Lambert Smith Hampton looks set to deliver the first corporate agency deal of 2015. Flush with Countrywide’s cash, the firm is poised to bring ES Group into the fold. 2015 is going to be a busy year for M&A advisers.
The deal comes just 17 months after LSH was staring into the abyss. With an emergency general meeting to determine its future just hours away, estate agency group Countrywide stepped in to rescue the firm and the rest is corporate history.
This is not LSH’s first acquisition since that deal – it bought Irish agent BTW Shiels in June last year – but it is the most significant. The combined firm will turn over something north of £75m. It may not be enough to crash the top 10 agents league table, but it will ensure LSH remains within touching distance as those around it seek to add businesses or teams to their offer.
What’s more, with Countrywide confirming it has £250m ready to support its overall growth ambitions, expect further activity from LSH. Indeed, expect further activity across the agent universe. Both Colliers International and GM Group are the latest names to be dragged into the rumour mill; both insist those rumours are misplaced.
Whoever strikes the next deal, we shouldn’t be surprised when it comes. Some 63% of the 50 or so leading agents told EG’s Top Agents survey last November that they were looking to buy one or more businesses over the course of 2015. Given that statistic, perhaps we should only be surprised that in the first seven weeks of the year M&A has been more talked about than actioned.
The vacant building credit will not be amended. That, sadly, is Brandon Lewis’s position (p54). Speaking to Estates Gazette at the British Property Federation housing conference on Monday, the housing minister was unmoved by protestations that changes to the credit were already costing councils tens of millions of pounds.
I still firmly believe common sense will prevail and some form of exemption for central London councils will emerge, though the row is now so heated that the prospect of resolution appears to be receding rather than nearing.
So here’s a suggestion that won’t be universally welcomed. Why don’t developers who stand to benefit from the change continue to make the higher payments that they had expected, not the lower payments the change inadvertently ushers in?
Voluntarily making a higher than necessary contribution would require some explaining to shareholders, but it would be reputation-building, cement relations with local authorities and, perhaps most clear cut of all, simply be an upfront payment on a bill that is likely to land one day anyway. Discuss.
If property appears expensive these days, what about football? For the last three-year TV rights package, Sky and BT paid £3bn. This week the Premier League netted a cool £5.1bn from the pair for the 2016-19 rights.
It’s a figure that invites comparisons. Some £5bn was invested in City of London and Docklands real estate in Q4 2014. $5bn (£3.2bn) is the amount Lodha plans to invest in London property. And £5.1bn would get you two Canary Wharfs. Almost.
To hammer home the slightly facetious point that property is a more sensible investment than football, I’ll just say this: Sky’s share price was trading lower this week.
MIPIM, in case you hadn’t noticed, is a mere 24 days away. The EG team is synchronising watches, putting the finishing touches to panels and preparing for a publishing assault that will once again see us produce digital daily editions from the show and, for the first time, a suite of investor guides that will offer an unrivalled guide to property opportunities. For a sneak peek go to www.estatesgazette.com/mipim and keep going back for the most comprehensive guide to the biggest property show on earth.
damian.wild@estatesgazette.com
