Lomond Group declines to deny or confirm £100m sale rumours
Big estate agency group, which has hoovered up some 50+ smaller agencies over the past three years, says it will not comment on sale claims.
The Lomond Group has told The Neg that it will neither confirm not deny rumours that it is about to snapped up by a ‘pack’ of private equity firms who have valued the business at £100m.
A spokesperson said the firm would ‘not comment’ on the Sky News story published over the weekend, which claimed that ICG, Searchlight Capital Partners and two other investors were examining a potential purchase of the estate agency group, which is owned by the private equity division of Lloyds Banking Group.
Although Lomond’s CEO admitted last year that the financiers behind his company were considering an ‘exit’ via sale at some point, the latest speculation means a deal could happen much earlier.
Lomond Group has been extremely aggressive with its estate agency acquisition efforts since it was created in 2021 by the merger of northern estate agency Linley & Simpson and Lomond Capital.
50 estate agencies
Since then it has hoovered up some 50 estate agencies and has established a ‘hub and spoke’ structure that has seen key agencies become regional centres with smaller agencies then added to their list of linked firms.
Reports that Lomond Group was facing an imminent sale have been circulating since May this this year although despite this the company has continued its acquisition spending spree including, last month, the purchase of ten-branch South Coast estate agency Charters, the largest agency it has bought to date.
Sky News reckons that talks to sell Lomond Group have entered their second round of discussions and that the group is being advised by city firm Clearwater International.