JLL buys Britain's Churston Heard for EUR 25m

Jones Lang LaSalle has announced that it is to acquire Britain's last large independent retail agency, Churston Heard, for around £20mln (EUR 25mln) . JLL will pay the limited company's owners in phased cash instalments with an element of performance-related payments the company said in a statement. This could take the eventual price to £22mln according to local reports. The purchase is due to complete next week.

The merger will result in a 150-strong UK retail team, adding the 80 staff in Churston Heard's town centre landlord and tenant leasing operation with JLL's investment and shopping centre management teams. According to local reports, staff at both firms were advised of the deal, which will pitch JLL towards the top of the UK's retail rankings, on Thursday morning. Churston Heard employees will move into the JLL offices in Hanover Square in September.

Alastair Hughes, CEO EMEA at JLL commented: 'This is part of our strategy to strengthen our retail business across Europe. We will now be a market leader in the UK as well as Germany, Central & Eastern Europe, Russia and many other European markets.'

Stuart La Frenais, head of Retail Agency at JLL said: 'It is well known that we have been looking to strengthen our retail business and Churston Heard has been top of our priority list for sometime. The structure of their business fits ideally with ours with their areas of strength complementing ours.'

Named Retail Agency Team of the Year at the UK's Retail and Leisure Property Awards, last week, Churston Heard is the 23rd-biggest UK agency. In the year to April it made £17.5mln in revenue and a £650,000 profit.