Irish property firm's jewel Marsh & Parsons up for sale

The company is owned by Sherry FitzGerald, the property firm set up and run by Mark FitzGerald – son of the former Irish Prime Minister Dr Garret FitzGerald.

The sale comes despite Marsh & Parsons being Sherry's jewel in the crown. The Irish estate agent has been under pressure in recent years after the Irish property crash.

Sherry has a majority 72pc stake in the company, with 23pc owned by Marsh & Parsons chief executive Peter Rollings and the balance by sales director Liza-Jane Kelly.

Mr Rollings – backed by the financial clout of Mr FitzGerald – led a management buy-out of Marsh & Parsons in 2005. He had famously walked out on Foxtons after 20 years, following a falling out with founder Jon Hunt.

Sherry appointed Cavendish Corporate finance to oversee the sale at the beginning of the summer. The company will be finalising its decision on the buyer in the next few days – with some insiders suggesting there is some division of opinion given management's preference for private equity ownership.

Along with LSL, which has a stock market valuation of £207.5m, final bids were received from mid-market private equity firm Graphite for £50m and Bowmark Capital for £53m.

They had competed with buy-out houses Bridgepoint and BlueGem and trade buyers Connells and Countrywide.

The problem for private equity was that following the problems BC Partners faced with the Foxtons debt, banks were less willing to lend enough money to make the returns work for the private equity model.

Last year BC was forced to write down its equity, inject an extra £50m, and agree to a debt-for-equity swap with its lenders.

Marsh & Parsons covers high end London properties – with 50pc of its business in lettings – so it has fared reasonably well against the economic downturn.