Lend Lease Selling US Unit, Losing CFO

SYDNEY-Lend Lease Corp. agreed to sell its Berkeley, CA-based Lend Lease Rosen Real Estate Securities LLC division to an entity controlled by the division’s CEO and portfolio manager Michael Torres. The transaction with ACM Acquisition LLC should be complete by the end of the month. Lend Lease says the sale price will “recoup book value,” which is about $10 million. Lend Lease says that the sell-off of its various US divisions will allow the company to focus on its core business in Australia. Last year, Morgan Stanley acquired most of Lend Lease’s US real estate investment arm and Holliday Fenoglio Fowler completed a management buy-out from Lend Lease. Torres could not be reached for comment.Lend Lease also revealed a new executive management structure, one that does not include the company’s finance director Jo Curin, who joined the firm last year after stints as finance director of P&O Australia and Carter Holt Harvey, a forest products company based in her native New Zealand. Lend Lease says she has decided “for personal reasons” not to relocate to Sydney as previously planned, and will remain with the company only until a successor is found.The new organizational structure is said to reflect the company’s growth strategy, which is focused on asset ownership and management, wholesale property investment management in Australia, Asia and the UK; urban community development in Australia, UK and the US; and Bovis Lend Lease’s international construction management operations. Streamlining the board was one of the issues brought up by the General Property Trust independent directors during negotiations for the pending $11-billion merger of the two companies.Under the new structure, chief executive Greg Clarke will have three senior executives reporting to him: Adrian Chamberlain, who will head development and construction in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as global markets and IT; Nic Lyons, who will head investment management and retail; and Ross Taylor, who will control development and construction in the Asia Pacific and the US.