It always feels too early to mutter the M word, but it is getting dangerously close and with everything that is currently set in motion, MIPIM 2016 looks like it is going to be quite the ride. And here’s why.
So far this year, this page has mentioned that other M word – mergers (and acquisitions) 50% of the time. 2016 has started out interestingly for the agency community, with deep-pocketed estate agency giant Countrywide fiercely looking for more acquisitions, Bilfinger, the German owner of GVA, looking to divest from its property businesses, and Strutt & Parker looking at “options” for its business.
And this week EG reveals that Deloitte Real Estate, which has already caught the eye of Countrywide, is undertaking a review of its investment and agency teams as it continues to struggle with the conflicts of interest that come from being part of a major accountancy firm .
There are four potential outcomes of the strategic review:
1. Remain the same. The likelihood of this happening, given the prompt for the review, seems relatively slim.
2. Give up relationships with audit clients. For the big business of Deloitte, the real estate division’s relationships with these clients is probably small fry in terms of income, but for an agent it is what business is all about and, let’s face it, that relationship is usually with the person, not necessarily the brand. If that goes, does the agent go too?
3. Retrain and reposition staff within Deloitte.
4. “Transfer” staff to an external business. If I was a betting kind of gal, I would probably put my money on option four. And I would almost certainly put a wager on this, plus the outcome of the Bilfinger sale (four are shortlisted and, no, they don’t include CBRE or KKR), and a solution for Strutts being the hot gossip on the Croisette next month.
Away from M&A and MIPIM, and on to M number three: Manchester. Its two football teams may not be performing well, but the city’s year is most definitely off to a stellar start. It is hot and about to get even hotter, adding itself to a list that includes New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Berlin as home to the super trendy, tie-banning private members’ club Soho House .
Mike Ingall’s Allied London is doing its bit to create a new kind of cool for the city, not seen since the heady Madchester days, too. If you’re not cool enough – or Instagrammable, as Ingall puts it – you’re not coming in, is what he is telling operators wanting to occupy the London Road Fire Station (p33). More Modchester than Madchester this time, perhaps?
There’s one more M, then I’m done: mayoral candidates. Next week, Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith, Labour’s Sadiq Khan, Caroline Pidgeon of the LibDems and the Green Party’s Sian Berry will take to the stage at Central Hall in Westminster to unveil their visions of how to solve London’s perennial housing problem. Tickets are still available at www.landaid.org/debate2016
EG launches its 2016 awards this week, and this year we are bigger, better and earlier. We will be moving from the Hilton Park Lane – where, incidentally, you may be able to buy a home soon (p33) – back to the Grosvenor House. The move means more room, more celebrations and a new date – 20 September. Put it in your diaries.
We have also spruced up a few awards and introduced some new ones to better reflect the wider property market. This year legal teams can enter, lenders too. We have developed a Creative Spaces award for those of you who don’t just build or design buildings but effect change, and we are on the hunt for a gaggle of Rising Stars, those of you under the age of 35 who are making a name for yourselves in the industry. If you’ve got what it takes, go to www.egawardsevent.co.uk
