Altus Group (AIF-T) marked two decades of constant growth, adaptation and technological advancements within its business when it recently celebrated 20 years as a publicly traded company.

Members of Altus Group’s executive team rang the opening bell on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 6 to mark the date of its 20th anniversary on the exchange. 

Jorge Blanco, the commercial real estate service and technology provider’s New Jersey-based chief strategy officer, was at the company's Toronto headquarters recently and spoke with RENX about Altus’ past, present and future.

“If you look at the different chapters, the story -- from the acquisition of the PricewaterhouseCoopers valuation compliance practice to the acquisition of ARGUS and the continued growth of what was the property tax business until we divested the company -- has been preoccupied primarily with how we assist our clients improve their performance vis-a-vis their commercial real estate portfolio,” Blanco said. 

“That's been one constant.” 

Acquisitions have been important

Altus has made more than 50 acquisitions since its inception, some large though the majority have been relatively small. That has helped the company enter new international markets and expand its suite of services with additional complementary capabilities.

The 2011 acquisition of ARGUS Software, Altus' largest to that point, began the strategic pivot to serve the commercial real estate industry with technology to complement its valuation advisory services.

Other key acquisitions since then include:

• RealNet in 2014, which enhanced Altus’ data and market research and bolstered its technology stack;
• Finance Active in 2021, which expanded Altus' debt software capabilities;
• StratoDem Analytics and Reonomy in 2021, which added artificial intelligence and machine learning technology while expanding data capabilities to solve challenges with real-time data-driven insights and predictive analytics capabilities;
• and Forbury in 2023, which introduced software with cloud-based solutions tailored for the Asia-Pacific market to help users make informed decisions on when best to refinance, refurbish, reposition or divest their assets.

Over the past four years, Altus has made significant investments in data standardization, integration and data science. This has enabled it to develop a sharper focus on leveraging its technology, analytics and expertise to elevate its global intelligence platform and assist clients with enhancing decision-making, mitigating risks and achieving higher returns.

“Altus is continuously evolving -- modernizing our own capabilities, acquiring those that bolster our platform, and anticipating what’s next," Blanco said. "We’re not just keeping pace with change, we’re helping define what’s next for commercial real estate through smarter technology, deeper data and a bold vision for what’s possible.”

Blanco left KPMG in New York City in March 2021 to join Altus as its executive vice-president and chief product officer. He was named chief strategy officer in February.

“My job is to ensure that I’m keeping the company about three or four steps ahead of the customer in what's coming,” Blanco explained. “If I'm thinking about something that happened three days ago, I'm not doing my job. I need to be thinking three, five and 10 years out.”

Recent innovations and looking forward

Altus recently expanded its ARGUS Intelligence capabilities into benchmarking to provide access to insights to enhance acquisition, disposition and investment management strategies. It’s only available in the United States now but will soon follow into Canada.

“Analytics is a core component to that, as our clients want to do much more rapid simulation of the potential decisions that you could make,” Blanco said. “We all know these assets are not movable.

“They're reshapable, but they're not movable. So clients need to begin to consider all of the different factors that impact their value.”

While Altus isn’t currently contemplating taking its technology and expertise and adapting it for new industries, there are adjacent businesses related to commercial real estate where it could make future inroads.

“When you look at the full value chain, a lot of sectors that are not necessarily commercial real estate by nature — be it insurance, commercial lending, banking or debt investing — there are lots and lots of spaces that definitely are in our wheelhouse on areas that we should be supporting,” Blanco said. 

“While we will remain very focused on the expertise we have around properties, assets, et cetera, there will be an expansion of these services that will become much more consumable for folks that are not necessarily directly in the commercial real estate space.”

Sale of property tax business

Altus closed the $700-million sale of its property tax business to Dallas-based Ryan on Jan. 2, accelerating its transformation into a pure-play software, data and analytics platform.

Some of the sale proceeds have been reinvested in buying its own stock because leadership is bullish on Altus’ future prospects.

“The emphasis that we’ve put on free cash flow per share, combined with the capital on the balance sheet, gives us a lot of optionality to continue to grow, experiment and innovate,” Blanco said. 

Altus has a market cap of approximately $2.5 billion.

“It has continued to perform, but it could always perform better,” Blanco said. “We definitely think that there are other companies out there that get better multiples than we do.”

Blanco acknowledged parts of the commercial real estate industry have struggled over the past couple of years and that economic uncertainty is impacting monetary policy and growth. 

“If you look at the fundamentals of the company, we've been growing top line and we've been growing bottom line consistently for a number of years, essentially meeting all the expectations of the market."