David Bonderman’s TPG Capital agreed to buy Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the largest closely held commercial- property brokerage, for about $2 billion including debt and merge the company with its DTZ unit.

Exor SpA, the Agnelli family’s Italian holding company, will generate net proceeds of $1.28 billion by selling a 75 percent stake in Cushman, according to a statement Monday. Combining Cushman with DTZ will create a real estate services firm with an estimated $5.5 billion in annual revenue.

“It gives us great satisfaction to see a business we have owned for many years become part of a new powerhouse in the sector as it approaches its centennial year, reinforcing its prospects for even greater success in the future,” John Elkann, chairman and chief executive officer of Exor, said in the statement.

A combination of New York-based Cushman and DTZ create a global company to rival CBRE Group Inc. and JLL, the industry’s two biggest firms. Creating a brokerage with that heft has been a goal for Brett White, executive chairman of DTZ and CBRE’s former chief executive officer.

The joint company will have more than 43,000 employees, Cushman said in a separate statement Monday. Exor said the deal represents a capital gain of about $722 million for its stake inCushman. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

TPG, based in Fort Worth, Texas, bought DTZ late last year. In January, DTZ completed the acquisition of Cassidy Turley, a brokerage with strength in the Americas, creating a global top- three commercial real estate services firm. The combined company has about $2.9 billion in annual revenue, according to a statement at the time.

DTZ had a market share for commercial property sales of more than 50 percent in China and was ranked third in that category in the U.K., according to the January statement.

Cushman reported revenue of $2.85 billion last year. Net income rose 33 percent to $61.6 million from the previous year. Fee and service revenue from the Asia-Pacific region climbed 25 percent.

 

--With assistance from Ross Larsen in London.