Dalgleish set to pocket £20m from CBRE deal
Malcolm Dalgleish is not yet as wealthy as Philip Green, but he has just become almost £20m richer.
In property circles Dalgleish is known as Green’s right-hand man, and he has just sold his business for around £30m to the world’s largest real estate advisory firm.
He stands to make up to £20m from the sale of Dalgleish to CB Richard Ellis in a deal signed on Friday.
Dalgleish, who owns about two-thirds of the company, will move, along with his staff, to the America-based giant. He will head the enlarged retail division as it tries to expand further into Britain and European retail property.
The deal spells the end of independence for the man who has built up a small fortune advising a string of top retailers since he started the business in 1979.
For the past four or five years his client list has included Arcadia and Bhs owner Green, whose high street empire stretches to more than 1,000 shops.
Green has been a guest at Dalgleish’s annual cocktail drinks at the Victoria & Albert museum in Kensington for the past few years, underlining their closeness. But the super-agent is also the adviser of choice for other high-street giants such as New Look and ABF, the owner of Primark.
This year his company also took centre stage in the biggest property deal in the West End of London in 2005.
His company advised a consortium led by Irishman Derek Quinlan in the £530m purchase of a retail and office estate in Knightsbridge from BP Pension Fund.
His firm is advising Australian company Westfield, the largest owner of shopping centres in the world, on letting a giant shopping complex planned at White City in north-west London.