One of Britain's largest property consultancies has taken a 20 per cent interest in the commercial property division of Dublin estate agents Sherry FitzGerald. Debenham Tewson Chinnocks Holdings plc is to pay £765,000 for the stake, £350,000 of it in cash and £415,000 in shares.

The new subsidiary company dealing solely with commercial property will trade as DTZ Sherry FitzGerald Commercial. The consideration puts a value of close to £4 million on the commercial division which handles about one-third of the entire Sherry FitzGerald group business. The group has 22 shareholder directors and has been in business since 1982. Fee income at DTZ Sherry FitzGerald in the current year is expected to be in the region of £3 million from a total group turnover of £8.5 million.

The new joint venture company will have a close working relationship with the holding company's subsidiary, DTZ Debenham Thorpe, which has 110 offices in 29 countries around the world including the main European countries. It is one of the major property advisers in Britain where it employs 1,100 people and has a fee turnover of £70 million sterling.

DTZ Sherry FitzGerald will have 35 employees based in Dublin. It is expected to open an office in Belfast over the coming year. The company will be managed independently of Sherry FitzGerald's residential business.

Mr Mark FitzGerald, managing director of Sherry FitzGerald, said the alliance made strong strategic sense for Sherry FitzGerald in that it enabled it to combine its market expertise with DTZ's in-depth experience and international capability. Mr Mark Struckett, chief executive of Debenham Tewson delighted to cement a two-year working relationship with Sherry FitzGerald which would allow them to satisfy jointly the needs of their multinational clients as well as providing a service to the growing number of Irish companies who were expanding overseas.