Founder’s grandson buys LJ Hooker

The grandson of the man who founded LJ Hooker has fulfilled a life-long dream by buying the Hooker real estate chain from Queensland bank Suncorp Metway.

L. Janusz Hooker, the grandson of the company’s founder Leslie Hooker, acquired the business in an $82 million deal, comprising $67 million for the company, which includes a real estate franchise business and a mortgage broking business. LJ Hooker will also pay $15 million in dividends to Suncrop that have been accrued so far this financial year.

LJ Hooker, a former Olympic rower (he won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games) will step down from his role as the Asian head of US-based private equity firm WP Carey to take up the role as executive chairman.

LJ Hooker and a small group of mainly Australian investors have funded the deal.

“LJ Hooker has come full circle, and I am proud that the family will once again be leading the company,” Hooker said in a statement.

“I am committed to maintaining LJ Hooker’s position as the leading real estate brand in the country, and will be investing heavily in a business plan that will deliver further on the legacies of my grandfather.”

LJ Hooker’s grandfather, Leslie Hooker, founded the company in 1928 and opened the first office in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra.

The family sold out of the company in the late 1970s. The company went into liquidating in the late 1980s following a property sector crash, and was acquired by Suncorp in 1989.

Last financial year the Hooker business posted an operating profit of about $8 million, down from $14 million in the previous year. The company has 6,000 employees in 700 franchise offices across Australasia.

While Suncorp has repeatedly denied this year that the Hooker business was up for sale, a number of high-profiled property and mortgage industry figures have been linked with the company.

Listed mortgage broker Mortgage Choice was rumoured to be close to a deal in July, while Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond also showed interest in March this year.

But Suncorp’s group executive for strategy and corporate services Stuart McDonald said the company was very happy with the sale. It will book a one-off profit of $50 million on the deal.

“Suncorp has received numerous approaches for LJ Hooker over the past few years but this proposal offered an attractive price for Suncorp shareholders as well as an excellent outcome for the LJ Hooker business and real estate network,” McDonald said in a statement.