LaSalle to Buy Lend Lease Units

LaSalle Partners Inc. agreed to buy two real estate services businesses from Lend Lease Corp. for as much as $257.5 million to create the largest real estate management services company in the U.S.

The two businesses are Compass Management & Leasing, with operations in the U.S., Australia, Brazil and Britain, and Lend Lease’s U.S. retail property management business.

LaSalle will take an after-tax charge of about $10.6 million through the rest of this year and the first half of next year.

The Lend Lease businesses will be combined with Chicago-based LaSalle Partners Management Services Inc., and together they will have about 400 million square feet of office, retail and industrial real estate under management.

“LaSalle Partners Management Services will be able to “capitalize on economies of scale in emerging services and technology applications,” said Stuart Scott, chairman and chief executive of LaSalle Partners Inc.

Trading in LaSalle shares was halted on the New York Stock Exchange. They closed at $34.56, up 63 cents.