BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CoStar Group, Inc. , the number one provider of information services to the commercial real estate industry, today announced the appointment of Paul Marples to Managing Director of CoStar's European operations. Marples previously served as Managing Director of Property Investment Exchange Ltd. (Propex), the leading provider of Web-based transaction platforms and data exchanges in the U.K. commercial property market. A CoStar subsidiary acquired Propex in the first quarter of this year.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060510/COSTARLOGO )
In his new role, Marples is responsible for managing CoStar's European operations, including the three primary service lines of Property Investment Exchange -- Propex, Shopproperty and Screenedata -- as well as CoStar's two other major U.K. holdings, FOCUS Information Limited and the Scottish Property Network (SPN), and CoStar's French subsidiary, Paris-based Grecam S.A.S. He will report directly to Andrew C. Florance, CoStar Group's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"I am very pleased that Paul has agreed to lead our European team dedicated to establishing CoStar as the premier commercial property information service in Europe," Florance said. "As Managing Director of Propex, Paul has demonstrated outstanding leadership, product innovation and operational expertise. These qualities will prove instrumental in achieving our goal of a unified European commercial real estate information service with a significantly expanded research operation and an extensive product offering that leverages the best features of our respective companies. Together, we expect to create the first truly global, digitized commercial real estate information platform," added Florance.
A graduate of Oxford University, Marples has 23 years of experience in the commercial property industry, beginning as a Chartered Surveyor for Weatherall Green and Smith (Atisreal) in London and Spain. He subsequently established Brown Cooper Marples (BCM), a London-based investment brokerage firm, before helping launch Propex through the consolidation of a number of property- related Internet-based businesses.
Propex provides an online database of retail, office and industrial properties and matches buyers and sellers of institutional-grade investment properties in the U.K. using a unique electronic exchange platform. A majority of the U.K.'s investment funds, institutions, property companies and brokers, including the top 20 brokerages, rely on Propex as the U.K.'s central exchange for a wide range of property investment transactions each year.
CoStar Group, a NASDAQ-traded company founded in 1987, has revolutionized the commercial real estate industry by creating the largest researched online database of commercial property information, independently confirmed and maintained by CoStar's own professional research analysts, helping to ensure the information it provides offers the highest degree of accuracy and completeness.
CoStar's verified and researched information helps subscribers to identify available buildings and land, evaluate prospective leasing and sale opportunities, assess the value of property assets and perform sophisticated market analytics. Today, CoStar's proprietary database covers more than 2.3 million proactively researched and verified properties accounting for more than 40 billion square feet of inventory across all commercial property types and classes.
About CoStar Group, Inc.
CoStar Group, Inc. is the number one provider of information services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States as well as the United Kingdom. CoStar's suite of services offers customers access via the Internet to the most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information throughout the U.S., as well as in the United Kingdom and France. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, the company has approximately 1,300 employees, including the largest professional research organization in the industry. For more information, visit http://www.costar.com/.
This news release includes "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, statements regarding CoStar's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. More information about potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward- looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including CoStar's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, under the heading "Risk Factors" and CoStar's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2007, under the heading "Risk Factors." In addition to these statements, there can be no assurance that CoStar will be able to successfully establish itself as the premier commercial property information service in Europe; that CoStar will be successful in achieving its goal of a unified European commercial real estate information service with a significantly expanded research operation and an extensive product offering that leverages the best features of its respective companies; that CoStar will be able to successfully create the first truly global, digitized commercial real estate information platform; that a majority of the U.K.'s investment funds, institutions, property companies and brokers will continue to rely on Propex as the U.K.'s central exchange for a wide range of property investment transactions each year; that the information CoStar provides will offer the highest degree of accuracy and completeness; and that subscribers will be able to identify available buildings and land, evaluate prospective leasing and sale opportunities, assess the value of property assets and perform sophisticated market analytics using CoStar's verified and researched information. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update such statements.
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk,
