The entire staff of Donaldsons’ Portuguese office have defected to Knight Frank, taking their clients with them and forcing the closure of Donaldsons’ only European office.
Donaldsons partner John Nettleton said the only clients to remain would be two retail consultancy requirements which would be handled from the UK. He is going to Portugal on Monday to reassure them.
The move was prompted by Kevin Holder, Donaldsons’ managing director in Lisbon, who elected to go to Knight Frank along with the five fee-earners from his staff of 10. Knight Frank did not previously have an office in Portugal and will benefit from Holder’s experience. In the six years since he set up the office, it has become one of the leading commercial property advisers in the country.
In 1994-95 Donaldsons was involved in leasing more than 25,000m2 (269,106 sq ft) of office space in Lisbon, almost a third of the total take-up for that year. Big deals included 3,000m2 (32,292 sq ft) to Coopers & Lybrand and acquiring a new property for the British Embassy, at the same time disposing of the old embassy. Industrial clients taking advantage of the expansion in the Portuguese motorway network include Allied Domecq, Exel Logistics, Unichem 3M and Ford. Holder intends to build on this base and to open a residential branch.
John Martin, senior partner at Knight Frank, said the firm’s Madrid office had been turning away clients who had work in Portugal. “We’ll be happy to have Lisbon and Madrid working together,” he said.
However, he refused to be drawn on the question of whether Holder had approached Knight Frank or the other way round: “It’s a small world out there”, he said, “and people talk.”
