Hines has completed its deal to acquire property management firm Helix, as the investor-developer seeks to transform its offering for clients across Europe.
The two companies have already worked together for a decade, with the latter providing property management services across Hines’ assets including 20 Old Bailey, EC4, 7 Soho Square, W1, and Atlas House, EC2. With regulatory clearance now achieved for the transaction, the parties have dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s on a tie-up announced last September.
Ivan Harrison, a Hines director who is now UK head of operations for the Helix business, says Hines will not be on the same page as the biggest industry names when it comes to scale. But that was never the point, he adds.
“We are not looking to compete with the large consultancies, we are not looking to be the biggest property manager – we are about offering something a little different,” Harrison says of Hines’ ambitions.
“Hines is a privately owned company and we have that owner mindset in everything we do. Being able to offer that to third-party landlords and occupiers is really different.”
It has been a busy seven months behind the scenes. “Hines has never really gone through an acquisition of another company before, it’s always grown organically,” says Harrison. “There’s been a lot of planning going into that integration process.”
For Helix chief executive Amy Soar, much of that time has been spent communicating with Helix’s other clients – which it will continue to work with under Hines’ ownership.
“A lot of companies don’t announce [takeovers] until completion, but there was a really good opportunity to warm up our current clients to the idea, because this is a big change for everybody,” Soar says. “We have always been a niche, bespoke specialist company in property management. Our existing third-party clients, who are super important to us, [were told that] nothing changes directly for them.”
On the contrary, Helix’s third-party clients are crucial in making the deal work for Hines, which now adds another string to its bow in Europe.
The Helix business – which will ultimately be branded as Hines – has been described by the company as “the springboard” for a broader European management services and operations platform across Europe, led by former WeWork director Ronen Journo.
“It’s about improving that relationship with occupiers and really getting to understand what their needs are, particularly in this kind of environment when they are struggling to bring people back to the workplace,” Harrison says. “From the traditional Hines model in Europe, which has been more investment-development focused, being able to offer management services on a pan-European basis is hugely valuable.”
Those conversations with clients have never been more important – Harrison estimates that Hines has “probably been speaking to our occupiers more over the past two years than ever before”.
And what do they want? There’s no one answer, Soar says – rather a lengthy checklist of concerns that her team and new colleagues at Hines will focus on helping clients to address.
“Some people are really financially driven right now, so it is all about cost savings,” she says. “Others are saying we want to get our staff back into the offices – can you assist with that encouragement in terms of events, in terms of ensuring the building is safe, looking at options for tech to make things touchless. And sustainability has obviously been a big factor for the past few years, but given the spiralling energy prices at the moment, that’s a significant factor.”
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