Christian Ulbrich, chief executive officer for EMEA at Jones Lang LaSalle, tells PropertyEU why King Sturge is such a good fit. The merger of the two firms will create a firm with a presence in 70 EMEA markets across 30 countries.
PropertyEU: Had JLL been considering a merger with a smaller rival for some time? If so, how did you come to pick King Sturge?
Ulbrich: After the financial downturn, we were expecting to see a lot of market consolidation, so we were looking to see who might approach us. We analysed our competitors in our major markets to see who would be a good fit. We identified King Sturge as a company that would be complementary to our business, so when they approached us, we thought a merger made perfect sense.
The driver behind the merger was the expansion of the UK business. In Europe, you need to be number one in the UK, France and Germany. Prior to the merger, we were number four in the UK, mainly because we didn’t have a strong residential or industrial side. King Sturge, on the other hand, did, and they were delivering that in an almost perfect way, not just in London but also regionally. The merger allows us to offer all our services combined in a cost-efficient way.
PropertyEU: Why are JLL and King Sturge a good fit culturally?
Ulbrich: In any merger, it’s important for the two companies to be aligned on a cultural front. Both our companies have a long history in the property market - we’ve been active for 251 years and 230 years, respectively.
PropertyEU: Currently, JLL and King Sturge employ 5,300 staff in Europe. How will the merger affect JLL's European operations, in terms of the number of offices and staff?
Ulbrich: Since the merger, we have grown from 3,700 staff to 5,300. We have also acquired a couple of offices in the south east of England, as well as a presence in Slovakia, Croatia and Serbia. We don’t plan to close any offices in light of the merger. As far as redundancies go, we actually expect to grow staff numbers in coming years. However, it's possible that there could be some small-scale back office redundancies, although it's too early to talk about numbers.
PropertyEU: JLL claims it is now market leader in Continental Europe. How do you calculate this?
Ulbrich: Purely by revenue. Last year, our revenue was £630 mln (EUR 723 mln).
PropertyEU: In which parts of Europe is King Sturge strong?
Ulbrich: In addition to their residential and logistics departments, King Sturge is very strong in Central and Eastern Europe, where they're number four. They have more offices in CEE and SEE than we do. They also have a strong presence in Belgium.
PropertyEU: In which regions is JLL strong?
Ulbrich: The UK, France and Germany are our most important markets. After that, we are clearly leading in Central and Eastern Europe. We're also leading in Russia and Turkey - we have 160 people in Turkey alone. The Middle East is another important region and we have offices in markets such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Cairo.
Click on the link below to read the second part of the interview | 
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