Item 6. Selected Financial Data.

The following table sets forth our selected historical consolidated financial information for each of the five years in the period ended December 31, 2020. The statements of operations, statements of cash flows and other data for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2020 and 2019 were derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The statement of operations, statement of cash flows and other data for the years ended December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 were derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are not included in this Annual Report.

The selected financial data presented below is not necessarily indicative of results of future operations and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the information described elsewhere in this Annual Report included under the heading Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” (dollars in thousands, except share and per share data).

Note: We have not declared any cash dividends on common stock for the periods shown.

(1)We adopted new lease accounting guidance effective January 1, 2019 using the optional transitional method. Accordingly, no adjustments were made to the financial statements presented for prior periods. As a result of the adoption of the leasing guidance, the consolidated balance sheet as of January 1, 2019 included $1.2 billion of additional lease liabilities, along with corresponding right-of-use assets of $1.0 billion, reflecting adjustments for items such

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as prepaid and deferred rent, unamortized initial direct costs, and unamortized lease incentive balances. The adoption of the leasing guidance did not have a material impact on our consolidated statement of operations. See Note 2 of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this Annual Report.

(2)We adopted new revenue recognition guidance in 2018 and restated the 2017 and 2016 consolidated financial statements to conform with the new guidance. See our Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the SEC on March 1, 2019 for additional information.

(3)See Income Per Share information in Note 17 of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this Annual Report.

(4)In the first quarter of 2018, we adopted Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-15, “Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230): Classification of Certain Cash Receipts and Cash Payments.” Certain reclassifications were made to the 2017 and 2016 consolidated statements of cash flows to conform with the 2018 presentation.

(5)Adjusted EBITDA is not a recognized measurement under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, (GAAP). When analyzing our operating performance, investors should use this measure in addition to, and not as an alternative for, the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. We generally use this non-GAAP financial measure to evaluate operating performance and for other discretionary purposes. We believe this measure provides a more complete understanding of ongoing operations, enhances comparability of current results to prior periods and may be useful for investors to analyze our financial performance because it eliminates the impact of selected charges that may obscure trends in the underlying performance of our business. Because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

EBITDA represents earnings before depreciation and amortization, asset impairments, interest expense, net of interest income, write-off of financing costs on extinguished debt, and provision for income taxes. Amounts shown for adjusted EBITDA further remove (from EBITDA) the impact of costs associated with transformation initiatives, costs associated with workforce optimization efforts, fair value adjustments to real estate assets acquired in the Telford Acquisition (purchase accounting) that were sold in the period, costs incurred related to legal entity restructuring, integration and other costs related to acquisitions, carried interest incentive compensation expense (reversal) to align with the timing of associated revenue, costs associated with our reorganization, including cost-savings initiatives, costs incurred in connection with litigation settlement, a one-time gain associated with remeasuring an investment in an unconsolidated subsidiary to fair value as of the date the remaining controlling interest was acquired, and cost-elimination expenses. We believe that investors may find these measures useful in evaluating our operating performance compared to that of other companies in our industry because their calculations generally eliminate the effects of acquisitions, which would include impairment charges of goodwill and intangibles created from acquisitions, the effects of financings and income taxes and the accounting effects of capital spending.

Adjusted EBITDA is not intended to be a measure of free cash flow for our discretionary use because it does not consider certain cash requirements such as tax and debt service payments. This measure may also differ from the amounts calculated under similarly titled definitions in our credit facilities and debt instruments, which are further adjusted to reflect certain other cash and non-cash charges and are used by us to determine compliance with financial covenants therein and our ability to engage in certain activities, such as incurring additional debt. We also use adjusted EBITDA as a significant component when measuring our operating performance under our employee incentive compensation programs. See below for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to net income attributable to CBRE Group, Inc.

(6)See Non-controlling interest subject to possible redemption - special purpose acquisition company in Note 2 of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this Annual Report.

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Adjusted EBITDA is calculated as follows (dollars in thousands):

(1)Commencing during the third quarter of 2020, management began the implementation of certain transformation initiatives to enable the company to reduce costs, streamline operations and support future growth. The majority of expenses incurred were cash in nature and primarily related to employee separation benefits, lease termination costs and professional fees. See Note 21 of our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this Annual Report.

(2)Primarily represents costs incurred related to workforce optimization initiated and executed in the second quarter of 2020 as part of management’s cost containment efforts in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The charges are cash expenditures primarily for severance costs incurred related to this effort. Of the total costs, $7.4 million was included within the “Cost of revenue” line item and $30.2 million was included in the “Operating, administrative and other” line item in the accompanying consolidated statement of operations for the year ended December 31, 2020.

(3)Primarily represents severance costs related to headcount reductions in connection with our reorganization announced in the third quarter of 2018 that became effective January 1, 2019.

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