CBRE will pay up to £760m for Onnec, 15 times 2027 earnings. Its 22 October results are next

CBRE, the commercial property services group, is paying up to £760 million for a company that pulls fibre and builds network rooms inside hyperscale data centres. That is the stake in one line: the scarce part of the AI build-out in Europe is no longer only power and land, it is the skilled crews who fit out the halls.

Why now: Onnec almost doubled its revenue in two years as hyperscalers cabled AI capacity, and CBRE wants that growth inside its own services business before rivals buy it. The deal is due to close around the end of 2026, and CBRE will face its first investor questions on it when it reports third-quarter results on Thursday, 22 October.

What CBRE is buying

Onnec was founded in 1986 and is based in London. It designs, deploys and maintains network, fibre and data centre infrastructure, including structured cabling and managed services, for the largest technology companies in the UK, continental Europe and Asia-Pacific. It has about 800 full-time staff across EMEA, the US and Asia-Pacific, and many of its customer relationships run for more than 30 years, according to CBRE’s announcement, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 20 October.

The terms are simple. CBRE pays £460 million (about US$610 million) in cash at completion. A further multi-year earnout of up to £300 million (about US$400 million) is paid only if Onnec meets growth thresholds. Completion needs the usual regulatory approvals and is expected around the end of 2026. CBRE expects the deal to add to its core earnings per share immediately.

Source: CBRE Group, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, 20 Oct 2026; IPE Real Assets, 20 Oct 2026. US dollar figures are CBRE’s conversions.

CBRE presents the deal as part of a plan, not a one-off. Vikram Kohli, its chief operating officer, put it this way.

The price: cheap on 2027, expensive on 2025

Whether CBRE is paying a lot depends on which year you believe. Onnec’s turnover rose 41.3% to £193 million in the year to 31 December 2025, from £136.6 million in 2024, and adjusted EBITDA rose to £21.9 million from £7.2 million, ChannelWeb reported from the company’s results. CBRE’s forecast for 2027 is about £370 million of revenue and more than £50 million of core EBITDA.

Put those numbers against the price and the deal looks very different depending on the year. On 2025 EBITDA, the £460 million upfront payment is 21.0 times earnings. On CBRE’s 2027 forecast, it is 9.2 times. If Onnec earns the whole £300 million earnout, the £760 million total is 15.2 times the 2027 figure (all our calculation).

To hit CBRE’s forecast, Onnec’s revenue has to grow about 38.5% a year from 2025 to 2027, roughly the pace of 2025 itself, and its EBITDA margin has to rise from 11.3% in 2025 to about 13.5% in 2027. In 2024 that margin was 5.3% (our calculation from the reported figures). In our view, this is the logic of the earnout: CBRE pays a moderate multiple for the growth it can see and makes the seller carry the risk on the rest. Up to 39% of the maximum price, £300 million of £760 million, depends on growth that has not happened yet.

How it compares with Pearce

CBRE has done this before. On 4 November 2025 it agreed to buy Pearce Services, a US technical services firm that maintains data centres, cell towers and energy storage sites, from New Mountain Capital for about US$1.2 billion in cash plus an earnout of up to US$115 million tied to 2027 performance. CBRE forecast more than US$660 million of revenue and more than US$90 million of EBITDA for Pearce in 2026, its release said.

Sources: CBRE releases of 4 Nov 2025 and 20 Oct 2026; Facilities Dive for Pearce staff. Multiples are our calculation; CBRE’s forecasts are “more than” figures, so true multiples may be a little lower. The two deals use different forecast years and should be compared with care.

Two things stand out. First, the price for Onnec, at the maximum, is in line with Pearce: about 15 times forecast EBITDA in both cases. Second, the structure is very different. Pearce was a mature business bought mostly for cash; only 9% of its maximum price was contingent. Onnec is a fast-growing one, and 39% of its maximum price depends on growth. CBRE chief executive Bob Sulentic described Pearce in terms that fit Onnec just as well.

Why CBRE wants the fit-out crews

CBRE’s own numbers show how big this line has become. Including Onnec, it expects its Critical Infrastructure Services business to make nearly US$4.5 billion of revenue in 2027, and all of its infrastructure services together to make nearly US$7.0 billion, excluding periodic data centre land sales. Onnec’s expected US$498 million would be about 11% of the Critical Infrastructure Services line (our calculation). A year ago, CBRE said its digital and power infrastructure services would make more than US$350 million of core EBITDA in 2026, including Pearce.

The reason is the work inside the hall. An AI data hall needs far more fibre than a conventional one, because every GPU server is wired into a dense back-end network. DC Market Insights estimates passive fibre cabling content at about US$0.681 million per AI megawatt in 2025, against US$0.211 million per conventional megawatt, or 3.2 times as much, before labour. Each extra metre of fibre has to be designed, pulled, terminated, tested and later maintained, and that is Onnec’s business.

Onnec has been buying to grow in the same direction. In June 2026 it acquired GI-Networks, a Danish cabling and data centre infrastructure firm based in Værløse, to expand in the Nordics and add data centre infrastructure management skills, Intelligent CIO reported; BDO, which advised on the deal, says it has completed. Onnec’s chairman framed the sale as a step up in scale.

The wider pattern: Europe’s services firms are being bought

Onnec is not the only European data centre contractor to change hands this year. On 28 April 2026, Eiffage’s German subsidiary Salvia agreed to buy 74.9% of Hand & Werk, a German data centre contractor that designs and installs building technical systems and maintains equipment. Hand & Werk had turnover of €85 million in 2025 and about 200 staff, and the deal is expected to close within 2026, subject to German competition approval, Eiffage said.

The buyers are different, a property services group and a construction group, but the target is the same: specialist crews that hyperscalers already trust. In our view, this tells investors where margins are moving. Land and power are being priced through grid queues and connection fees. Skilled fit-out and maintenance labour is being priced through acquisitions like this one.

The UK, Onnec’s home market, shows the size of the work still ahead. DC Market Insights data, updated on 20 October, tracks 184 UK data centre facilities with 759.6 MW live, 286 MW under construction and 6,935.4 MW planned. The pipeline of 7,221 MW is 9.5 times the capacity live today (our calculation). Even if only part of it is built, every hall that is built needs cabling, fit-out and maintenance.

Source: DC Market Insights facilities data, United Kingdom, 184 facilities, 98 with a stated MW, as of 20 Oct 2026. Planned capacity includes early-stage proposals that may not be built.

For market sizing on the work Onnec does, see our Data Center Fiber Optic Cabling Connectivity Market report, which puts the market at US$6.23 billion in 2026. For the maintenance side CBRE is building, see the Data Center Facility Management O&M Services Market report, which counts CBRE among the five largest providers. For the design work upstream, see the Data Center Design Market report. Our DC Market Insights data pages track UK facilities, operators and deals.

What to watch next

• 22 October 2026: CBRE reports third-quarter 2026 results at about 6:55 a.m. US Eastern time, with a call at 8:30 a.m. Watch for any update on Critical Infrastructure Services revenue and on how the Onnec price will be funded.
• Before completion: regulatory approvals for the Onnec deal, which CBRE calls customary.
• Around 31 December 2026: expected completion of the Onnec acquisition.
• Within 2026: German competition approval and closing of Eiffage’s 74.9% stake in Hand & Werk.
• 2027: the year CBRE expects Onnec to make about £370 million of revenue and more than £50 million of core EBITDA, and the year Pearce’s earnout is measured.

Frequently asked questions

How much is CBRE paying for Onnec?

£460 million in cash upfront, about US$610 million, plus a multi-year earnout of up to £300 million if Onnec meets growth thresholds. The maximum total is £760 million, about US$1.01 billion. CBRE announced the deal on 20 October 2026 and expects it to close around the end of 2026.

What does Onnec do?

Onnec, founded in 1986 and based in London, designs, deploys and maintains network, fibre and data centre infrastructure, including structured cabling, for hyperscalers in the UK, continental Europe and Asia-Pacific. It has about 800 full-time staff and reported £193 million of turnover in 2025.

What multiple is CBRE paying for Onnec?

9.2 times CBRE’s 2027 core EBITDA forecast of more than £50 million on the upfront price, and 15.2 times if the full earnout is paid. On Onnec’s 2025 adjusted EBITDA of £21.9 million, the upfront price is 21.0 times. These are DC Market Insights calculations.

Why are data centre services firms being acquired?

AI halls need far more cabling and specialist maintenance. DC Market Insights estimates fibre content at US$0.681 million per AI MW against US$0.211 million per conventional MW in 2025. CBRE expects its Critical Infrastructure Services line to make nearly US$4.5 billion in 2027, and Eiffage is buying German contractor Hand & Werk.