A Capital Structure Analysis for CBRE

Jason Baires

Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation

College: College of Business and Public Management

Major: BS.FINANCE

Faculty Research Mentor: Andreas Kakolyris

Abstract:

CBRE Group, inc. is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, operating across more than 100 countries with over 130,000 employees. Tracing its origins to 1906, the company has evolved into a global leader in advisory services, project management, and investment management, currently serving approximately 90% of the Fortune 100. This analysis examines CBRE's optimal capital structure by simulating its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) under various leverage scenarios. Utilizing the synthetic rating method and 2025 fiscal data, we investigate how changes in the debt-to-equity ratio impact the firm’s creditworthiness and levered beta. Our model utilizes the synthetic rating method to investigate capital sensitivities of hypothetical alternative leverages by using Bloomberg Terminal data. The literature findings indicate that changes in the value of beta due to different leverage levels or other risk factors do not significantly affect the cost of capital.