Christian Ulbrich, chief executive officer for EMEA at Jones Lang LaSalle, tells PropertyEU that there will likely be more consolidation among European property advisers over the next 18 months following JLL's merger with King Sturge.
PropertyEU: There has been speculation in recent weeks that other European advisory firms are in talks to merge. Do you think your merger will spur on other advisory firms to look at similar opportunities?
Ulbrich: We are expecting to see a lot of market consolidation over the next 18 months, irrespective of our merger. As the UK is the biggest and most sophisticated market, I would expect the consolidation to start there. Any consolidation would have an impact not just on the UK market but also in continental Europe where advisory firms are also very active.
PropertyEU: What are the biggest challenges for the merger between JLL and King Sturge?
Ulbrich: The biggest challenge is to convince King Sturge colleagues as well as JLL colleagues that this is a good thing, that it will benefit both staff and clients. We had a kick-off meeting in London last Friday which was very well received - even better than we’d hoped. But as is always the case in such a merger, some people are worried about what it could mean for them - we have to win them over.
PropertyEU: How long will the integration of the two businesses take?
Ulbrich: Integrating two companies that have been active for more than 200 years is not the easiest task. We have Andy Mottram (a member of JLL's EMEA board) who is working on this full-time. Most of the work will be done this year but some will probably take until next year. After all, when we bought Kempers in 2008 (a German retail property advisor), it took around three years for the merger to be fully completed - there's always some legacy to deal with.
PropertyEU: The merged business in the UK will have both a chief executive, Andrew Gould, and an executive chairman, Richard Batten. Why?
Ulbrich: It's a merger, not a takeover, so we want the management board to reflect that. Andrew was already with JLL and Richard was a joint senior partner at King Sturge. We thought it was important to have, next to the chief executive (ex-JLL), also an executive leader (ex-King Sturge) to deal with clients. Also, the UK board will now comprise four members from King Sturge and four from JLL. We’re a merged company, so there was a need to reflect that.
Click on the link below to read the first part of the interview. | 
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