Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate services and money management firm, has acquired Sallmanns, the specialist chartered surveyors firm. Sallmans are an Asian firm who focus on financial valuations, and have undertaken over 50 percent of all Hong Kong IPO valuations in market capitalisation terms over recent years. Their clients include some of China 's largest corporations including ICBC, Sinopec , China Railway Construction, China Railways, China Life and Beijing Airport Authority.

The acquisition will take the form of a new entity, Jones Lang LaSalle Sallmanns. Paul Brown, formerly the Managing Partner of Sallmanns, will take the position of Chief Executive Officer while CK Lau, Head of Valuations in Asia, Jones Lang LaSalle will join former Sallmans executive director on the senior management committee. Sallmans has 160 staff spread across seven offices.

The aquisition was a cash buy-out, Peter Barge, CEO, Jones Lang LaSalle, Asia Pacific, revealed. He explained that the new company is well positioned to capitalise on growing demand for specialist valuation services. "Our primary interest was the greater China assets as we saw huge growth potential in the IPO, M&A and Financial valuation components in their business that focus on HK listings and China based enterprises. We intend to leverage this expertise into other markets."

Explaining the rationale behind the sale (Sallmans was previously an equity partnership), Brown said: "The real estate service provider universe is consolidating as the global brands strengthen their position and we wanted to link with the firm we regarded as the most diversified and professional within the Asia Pacific region." RFP