Cushman & Wakefield plc

Good day, and welcome to Cushman and Wakefield's fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. If you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. 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 fourth quarter 2024 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 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 2023 and in local currency unless otherwise stated. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Michelle McKay.

Thank you, Megan, and good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We concluded 2024 with unparalleled momentum, reporting our highest capital markets revenue growth since the first quarter of 2022. and another robust quarter of leasing growth. Our services business is now solidified and invigorated, poised to reaccelerate and further supported by investments going into the platform this year. 2024 produced one of the highest free cash flow conversion percentages in the history of the company, and that positions us well to pursue top tier talent, invest in our services business, and execute on our growth plan inclusive of M&A, We developed a strategy that includes a commitment to delivering progressively improving earnings growth over the next several years. As of now, the macroeconomic environment as it pertains to property is largely favorable. The economy is growing, creating jobs, corporate profits are healthy, odds of a recession have receded. All of these factors have created a healthy backdrop for leasing. And our own performance confirms that leasing has momentum as we have now had five straight consecutive quarters of year-over-year leasing revenue growth. For capital markets, we are observing early stages of a recovery. For two years, the market was largely recalibrating to higher interest rates. That was the hardest part. But now we are largely past that. Property values have corrected. Central banks have begun reducing rates. Debt costs and availability of debt have improved because lenders are sensing the inflection. And buyers and sellers are proving that they can do deals in this environment as evidenced by our Q4 performance. For our 2025 outlook, we expect leasing revenue growth to remain solid. We continue to observe green shoots in office. Return to office is gaining momentum. Net absorption is improving. And nearly half of the markets that we track registered positive absorption in Q4, and a healthy pipeline of expiring leases will create steady deal flow. Industrial is normalizing, but its growth engines of e-commerce, consumer spending, third-party logistics, and supply chain optimization remain strong. In capital markets, we are not calling for a hockey stick recovery because interest rates will more than likely remain high in this cycle. The Fed funds rate isn't likely going to be zero again, and the 10-year yield isn't going to be two again. So we won't get the frenzied activity that we did coming out of COVID. But based on what we're observing and if current trends hold, we will likely get a good bounce in 2025 as confidence in our sector continues to grow. We believe that we are in the early innings of a multi-year upcycle in commercial real estate. And so we are accelerating investments across our platform in 2025. The cyclical uplift combined with the work that we are doing to accelerate profitable growth and our continued commitment to improving our balance sheet makes this an exciting time to be at Cushman and Wakefield. I want to thank our teams across the globe for an exceptional 2024 and for driving us forward with our new vision. to be known as the premium brand in the industry and to set the standard across the built environment for problem solving through exceptional advice and execution of services. Now, let me hand the call over to Neil to review our financial performance.