Lambert Smith Hampton is likely to return to private equity ownership after being put up for sale by its owner, Countrywide.
The commercial property adviser, which was acquired by the listed estate agent in 2013, is being offered to the market through Deloitte and the seller is looking to strike a deal as soon as next month.
Countrywide wants to offload the business to raise cash and focus on its core residential estate agency business, which has been hit by uncertainty caused by the EU referendum and changes in stamp duty. Since the referendum its share price has fallen by 49% and last month it issued a profit warning ahead of its full-year results.
LSH itself has been focusing on increasing professional, recurring income and moving away from transactional revenue, building on its core regional and public sector offerings.
In its half-year report in July, Countrywide said LSH “delivered robust overall performance despite experiencing a challenging second quarter as EU referendum concerns impacted transactional volumes across commercial markets”.
Transactional revenues decreased by 18% in the second quarter with earnings falling by £1.3m during the first half of the year. It saw “only a few transactions slipping” in the regions however, and its consultancy-based fees “held firm, reporting a small level of growth”.
LSH has acquired six businesses during its time as part of Countrywide, including Tushingham Moore, BTWShiells, ES Group and Douglas Newman. A deal with a private equity firm, rather than a rival, is likely to give the company extra firepower to make more acquisitions in the future.
The company lost out on a deal to take on Deloitte Real Estate’s transactional teams in April and despite its own impending change of ownership is still interested in buying Cluttons, which is itself wrestling with a £42.9m pension scheme deficit.
LSH, led by chief executive Ezra Nahome (pictured), employs more than 1,200 staff across 35 offices.
Countrywide bought LSH from Sankaty in a pre-pack administration deal. Sankaty had taken control of the company through the acquisition of a loan portfolio bought from Lloyds Banking Group.
All parties declined to comment.
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