performing exactly where we want them to perform. Overall, up 7%. As I mentioned earlier, it's great to see the tremendous work that our teams are doing in APAC and EMEA, particularly around project management, but then also property management in EMEA. The one area where we have seen slightly slower growth in the Americas over the last couple of quarters is in facility services. That's our janitorial business where we've seen some contract transitions, but we feel very good about the work we're doing there. We are strengthening the platform, and we like the pipeline that we're seeing and what's happening. I think another key area of strength for us, particularly in the U.S. and globally, is our global occupier services business. That is our outsourcing of large enterprise clients. We've had some very big notable wins recently, and that's a real bright spot for us and lends itself really well to cross-selling and growing the business. So pretty excited about what we're seeing on the services

side. And then maybe on just as we look at regional profitability trends, it looked like APAC took a step back. This quarter was down quite a bit year over year. I'm assuming that's just I think maybe that was a tough comp, and I think especially with the capital markets and then capital markets being lower year over year. But just, yeah, I guess anything to call out there on the APAC profitability and maybe how you're thinking about that over the rest of the year?

You know, fundamentally, APAC has not slowed down. We like what we see, what we saw there and what we are seeing. There were really two primary drivers for that drop in profitability. But actually, as you said, the first one is, was capital markets in Japan. We had a couple of very large upsized transactions there a year ago. If you adjust those out, actually, Japan was up almost 100%. So we like the underlying fundamentals, but those tough comps certainly contributed to what we saw in the quarter, in that market, and in APEC overall. And then the second thing was we did recognize a $3.5 million lower earnings from OneWho, our joint venture in China, as a result of a one-time provision for credit losses. Now, China itself was actually – we actually started to see a bit of a recovery there. So China itself is very strong, but we had that one-time impact. So, you know, overall feel good about APAC, but certainly you saw the impact of those two things in the quarter in our results.

Our next question comes from the line of Ronald Camden with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Hey, great. Hey, just going back to the margin expansion target, you know, that I guess you still expect to achieve. Maybe can you just talk through just what sort of that entails, 150 basis points? Is that mix? Is it services? Is it some of the other business lines? I'd just love to double-click on, in your mind, where that margin uplift will come from and if we could start

seeing some of that this year. Yeah, sure, Ron. Look, as we look at margins, we're very focused on profitable growth. I think growth is clearly the headline, but at the same time, as we grow, we want to make sure that we're doing that profitability. So where are we seeing the margin improvement? Certainly as our transactional businesses grow, that's leasing and capital markets, that mix will result in higher margins. And then on the services side, we've got a lot of restructuring, restructuring around contracts, looking at the back office, making that more efficient. So it'll really be a combination of both of those that drives the margin. You know, very mindful of the investments we're making as well, making sure that those investments have a strong IRR and are driving both growth and profitability. So feel good about where we are. You saw the 30 basis points of margin expansion in the first quarter, and certainly we intend to keep that margin expansion going as we look out over the next three years.

And then my second question, just going back to sort of AI and data centers, maybe, you know, in terms of, I think you sort of highlighted in terms of leasing, there was some data center exposure. Maybe can you talk about, you know, some of the tailwinds and some of the other segments from that trend and what the company specifically is doing to position themselves?

Yeah, let me talk about us first, AI at Cushman. We view AI through two lenses here. One is as an efficiency enabler, and two, as a growth tool. So we consider efficiency gains table stakes. We know what these are. These are simple operating with rigor kind of standards, and we're continuing to evaluate ways we can optimize workflows and outcomes across the entire platform. On the growth side, the growth aspect is what excites us the most, leveraging our proprietary data to capture net new revenue. In this vein, we've entered into a strategic relationship with one of the leading AI companies. This provides us with external thought, leadership, and domain expertise to ensure we're considering every opportunity to drive growth across the platform. Now, when you talk about AI in the macro, which I think is where you're going, our view, which you're going to see in that report that I mentioned in my script, will be released today. We believe that AI expands the size of the economy, and that translates long-term into more demand for space. Based on our research, we name how much space that is. We expect AI to drive a net increase of 330 million dollars, I mean, sorry, 330 million more square feet of additional demand over the next decade, and we're already seeing early signs across office and industrial. So here's a couple of interesting points of information. U.S. office demand in Q1 had its highest post-pandemic reading. In the Bay Area, we're currently tracking an AI footprint of 7 million square feet up from 4.5 million square feet in 2025. Manhattan and San Fran with strong tech ecosystems were among the leaders in net office absorption in Q1. Industrial demand, like I mentioned earlier, was up 52% year-over-year in Q1, according to our internal research, with a focus on modern facilities designed for AI and automation that's accounting for most of that net absorption. So AI will be a net positive for demand, but there's some nuances that you need to pay attention to, right? Office will continue need to shift toward high-quality Class A space, flexible and tech-centric spaces. Industrial will shift toward, as we said, modern, more power-intensive facilities. Multifamily expect performance increasingly concentrated in high-growth markets, in talent-dense markets. And in retail, we expect the K-shape economy to persist, driving outperformance at the high

and low ends with pressure on mid-tier retail. Our next question comes from the line of Mitch Jermaine with Citizens JMP. Please proceed with your question. Yeah, thank you. So, Michelle,

I think you mentioned clients shifting capital to specialized sectors. So, I'm curious, you know, how are you guys positioning to capture some of that activity? Thanks for the question, Mitch.

For several years now, we have been allocating dollars into those specialties, both in terms of bringing in valuable talent to the platform, increasing our cross-sell, and building out those platforms globally. So when we talk about whether it's data centers or specialized logistics or life sciences, it's not just that we have the talent when you think about transactions. We also have it in servicing, and we support some of the biggest names in the world with regard to the assets that they either own or occupy in those spaces. That's helpful. And then just curious

about the environment with regards to hiring, because this is clearly a trend that seems to be consistent across most of your peers as well. Are you seeing shifts in sort of the ask, the economics around that, or anything you could share, please?

Do you mean in terms of hiring advisory or brokerage talent?

Exactly. Sorry about that. Yeah. I mean, is the contract different today?

Yeah, not really seeing a shift from our perspective in the way that we're structuring our contracts. We have a very specific way of going about analyzing and structuring our contracts. And so, no, we've not seen a material shift in those structures.

We have reached the end of the question and answer session. Ms. McKay, I'd like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments. Thank you, everyone, for your time today. And we

look forward to speaking to you again on our second quarter earnings call.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.