FirstService Corporation has become an independent public company after being separated from Colliers International Group Inc.
FirstService shares began trading on The NASDAQ Stock Market and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol FSV yesterday (Tuesday).
The spinoff highlights the company’s position as North America’s largest residential property manager.
“With our new structure, sharpened focus and dedicated resources at FirstService, I am extremely excited to be leading and working with our exceptional operating management teams to continue driving the successful growth we have achieved over the past 20 years,” said Scott Patterson, president and CEO of FirstService.
“At FirstService Residential, we are capitalizing on our significant scale advantage and recent investments in our national operating platform to deliver greater value to our clients through a wide array of proprietary products and ancillary services.”
Patterson added, “We are the leaders in large, highly fragmented markets, which provides us with significant room for growth and increased market share and positions us for future consolidation opportunities.”
Armed with a $200 million five-year revolving credit facility and $150 million in senior long-term notes, FirstService is positioned to execute its strategy of driving internal growth across its businesses, augmented by acquisition, according to Jeremy Rakusin, Chief Financial Officer of FirstService.
Colliers has been the fastest growing commercial real estate firm in the world over the past 10 years and is ranked number five in the IAOP annual list of Global Outsourcing 100 companies.
FirstService Corporation’s pro forma revenue totalled $1.1 billion last year.
Announcing the plans to separate the companies in February, Jay Hennick, FirstService founder and CEO, said, “We are taking the next bold, but logical, step in unlocking even greater value for FirstService shareholders by separating our company into two, billion dollar public companies, Colliers International and FirstService Corporation.”
