CBRE Group has agreed to acquire London-based Onnec Group in a deal worth up to approximately $1.01 billion, expanding its data-center infrastructure services across Europe and Asia Pacific.
Under the definitive agreement announced by CBRE on October 20, the commercial real estate and infrastructure services company will pay an initial GBP 460 million, or about $610 million, in cash. A multi-year earnout of as much as GBP 300 million, or approximately $400 million, is tied to Onnec meeting specified growth thresholds.
Onnec to join CBRE infrastructure business
Onnec will become part of CBRE’s Critical Infrastructure Services line of business after the transaction closes. The acquisition remains subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed around the end of 2026.
Founded in 1986, Onnec designs, deploys and maintains network, fiber and data-center infrastructure. The company has approximately 800 employees and serves hyperscale technology customers in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Asia Pacific. CBRE said Onnec’s footprint complements the data-center infrastructure services that CBRE already delivers in the United States.
The transaction adds specialized cabling, networking and deployment capabilities at a time when higher-density artificial intelligence infrastructure is increasing the complexity of data-center buildouts. Independent technology publication TechTarget reported that the combination could help hyperscalers standardize deployments across regions and reduce handoff problems between construction, network installation and ongoing operations.
CBRE expects Onnec to generate approximately GBP 370 million, or $498 million, in revenue and more than GBP 50 million, or $67 million, in core EBITDA in 2027. Those figures are management forecasts rather than historical results. CBRE also expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to core earnings per share.
Asia-Pacific reach spans major data-center markets
Onnec has been increasing its presence in Asia Pacific as cloud, artificial intelligence and digital-service demand drives new data-center construction. In a February update, the company said it had established entities in Malaysia and Thailand in 2025, adding to operations in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.
Onnec said it had recently delivered copper cabling and fiber-optic installations in Sydney, Melbourne and Johor, Malaysia. It also described work supporting liquid-cooled graphics processing unit racks and other high-density infrastructure. The company said its regional delivery network is backed by a global operations team of more than 200 full-time employees and 30 regional partners with over 2,000 trained engineers. These operating-scale figures are company-supplied and have not been independently audited in the acquisition announcement.
The regional expansion places Onnec in several of Asia’s fastest-growing data-center markets. Malaysia and Thailand are drawing investment as operators seek land, power and connectivity outside more constrained hubs, while Singapore remains a regional center for data-center ownership and financing.
CBRE targets $7B infrastructure-services business
CBRE projects that its Critical Infrastructure Services business, including Onnec, will produce nearly $4.5 billion in revenue in 2027. It expects Project Management, Advisory Services and its other service businesses to contribute almost $2.5 billion in infrastructure-services revenue, bringing the combined estimate to nearly $7 billion. The forecast excludes periodic data-center land sales from CBRE’s development business.
The acquisition illustrates how data-center demand is expanding beyond real estate and power capacity into the technical work needed to connect, commission and maintain computing infrastructure. For CBRE, the deal would add an established deployment platform in Europe and Asia Pacific while linking those capabilities with its existing US operations.
The final consideration could be materially below the headline value if Onnec does not meet the earnout thresholds. CBRE and Onnec did not disclose the detailed performance targets, financing arrangements or any planned workforce changes.
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