The family owner of Colliers Austria has been quietly amassing a pivotal stake in its struggling UK counterpart, Colliers International UK.
Colliers Austria managing director Georg Muzicant, whose grandfather founded the firm now operating under the Colliers franchise from its Vienna headquarters, has around 17m shares in Colliers International UK. This gives him an 11.15% stake.
It is understood the family has held a small stake in the UK business for some time but has upped its holding from around 8% in January, paying between 0.93p and 0.95p per share for 500,000 shares at a time.
Shares in Colliers are currently trading at around 0.95p after spiking to almost 1.5p when majority shareholder FirstService announced it was considering a takeover of the agent in late January.
Last month the 29.9% Canadian shareholder was given an additional month to undertake further due diligence on the company, and must now table a firm bid by Tuesday 20 March.
In January, FirstService warned that its potential offer was likely to be at a discount to its share price. Shareholders fear that the firm could use a pre-pack administration similar to that used by UGL to buy DTZ, wiping out all equity in the firm.
However, sources speculated that a bidding war between rival shareholders could bolster Colliers’ prospects.
Colliers has been seeking to boost its fortunes since 2009, when FirstService injected £9m into the business.
The agent has been loss-making for three years and has a market cap of just £1.4m. It is due to repay some £18m of debt in September.
FirstService, is the predominant owner of the Colliers International brand worldwide. It does not own a stake in the Austrian business, which is 100% owned by the Muzicant family.
Bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
