Lisney has become the latest Irish auctioneering firm to form an alliance with an international partner as property goes global. Lisney has become the sole agent in the Republic and the North for Healey & Baker, one of the UK's largest property consultancy firms. The two companies say the new alliance will help them to offer clients world-wide advisory services.

Healey & Baker is already part of an international property group - US real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield (C & W), which is one of the largest real estate companies in the world. However, senior partner Paul Orchard-Lisle said the company needed a "single seamless operation in Ireland". Peter Browne, managing director of Lisney, says the new arrangement will allow Lisney to deal with its Irish clients on a global basis. "We have had a number of approaches but we have held off making a formal association until the right opportunity arose. This has now happened," he said.

The chief executive of Healey & Baker, Arthur Mirante, says "we have long regarded Ireland as a significant target for our US clients and we are delighted to have this association".

Healey & Baker is an international partnership, established in 1820, which provides international and real estate consultancy and agency advice. It specialises in all types of commercial property and acts for a range of clients across corporate, public and private sectors.

Since September 1988, it has been a member of C & W, which manages 325 million sq. ft of commercial space, including office buildings, industrial parks, corporate headquarters and shopping centres, and claims to be the market leader in all seven of its core businesses.

C & W represents major corporations, pension funds, developers, entrepreneurs and financial institutions worldwide. The company offers advisory, asset, brokerage, corporate, financial, research and valuation services. In 1947, C & W won the "Most ingenious deal of the year" award in the US for assembling and selling the land for the UN building in New York. In 1963, the Pan-Am building in New York was dedicated with C & W as the original managing and leasing agent, and in 1969, it was the project developer of Chicago's Sears Tower.