DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, the commercial wing of the Sherry FitzGerald Group, is poised to acquire CS Tierney O'Neill, a small Dublin estate agency, in a deal believed to be valued at €3 million. Jack Fagan reports.

Although founded less than a year ago, Tierney O'Neill has quickly become one of the key players in the retail market. Mr Fintan Tierney, who heads up the company, is likely to to be named as managing director of DTZ if negotiations are successfully concluded.

The other partners in the company are Mr Sean O'Neill, Mr Karl Stewart and Ms Rosemary Casey.

The four partners set up Tierney O'Neill after defecting from the UK-based agency Lambert Smith Hampton. The acquisition costs by DTZ are likely to include at least €2 million in cash with the balance in an equity holding.

The decision to acquire the smaller company will not come as a surprise as DTZ has been attempting to replace four top executives who left last April to form a new property advisory company HT Meagher O'Reilly.

DTZ International has a 20 per cent stake in DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, which has traded exceptionally well during the commercial property boom of recent years. The company has been advising many of the leading companies in the country including several banks.

CS Tierney O'Neill has been representing the top UK multiples in Ireland including the Arcadia Group, Argos, Boots, Clarkes, New Look and First Choice Travel. The company recently let Clare Hall Shopping Centre at the Malahide Road in Dublin and Wilton Shopping Centre in Cork for Tesco Ireland.

The firm has also been cornering an increasing share of the property investment market.

The commercial market is of very considerable importance to most of the country's leading estate agencies because of the relatively high level of fees which apply to many of the major sales and lettings, compared to the residential sector. Commercial property has experienced rapid growth in recent years, in line with the economic boom.

Competition among the main players has intensified over the past few years as companies sought to both retain long-standing clients and increase their market share.

Several relatively young companies have been increasingly successful in poaching major clients, particularly those with large commercial developments in the pipeline.