JLL Buys Dubai-Based Services Firm

DUBAI-Jones Lang LaSalle has bought Dubai-based agent RSP Group, headed up by Blair Hagkull and Thierry Loué. Hagkull is the former general manager of Emaar Properties, and Thierry Loué is the former chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs’ hotel investment business, Alliance Hospitality. RSP has a team of 30 who provide property investment and advisory services to private and institutional investors and developers in the Middle East and North Africa.

Hagkull and Loué will become managing directors of JLL’s MENA operations, which has worked on $100 billion of developments in the United Arab Emirates since it was set up in 2001. Alastair Hughes, JLL’s CEO of the EMEA region, says the acquisition was designed to give JLL “overnight” coverage of the market.

“There is a rapidly growing demand for international real estate expertise across,” the region, says Hagkull. “The two firms, combined, will bring together a wealth of talent and experience in strategic advisory, investment and research for our investor, developer and occupier clients.”