Shares of Colliers International Group (CIGI) plummeted over 7% during pre-market trading on Thursday despite the company reporting a better-than-expected 22% increase in fourth-quarter revenue to $1.5 billion. The steep stock decline followed Colliers' adjusted earnings per share of $2.26 missing the analysts' consensus estimate of $2.37 for the quarter.

While Colliers saw robust revenue growth across its real estate services, engineering, and investment management businesses, higher expenses weighed on profitability during the quarter. The engineering segment recorded the highest revenue percentage increase, driven by recent acquisitions in Canada, the US, and Australia. The capital markets business also performed strongly, benefiting from a cyclical recovery in transaction activity as interest rates stabilized.

Despite the earnings miss, Colliers' CEO Jay Hennick expressed optimism for continued growth in 2025. He cited the company's strong contractual backlogs in engineering, the capital markets recovery, and improved institutional allocations and fundraising conditions in investment management as key catalysts for the year ahead. Hennick also highlighted plans to streamline the investment management operations, positioning Colliers to become one of the world's leading mid-market alternative asset managers with nearly $100 billion in assets under management.