CBRE wins Property Award.

The award for International Achievement at the prestigious 2004 Property Awards in the United Kingdom went to CB Richard Ellis for its highly successful merger.

Just over one year ago CB Richard Ellis announced its intended merger with Insignia Financial Group to form one of the world's largest commercial property advisory firms, with over 13,500 employees in 220 offices in 48 countries.

Mike Strong, chairman of CB Richard Ellis Europe said: "This award is just recognition for all our people who made such outstanding efforts to ensure that the merger was a success while not, for one moment, providing anything less than the highest standard of client service."

Added to the International Achievement Award was the hugely important Investment Agency of the Year award. The CB Richard Ellis investment team advised on two of the most important global deals last year. In just 47 days the team completed the $1.227 billion sale of the Chartwell Land portfolio in the UK. Then, the combined strength of the CBRE worldwide network was involved when the US Blackstone Real Estate Group pulled off Germany's biggest ever property transaction with the acquisition of the Deutsche Bank property portfolio.

"It is extremely gratifying that our investment team has already had the opportunity to handle two of the largest investment deals in the world last year,' said capital markets chairman at CBRE Greg Nicholson. "We have already been able to demonstrate that our merged team is capable of handling the most complex deals with speed and complete client satisfaction."

"From the outset we were determined that the merger would produce exceptional benefits for our clients and ourselves," said EMEA chief executive Alan Froggatt. "These two very significant awards confirm that we are creating a leading ground breaking firm."