Still, Bloomberg said one person cautioned there was no certainty of a deal being completed.

David Bonderman's TPG would combine the Cushman brokerage with DTZ Group, which it bought last year, to create one of the world's biggest real estate services firms.

Italian holding company Exor SpA hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley to find a buyer earlier this year. TPG has been competing against a range of other private-equity and strategic bidders, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Last month, Exor said it had received several non-binding expressions of interest for the real estate company, in which it holds an 81 percent stake.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Christian Plumb)