Real Estate Portfolio Realisation for ONE

Cushman & Wakefield was appointed in 2017 to support the high-profile merger of three of the largest Japanese shipping companies – NYK, MOL and K-Line.

Collectively needing to change their business models to decrease costs and increase market share, these three giant market players have responded with an innovative approach in their highly competitive industry.

Not seen in this industry before, each company has merged their container shipping businesses into a new joint venture company called Ocean Network Express (ONE), the first three-way merger of its size in Japanese shipping.

Publicly trading globally from the 1st April 2018, ONE is the 6th largest container shipping business globally.

To successfully distinguish themselves from their competition, ONE branded themselves in an eye-catching magenta and shifted their global headquarters from the traditional Japanese locations of their parent companies to Singapore.

While their parent companies still remain competitors in the non-container markets, the three companies came together respectfully and seamlessly in true Japanese style with the formation of ONE.

This was particularly realised in the real estate workstream with the consolidation of three existing property portfolios into a single optimised one, comprising a respectful balance between existing offices from the three portfolios, re-furbished and re-branded, as well as new acquisitions where required.

The teams at Cushman & Wakefield worked with ONE to achieve their company vision providing support through portfolio analysis, office acquisition, workplace design, fitout construction and capital allowances advice.

Acting as the single point of contact between the client and the multiple workstreams, our Programme Management team established governance and reporting mechanisms and initiated mobilisation and transition stages.

Working closely with the Programme Manager, the Transaction and Strategic Consulting teams were able to utilise their depth of analyst experience across EMEA to collate, analyse and report on the portfolio in a way that synergised local detail into strategic focus, achieving efficiencies of scale.

The Office Acquisition team executed their work ensuring that ONE's vision and requirements were delivered across the portfolio.

While the transaction team built a solid relationship with the client centrally, our brokers engaged directly with landlords and representatives on the ground.

The fit-out of the offices was directed by Project Development Services who were involved from the project kick-off to achieve effective and efficient management and risk mitigation.

They worked with Workplace Strategy specialists to develop a Design Standards document which set the standard for all European and African offices to ensure ONE's offices reflected their powerful vision, enhanced employee engagement and differentiated them from their competitors.

Significant cost savings were achieved through reviewing opportunities across the EMEA portfolio. We advised ONE on recommended approaches with respect to fixed asset treatment in key regions, the team then applied their unique, specialist knowledge to the four UK locations under instruction.

Coordination and collaboration facilitated the smooth progression of the project and aided efficiency to meet the needs of ONE’s new culture and direction.

Leveraging the benefits of the three separate portfolios and newly formed organisation, Cushman & Wakefield mobilised a large team of experts successfully delivering the final result, comprising of 48 offices in 23 countries across Europe and Africa, a mixture of traditional long-term leases, flexible serviced office space and virtual offices, on-time, on-brand and fit-for-purpose.

The outcome - in addition to a stress-free, highly transparent journey for ONE and a stunning, modern and well branded fitout - was 16 beautiful, collaborative, fully operational offices, methodically tested, snagged and handed over to ONE's staff.

The Design Standards gave the central team the ability to identify and control critical elements of the workplace across this portfolio and for any future projects to achieve coordination, including the sophisticated application of the magenta colour across various materials and surfaces.

In terms of office acquisition, the result is the execution of 46 new and re-geared office leases in line with ONE's joint venture programme.

The smooth facilitation of regular updates from the brokers and instructions from the client ensured continuous alignment and guarantee of the best properties with the best deal for ONE's strategy