Property company HOK faces UK takeover

Estate agent Hamilton Osborne King (HOK) is due to announce this morning that it is to be taken over by a leading international property services group.

The agency has not disclosed who is buying the Irish business but it is understood that the London-based company Savills has been a suitor for a considerable time

A senior director of Savills, Jeremy Helsby, was in Dublin last night and is expected to address HOK's 250 staff and almost 20 directors at a meeting early this morning.

Though there was no indication last night as to the selling price for both the commercial and residential businesses, it is thought likely that it would change hands for between €50 million and €70 million given that the Dublin business had an estimated turnover last year of at least €35 million. That figure is on target to increase to almost €45 million this year because of an exceptionally strong performance in the commercial property market, especially in the lucrative area of housing land sales.

The final figure to be paid for HOK will almost certainly include an earn-out based on profits over a number of years.

Most, but not all, the directors hold equity stakes in the company. There is also a considerable variation in the equity holdings with the largest believed to be owned by chairman Aidan O'Hogan and managing director Paul McNeive.

HOK suffered a considerable setback about three years ago when its international partner CB Hillier Parker opted to end the relationship and trade instead with the Gunne agency in which it already held a 10 per cent stake.

Last year CB bought out the remaining shareholding in Gunne and now trades in Ireland as CB Richard Ellis.

Though the break with CB clearly affected HOK's UK investgment business, the agency is still getting 20 per cent of its business overseas. HOK has acquired over €5 billion in commercial property for Irish investors over the last five years.

Its Belfast office also recently secured three major deals including instructions to let the Victorian Square shopping centre in the face of tough opposition from rival agents in Northern Ireland and Britain.

HOK has also been highly successful in its retail letting business in Dublin and other cities, largely because of the expertise of Mr O'Hogan.