CW 2020 Annual Report

Cushman & Wakefield plc Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

Note 1: Organization and Business Overview DTZ Jersey Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, was formed on August 21, 2014, by investment funds affiliated with TPG Capital, L.P. (“TPG”), PAG Asia Capital Limited (“PAG”) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (“OTPP”) (collectively, the “Sponsors”). On November 5, 2014, DTZ Jersey Holdings Limited acquired 100% of the combined DTZ group for $1.1 billion from UGL Limited (the “DTZ Acquisition”). On September 1, 2015, DTZ Jersey Holdings Limited acquired 100% of C&W Group, Inc. (“Cushman & Wakefield” or “C&W” and also defined as the “C&W Group merger”) for $1.9 billion. On July 6, 2018, the shareholders of DTZ Jersey Holdings Limited exchanged their shares in DTZ Jersey Holdings Limited for interests in newly issued shares of Cushman & Wakefield Limited, a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales (the “Share Exchange”). On July 12, 2018, Cushman & Wakefield Limited reduced the nominal value of each ordinary share issued to $0.01 (“Capital Reduction”). On July 19, 2018, Cushman & Wakefield Limited re-registered as a public limited company organized under the laws of England and Wales (the “Re-registration”) named Cushman & Wakefield plc (together with its subsidiaries, “ the Company, ” “we,” “ours” and “us” ). Following the Re-registration, the Company undertook a share consolidation of its outstanding ordinary shares (the “Share Consolidation”), which resulted in a proportional decrease in the number of ordinary shares outstanding as well as corresponding adjustments to outstanding options and restricted share units on a 10 for 1 basis. These financial statements have been retroactively adjusted to give effect to the Share Consolidation as it relates to all issued and outstanding ordinary shares and related per share amounts contained herein. The transactions described above are collectively referred to herein as the “Corporate Reorganization”. On August 6, 2018, the Company completed an IPO of its ordinary shares in which it issued and sold 51.8 million ordinary shares at a price of $17.00 per share. On August 6 and 7, 2018, the Company completed a concurrent private placement (the "Concurrent Private Placement") of its ordinary shares in which it sold 10.6 million shares to Vanke Service (Hong Kong) Co., Limited ("Vanke Service") at a price of $17.00 per share. The IPO and Concurrent Private Placement resulted in net proceeds of approximately $1.0 billion after deducting offering fees and other direct incremental costs. Public trading in the Company's ordinary shares began on August 2, 2018. As of December 31, 2020, the Company operated from over 400 offices in 60 countries with approximately 50,000 employees. The Company’s business is focused on meeting the increasing demands of our clients across multiple service lines including Property, facilities and project management, Leasing, Capital markets and Valuation and other services. The Company primarily does business under the Cushman & Wakefield tradename. Note 2: Summary of Significant Accounting Policies a) Principles of Consolidation The Company maintains its accounting records on the accrual basis of accounting and its Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“U.S. GAAP”). The accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of the Company and its consolidated subsidiaries, which include voting interest entities (“VOEs”) in which the Company has determined it has a controlling financial interest in accordance with the provisions of Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 810, Consolidations . All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. When applying principles of consolidation, management will identify whether an investee entity is a variable interest entity (“VIE”) or a VOE. For VOEs, the Company consolidates the entity when it controls it through majority ownership and voting rights. The Company has determined that it does not have any material interests in VIEs. The Consolidated Financial Statements are presented in U.S. dollars. Entities in which the Company has significant influence over the entity’s financial and operating policies, but does not control, are accounted for using the equity method. The Consolidated Financial Statements include the Company’s share of the income and expenses and equity movements of investees accounted for under the equity method, after adjustments to align the accounting policies with those of the Company, from the date that significant influence or joint control commences until the date that significant influence ceases. When the Company’s share of losses exceeds its interest in an investee, the carrying amount of that interest (including any long-term loans) is

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