Good afternoon and welcome. I'm Peter Cohen, the Vice Chairman and Lead Director of the board of directors of Colliers International Group Inc. I will be acting as chair of this meeting. Before we can begin the official part of the meeting, allow me to introduce the people who are here with me today. Jay Hennick, our Chairman, CEO, and also a director. Next to him is John Friedrichsen, our Chief Financial Officer, as well as Matthew Hawkins, the Corporate Secretary. Let me also introduce the members of our board who are here with us today. We have Kathy Lee. Please rise, Kathy. They can see you in case they have any questions. Jack Curtin. The Honorable Stephen Harper. I can't see. Is that Mike Harris back there? Mike Harris. Used to be honorable, but still honorable. Provincially honorable. Okay.
Before we begin the formal part of the meeting, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for joining us here today. I would also like to welcome those listening through the internet, as the meeting is being webcast live through colliers.com, where it will be archived and accessible for one year. It's now past 4:00, I would ask that the annual meeting of shareholders of Colliers come to order. I would like to remind all those present that this is a meeting of shareholders, that although other persons are present, whom we are pleased to welcome, only shareholders or their proxies are entitled to participate in the business of the meeting. With the consent of the meeting, I will act as chair. In accordance with the Colliers bylaws, Matthew Hawkins will act as secretary of the meeting.
I appoint Rosa Vieira of TSX Trust to act as scrutineer for the meeting. The minutes of the last annual and special meeting of shareholders, held on April 10th, 2018, are here and are available for inspection. With the consent of the meeting, we will dispense with the reading of these minutes, the minutes shall be taken as read. I also table a copy of the audited consolidated financial statements of Colliers for the year ended December 31st, 2018, and the auditor's report thereon. You will have received them with today's meeting materials, additional copies are here, available at the back of the room. With the consent, once again, of the meeting, the reading of the auditor's report will be taken as read, the financial statement shall be received.
Please note that after the formal portion of the meeting, the management team will be making a presentation about Colliers and its future. Following the presentation, management will be available to answer any questions you may have. Accordingly, during the formal portion of this meeting, I would ask that you limit your questions to those matters directly related to the specific items being considered. Notice and proxy materials for the meeting were mailed to shareholders, additional copies are available here today as well. Would the secretary please report on whether a quorum is present?
According to the bylaws of Colliers, a quorum for any meeting of shareholders is any two shareholders entitled to vote at the meeting, whether present in person or represented by proxy. In accordance with the preliminary attendance figures received from the scrutineer, it is clear that we have a quorum of shareholders. A copy of the final report of the scrutineer will be annexed to the minutes of this meeting.
Thank you. I'm advised there is a quorum present. As a quorum is present, I declare that the meeting to be regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. In view of the need to attend to a number of formal matters, certain shareholders have volunteered to move and second resolutions where required. While this procedure will facilitate the handling of the formal matters, any shareholder or any proxy holder may speak on the matter when the matter is before the meeting. When I recognize you, please give your name, state whether you are a shareholder or a proxy holder. The first item of business is to consider a resolution appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent auditors of Colliers, at a remuneration to be fixed by the directors. In order to be approved, the resolution must be passed by a majority of the votes cast.
May I have a motion for the approval of this resolution?
Christian Mayer, shareholder. This is chairman move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed independent auditors of Colliers and hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders at a remuneration to be fixed by the board of directors of Colliers.
May I have a seconder?
Michael Harris, shareholder. I second the motion.
Is there any discussion? The meeting will now vote on the motion. I propose to take the vote by way of a show of hands. Will those in favor of the motion please signify by raising your hands? Those opposed, if any? I declare the motion carried. The next item of business is the election of nine directors. These directors will hold office until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until their successors are elected or appointed or they otherwise cease to hold office. The management information circular states that there are nine proposed candidates. The secretary will now read their names.
The names of the director nominees are Peter Cohen, Jack Curtin, Christopher Galvin, Stephen Harper, Michael Harris, Jay Hennick, Kathryn Lee, Benjamin Stein, Frederick Sutherland.
Thank you. I would like to remind shareholders that directors are to be voted on individually in accordance with Colliers' majority voting policy. I now recognize Christian Mayer.
Mr. Chairman, I nominate each of the nine persons whose names have been read at this meeting for election as directors of Colliers until the next annual meeting of shareholders, or until his or her successor is elected or appointed, or he or she otherwise ceases to hold office.
Thank you. Does any shareholder or proxy holder wish to make any further nominations? Since there are no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed. May I have a motion in favor of the election of each of the nine persons nominated?
Mr. Chairman, I move that each of the persons nominated be individually elected as directors of Colliers until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until his or her successor is duly elected or appointed, or he or she otherwise ceases to hold office, subject to and in accordance with Colliers' bylaws and majority voting policy.
Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Thank you. The meeting will now vote on the election of directors individually. I propose to take the individual votes by way of a show of hands. Will those in favor of the election of a director, please signify by raising your hands after I call their name. In favor of Peter Cohen. Thank you. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Jack Curtin. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Christopher Galvin. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Stephen Harper. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Mike Harris. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Jay Hennick. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Kathy Lee. Those opposed, if any? Excuse me. In favor of Benjamin Stein. Those opposed, if any? In favor of Fred Sutherland. Those opposed, if any? I declare the motions carried with respect to each individual nominee.
Before I terminate the formal portion of the meeting, I would like to ask if there's any further business to be brought before this meeting. As there is no further business, I declare the formal portion of this meeting terminated. Now I would like to ask our Chairman and CEO, Jay Hennick, to address the shareholders. Jay.
I think that took six minutes, Peter. Next year, you can do it in five. Welcome, everyone, to Colliers International's Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'd like to thank Peter again for doing a great job as chairman of the meeting. He always does such a great job and brings some nice anecdotes to the table, and we always appreciate your involvement, Peter. Thank you. I'm also pleased to be joined on the dais by our Global Chief Financial Officer, John Friedrichsen, and our Chief Legal Counsel, Matt Hawkins. Today, we begin with an overview of 2018 and the tremendous growth we've achieved and continue to see as we enter 2019. Then I'll return with some additional observations and thoughts about our future. As you've heard in the past, Colliers is a company that is enterprising.
We set ambitious plans, we attract and develop industry leaders, and we focus on accelerating the success of our clients, our people, and our shareholders. Colliers people are passionate about what they do. They take personal responsibility, and they always strive to do what's right. Our entrepreneurial culture is what sets us apart, and that philosophy is reinforced by our leaders, who own more than 40% of the equity in our company, significantly more than any of our global competitors. With so much of our own money on the table, we are perfectly aligned with you, our shareholders. Furthermore, our leadership team has a long and distinguished record of creating value, about 20% compound annual returns over the past 24 years. That record of performance is truly extraordinary and speaks volumes about the Colliers way of capitalizing on opportunities and converting them into value for shareholders.
The commercial real estate services industry is massive. The global market for our services exceeds $240 billion a year, and yet the top five players only represent about 15% of the overall market, leaving us with incredible opportunities to grow. In late 2015, we established a five-year plan to double the size of our company by the year 2020. When we announced the plan, many thought it ambitious. To achieve the goal, we had to grow our business internally by about 5% a year on average over five years, and we had to add about 10% of the prior year's EBITDA in acquisitions. I'm pleased to say that we've now completed the third year of our plan, and we're on track to achieving our target.
In fact, with hard work and a little bit of luck, we may even be able to exceed the target this year, one year earlier than expected. No guarantees, but we hope we can. We have already begun planning for the next five years, a plan that we're going to call our Enterprise 2025 Plan, although it's really still early days. Given our remarkable growth, I'm not sure we're going to be able to double the size of our company once again, but I can assure you that our plan, whatever it is, will be bold and ambitious because that's what we're all about at Colliers. Without a doubt, 2018 was a defining year for our company. Revenues were $2.8 billion, up 16%. EBITDA was $311 million, up 28%, and earnings per share came in at $4.09 a share, up 29% over the prior year period.
We established a new investment management platform with the acquisition of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, a pioneer in demographic-based investing with a proven track record of delivering best-in-class returns. By the end of last year, our new platform had in excess of $26 billion in assets under management. Quite incredible. In addition to Harrison Street, we completed a record 11 acquisitions, including five in the Americas, four in Europe, and two in Asia Pacific, strengthening our businesses in each of those regions. And just after year-end, we completed another significant acquisition, the market leader in Virginia, with more than 340 real estate professionals. All of these additions solidified our place as the world's fastest-growing global real estate services firm. One of the keys to our success has been a focus on increasing recurring revenue streams while continuing to diversify.
Both bring balance and stability to our business and provide us with a strong foundation to continue growing. Currently, about 75% of our earnings come from ongoing revenue streams, and geographically, about 60% of our revenues come from the Americas, with the remainder balanced pretty much between Europe and Asia Pacific. We also know that technology enables professionals to deliver smarter, more specialized services to our clients by better enabling decision-making, streamlining processes, and improving effectiveness. We're midway through a global initiative to augment our online presence, providing for greater access and functionality for our clients and for our people. Furthermore, our proprietary Colliers360 for corporate users, Colliers Workplace Expert for occupiers and tenants, Colliers Insight for industrial users, and Colliers CRM for our real estate professionals are just a few of the examples of our technology strategy in action.
We also believe that we can gain new insights from early-stage technology opportunities, especially those that might affect the way we do business. In 2018, we launched the first-ever Colliers Proptech Accelerator in partnership with Techstars, a world leader in building accelerators and then investing in early-stage technology companies. Our partnership is part of our focus on targeted innovation to create solutions, to shape technologies, and to find opportunities at the intersection of real estate services and the technologies surrounding them. Our inaugural class in 2018 represented solutions from the real estate value chain sourced from around the world. More than 150 mentors worked closely with our 10 cohort companies, and the program culminated in final presentations to an audience of more than 600 Colliers clients, professionals, real estate industry leaders, and of course, technology investors.
In February, we formally launched the 2019 program as we continue to look for new insights and perhaps even industry-disrupting technologies that will accelerate the success of our business and accelerate the success for our clients in the years to come. Before I turn things over to John, I'd like to share with you a short video that will give you a sense of the excitement at the recent demo day for the Colliers Proptech Accelerator. Please take a look.
Thank you to all 800 guests with us here at the beautiful Koerner Hall in Toronto, and thank you to the thousands that are joining us from abroad. We are live streaming it across 69 countries around the world. Welcome, all, to the first Colliers Proptech Accelerator, powered by Techstars. This is Demo Day. What we're about to share with you today is the culmination of a 13-week journey for 35 brave entrepreneurs that represent 10 companies and seven countries around the world. Half of them have joined us from outside of North America. You're in for a truly amazing day.
Our group of mentors at the most senior levels of our organization, including our global CFO, our strategic investment team, and our regional CEOs, have been consistently impressed with the enterprising spirit, quick thinking, and openness from our teams in our inaugural class.
Of course, the journey is just beginning. They are going to get plugged into a worldwide network. Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Our mission is to then help them along their journey, wherever they choose to go.
All of you have been invited here as part of the Colliers or Techstars community. We want you to have a chance to be able to sit down and get to know the founders themselves. Let's give a big round of applause for all the entrepreneurs. They've worked so hard. Thank you all for being with us here today. Thank you to the 150 mentors that participated in this program. You are what makes Techstars so special. Thank you so much. Come on, guys. Let's give one big round of applause for the founders.
Let's have you get that last picture in. It's an amazing group of entrepreneurs trying to define the future. I'm going to bring it back to the here and now. Thank you, Jay, and good afternoon, everyone. As highlighted by Jay in his opening address, Colliers delivered yet another strong year of financial performance in 2018, our third full year as an independent public company, reaching all-time highs across a series of key financial metrics driven by strong contributions from our operations across our global platform. During my address today, I'll review our 2018 operating results, cash flow from operations, capital allocation, financial position, and financial capacity. I'll conclude with some perspective on how your executive management team and inside shareholders see the road ahead.
In 2018, consolidated revenues increased to more than $2.8 billion, an increase of 15% in local currencies, with 6% internal growth and the balance from acquisitions. Adjusted EBITDA for the year totaled $311 million, an increase of 27%, with our adjusted EBITDA margin up 100 basis points to 11%, and adjusted earnings per share of $4.09, up 29%. Revenues from our principal service groups were all up in 2018. Sales brokerage revenues totaled $781 million, up 7%. Leasing brokerage revenues totaled $904 million, up 17%. Outsourcing and advisory revenues came in at $1.066 billion, up 14% over the prior year. Our new investment management business, established in 2018 with the acquisition of Harrison Street, contributed $76 million of revenues, establishing our operating platform in this important area, one that will be more about contribution to adjusted EBITDA in the years to come.
Geographically, both revenues and adjusted EBITDA remained well-balanced in 2018. The Americas generated 59% of our revenues and 51% of our adjusted EBITDA. 22% of revenues and 27% of adjusted EBITDA came from Europe, and Asia Pacific contributed 19% of revenues and 22% of adjusted EBITDA. Our global platform with its geographic and service line diversification continues to be an important part of our service line capabilities as well as our growth strategy while mitigating our performance risk from a decline in market-related activity. Each of our major regional operations delivered solid growth in revenues and EBITDA as measured in local currencies. In the Americas, revenues were $1.6 billion, up 13%. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $142 million, up 14%, with a margin of 8.9%.
Our results in the Americas included a record performance by our market-leading Canadian operation led by David Bowden and Scott Addison, with revenues and adjusted EBITDA up 17% and 16% respectively, including organic revenue growth of 13% for the year. Turning to our operations in Europe, revenues of $623 million increased another 17% over our record performance in 2017, led by solid growth across the region, except in the U.K., where Brexit-related uncertainty limited our growth. This was more than offset by our robust performance in Germany, Denmark, Spain, and a recovery in our business in France. Adjusted EBITDA was $89 million, up 27%, with a margin coming in at 14.2%.
Turning back to our regional results for 2018, in our Asia Pacific region, revenues came in at $528 million, up 8%, led by growth across all three service segments, led by strong growth in Asia, particularly China and Hong Kong, excellent results in New Zealand, and another solid performance in our market-leading Australian operation. Adjusted EBITDA was $73 million, up 22%, reflecting strong operating leverage in Asia, with our margin increasing to 13.9%, up 150 basis points versus 2017. I'd like to take a minute to acknowledge and highlight the growth that has been delivered by our operations specifically in Asia since becoming an independent public company in 2015.
Led by an executive leadership team comprised of David Hand, Paul Baxter, and Leo Wong, this Hong Kong-based business that spans from China to Singapore and the Philippines to India, including an important startup operation in Japan, finished 2018 with $ 230 million in revenues and $ 18 million in adjusted EBITDA, all-time highs, generating a compound annual growth since 2015 of 12% and 36% respectively, virtually all organic, demonstrating the operating leverage and scale advantage from efforts focused on recruiting top talent and delivering service excellence to Colliers' growing local, regional, and global client base in the region. Colliers generated strong cash flow again in 2018, totaling $257 million, up 21%, and another all-time high for our company.
We redeployed this cash flow by investing in acquisitions to expand our market coverage, service line depth, and to establish our investment management platform, while continuing to invest in our infrastructure to support our professionals and their client service delivery. We deployed a record level of capital in 2018, totaling just over $600 million, of which about three-quarters related to the acquisition of our 75% interest in Harrison Street, compared to $104 million invested in 2017. The balance last year was invested in several key strategic acquisitions based in important metro markets such as Madrid, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, our capital expenditures came in at EUR 36 million, down slightly from EUR 39 million in 2017, and in line with our anticipated level of investment.
To augment our strong cash flow in supporting our high level of investment in Colliers, in early 2018, we increased and extended our multicurrency revolving credit facility to $1 billion, provided by a syndicate of 12 banks for a period of five years. This was followed by an inaugural issuance of EUR 210 million euro-denominated senior unsecured notes, placed privately with a group of significant institutional investors. These notes were issued at an attractive fixed rate of 2.23% for 10 years. Our balance sheet at the end of 2018 remains strong, with a net debt position of $545 million and leverage ratio expressed as net debt to adjusted EBITDA at 1.6 times, despite a year in which we far outpaced our level of investment compared to any year in the history of Colliers.
With available liquidity of more than EUR 600 million, we are well-positioned to fund internal growth initiatives and acquisitions going forward. Before looking ahead, I'd like to recap Colliers' compound annual growth rate in two key operating metrics over the past five years. Revenue up 17%, with the growth split evenly between internal growth and acquisitions, and adjusted EBITDA up 24%. As most of you are aware, acquisitions are a key component of our growth strategy. Our disciplined approach to strategically acquiring and effectively integrating these acquisitions into our operations are critical factors to being successful in this important area. While there's no one metric to measure success, we think the best one to use is return on invested capital.
Since establishing Colliers as an independent public company in 2015, I'm pleased to report that we have generated a superior return on invested capital compared to our public company peers, averaging 15.4% over this four-year period, a record we're very proud of. This is good context for our current Enterprise 2020 Plan that Jay's already referenced. Entering our fourth year since the spinoff, we are on pace and confident in our ability to achieve our targets, which are revenues of $3.4 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $390 million, and adjusted earnings per share of over $5. Clearly, we can't guarantee this outcome, but with global and regional executive teams having the highest level of inside ownership in our industry, we are highly aligned with our shareholders, focused on successfully completing our Plan and generating above-average return for shareholders in the future.
With that, I'd like to pass things over back to Jay. Jay?
Thank you, John. Of course, none of this success could be accomplished without a strong leadership team and a way of operating that has stood the test of time. Given our rapid growth over the last few years, we decided to appoint Dylan Taylor as the CEO of Colliers Real Estate Services. His promotion recognizes his dedication to our vision and his success in working so collaboratively with the rest of the team over the past decade. I will dedicate more of my time to our new investment management business and continue to be responsible for strategy and execution across all of our business units. We also strengthened our board of directors with the appointment of Chris Galvin, who previously served as the chairman and co-founder of Harrison Street. Before establishing himself in the investment management business, Chris served as the CEO of Motorola for several years.
Earlier today, when I spoke of our unique entrepreneurial culture at Colliers, I was reminded of the famous quote by the late great Peter Drucker, who said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Culture is really hard to replicate, and it's one of our greatest competitive advantage. We perpetuate it by proactively engaging our employees, focusing on collecting and analyzing employee feedback, and then cascading that down through best practices across our great company. In 2018, we were recognized once again by Aon's Best Employers in Canada and Australia, and received the prestigious HR Asia award for Greater China. While we value these accolades, the importance is really the work behind them and the rigor that we place around achieving best-in-class people practices.
We're proud of our culture, a culture that empowers our people to do their best work and to maximize the power of property wherever our clients choose to do business. Finally, our brand, the Colliers International brand, continues to grow from strength to strength. It's critically important that when we go to market, we have a clear articulation of who we are and why we're different. Last year, I shared with you that Rebecca Finley joined us to help in the area of leadership around brand and people strategies. Together with her team, she has now conducted a thorough analysis of our brand practices globally, not an easy task, and has identified several opportunities to bring us to the next level. Beginning next month, we'll be introducing several new elements to our brand strategy that will enhance our global presence even more.
The Colliers business is stronger today than ever, particularly with the addition of our investment management platform, which gives us another very strong engine for growth with lots of recurring revenue streams. Looking to 2019, I'm optimistic we will have another great year of success, continuing our long record of performance, while at the same time enhancing our highly respected brand and global platform that has now become one of the best in our industry. Before closing, I'd like to thank all of our leaders and people for their exceptional work over the past year. Together, we take great pride in building upon a strong foundation as we write the next chapter in the history of Colliers International. Thank you all again for attending today, and now John and I would be pleased to take any questions that you have.
There's microphones in the aisles, so please feel free to ask any questions that you have. We got one. This is the first time in three years, sir, so we really do appreciate it. Hopefully, we sent you a EUR 10 bill for this question.
Okay, you're speaking of Harrison Street as if we know what it is. Just a little bit further explanation on what you mean by those two words.
Sure. Harrison Street is an extremely well-known investment management platform that has operations in the U.S., across the U.S., and a relatively new, I would say four or five-year-old business in Europe. They're focused on buying, we'll call them alternative assets. This is healthcare assets. These are seniors assets. These are student assets. Very specialized strategy, and they've enjoyed great returns for shareholders for their LPs over a long period of time. I think part of the key to their success, in addition to them being great allocators of capital around those real estate assets, is that they stayed focused on those assets, unlike many others who decide to be in every different asset class. Harrison Street is a very unique business model, and limited partners and other investors have been supportive of them for many years.
Their returns have been top quartile or better depending upon the funds that they manage. Hopefully that gives you a little bit of a background. Another question.
10 on the line. I have a question for you, Jay.
Well, Bill, you should have a good question. You researched us for many years.
I'll give you an analytical type question. I look at your three businesses. You have Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Americas. The profitability of Asia Pacific and Europe is consistently much higher than in North America. Is that due to a different mix, or are there structural parameters in the North American market that doesn't allow you to earn as much as you do in the rest of the world? In other words, my question is it conceivable the profitability of the Americas will ever rise to the profitability of Asia and Europe?
I'd love to answer that, John, do you want to answer that?
That's all opportunity, Bill. That's the way we look at it. It's primarily a function of the way we built our business in the U.S. It's a legacy of many, many operations that have been put together over a period of time. We're taking some steps now to effectively become more productive, streamline our costs, and increase our margins. Our senior team there has got a great incentive plan to do that over the next several years. There's no structural impediment to why our margins should be any lower over the long term in the Americas relative to Asia and Europe. We're intent on getting them there. Stay with us. Can't do it overnight, we're making progress.
I'd add a little bit just to give you some context, many of you will remember this. We only acquired control of the U.S. business in 2011, since that time, our strategy was to consolidate the U.S. market. You need a lot of scale in order to get the leverage that John's talking about. The business today is a billion-dollar business. If you think about a margin, the Canadian margins are very strong, the U.S. margins are less than the Canadian margin on a billion-dollar business. If we're able to move that up by 200 or 300 basis points, which we think we can, especially now as we continue to build scale, it's a huge opportunity for the company. It is something that takes time, it takes focus, we're on it. We see it as an opportunity.
A real estate professional now asks a question.
Hi, Sal Bolger. I'm with Colliers. I'm a broker and also a shareholder. Great presentation, Jay. Looking back now since the spinoff, which was about going into the fourth year, knowing what you know now, is there anything you would've tweaked or done differently? It's been a great success story, I'm just curious if there's anything, you're looking back, you might say, "We might have done that a little differently.
Well, I've always been a great believer in not looking back because there's roads that you take that had you gone a different direction, it might have had a different result. Looking back, every step that we took along the way, I'm comfortable with today. Were there some that we could have executed better? Yes. Are there some mistakes that we made along the way? Yes. On balance, you can see the results are pretty spectacular, and I think when you look at it in total, the results speak for themselves. Going back and could we, or should we, is not really in my Rubicon of thought processes. I would say the answer is no. There were a few opportunities we could have capitalized on and didn't. Anyway. Thank you very much, everyone, for attending. We'll be around. Please feel free to ask.
There's a lot of managers in the room. Please feel free to ask any questions that you'd like.