Eastdil Secured has secured its first major UK retail disposal instruction in a move that will instil fear among agents that it is seeking to replicate its US dominance here.
Eastdil, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, has been instructed alongside CBRE to sell pan-European investor Meyer Bergman’s 50% stake in the 580,000 sq ft Bentall shopping centre in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey.
Meyer Bergman bought the stake from Aviva Investors for around £130m in 2010. It is now expected to seek as much as £200m. The asset is expected to formally come to market after the summer lull.
Eastdil has been active on several large City, West End and Docklands disposals over the past 18 months, including Blackstone’s £1.7bn sale of Broadgate, EC2, TPG Capital’s and Ivanhoe Cambridge’s £320m sale of Woolgate Exchange, EC2, and Witkoff Group’s £400m disposal of Devonshire House, W1. However, Bentall will be its first major UK shopping centre instruction.
One agent said: “This is a significant instruction for Eastdil. They are huge in the US and if they continue to grow their expertise over here, they pose a real threat.”
In the US, Eastdil holds a bigger market share than CBRE in terms of commercial sales. According to figures from Real Estate Alert, it brokered $36bn (£21.6bn) of deals in 2013, taking a 24.9% share of the market. CBRE was pipped to the top of the rankings for a second year in a row, with a 24.2% market share and $34.9bn of sales.
In the first half of 2014, in both retail and office sales, Eastdil outstripped rival global firms CBRE, JLL and Cushman & Wakefield.
It holds a market share of around 40% of sales in both sectors in the US, compared with CBRE’s 15%. In retail, C&W has a 12% market share and JLL 7%. In offices, JLL has just shy of 9% of the market and C&W 8%.
According to EG’s 2013 London Offices Market Analysis, Eastdil held just a 6% market share, taking fifth place behind Savills, CBRE, JLL and Strutt & Parker in the investment league table.
Eastdil has been expanding its expertise in the UK this year, appointing JLL Hotels veteran Manaenti Giorgio as managing director last month. Property banking guru Ian Marcus joined the firm as a senior adviser last summer.
Meyer Bergman declined to comment.
samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
