Pears Dynasty Swoops For £500m Property Firm

One of Britain's wealthiest business dynasties is in talks to buy Gallagher Estates, a private land-owner, in a deal that could be worth more than £500m.

Sky News understands that Telereal Trillium, which is owned by vehicles connected to the Pears family, is in exclusive discussions about a takeover of Gallagher.

If completed, it would rank among the biggest property sector deals in the UK this year.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) would also represent another major bet on the industry by the Pears, whose Telereal business paid £750m to acquire the property management company Trillium from Land Securities (LSE: LAND.L - news) in 2009.

This year's Sunday Times Rich List ranked the Pears in 35th place‎ with a combined wealth from their property empire of £2.8bn.

Telereal Trillium has a portfolio worth £5.5bn and its assets house 1% of the UK's workforce, the company says.

The talks with Gallagher Estates are said to be on an exclusive basis although it remains possible that they could fail to result in a deal.

Gallagher Group has two divisions, one of which ‎focuses on retail developments and has planning permission for 6m square feet of commercial development.

The other, Gallagher Estates, bills itself as one of the biggest strategic land companies in Britain.

Its role promoting and developing residential and mixed-use schemes makes it a valuable asset as a new report suggests that England alone will require more than 300,000 homes to be built annually over the next five years.

The precise terms and scope of the deal were unclear on Wednesday.

A Telereal Trillium spokeswoman declined to comment, while Gallagher could not be reached for comment.