JLL boosts debt advisory service with AGL acquisition

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has acquired Swedish firm AGL in another move to expand its debt advisory business across Europe.

The deal, which is subject to approval by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, will add further financial and debt advisory services to JLL’s existing real estate capital markets business.

JLL has been expanding its debt placement business across the Continent with new staff this year in Italy and Germany. Last year, it bought the Stockholm-based investment advisor, Tenzing.

AGL, also based in Stockholm, advises more than 200 clients on strategic and operational real estate financing including debt management, debt advisory, risk management and derivatives. It was founded in 1994 and employs 15 people.

“This is a terrific addition to our business in Sweden and also to our broader EMEA debt and financial advisory offer,” said Richard Bloxam, JLL’s head of EMEA capital markets.

Among its hires this year, JLL has brought in Graeme Parry, formerly of pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, for its Milan office, and Markus Kreuter, formerly of Deutsche Bank, to head the debt advisory business in Germany.

The agent, which has had a debt placement business in Europe for at least 10 years, expects to do €4bn-€4.5bn of business in 2015, based on the current deals pipeline – as much as it has done in debt placement in the past 10 years.

In Real Estate Capital’s September magazine feature, Debt Intermediaries Special Report, JLL’s London-based head of European debt advisory, Chris Holmes, said: “We have a  big US debt broking practice and we can piggyback on America’s experience and contacts. But this is also about the pie getting bigger in Europe and borrowers reaching out to use advisers. There is huge room to move the needle.”