King Sturge has confirmed its 75%-owned Spanish subsidiary, King Sturge Espana, is to file for administration.
In a statement released late last night, the firm said it had agreed to apply to the Spanish courts to place the firm into administration after seeing its turnover fall to €2.7m (£2.4m) for the six months to October from an annual average of €18m (£16.1m) over the previous three years.
The firm was also hit hard with redundancies, losing about 80 jobs over the last year. King Sturge Espana currently has 105 staff across offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, Seville and Reus.
The firm’s general manager Sergio Martinez, who owns the remaining 25% stake in the firm, has also left the company.
Richard Batten, joint senior partner at King Sturge said: ‘This is an extremely unfortunate outcome forced upon us by a rapid deterioration in market conditions.’
‘We explored every possible avenue to keep the operation going but unfortunately [administration] was the only realistic option left to the directors.
'This route is in the best interests of existing staff and clients and gives the greatest opportunity for elements of the business to continue trading.’
King Sturge Espana primarily focussed on development, project management and office and industrial agency – areas hard hit as Spain became one of Europe’s worst sufferers as a result of the credit crunch last summer.
In addition to a lack of debt, the country also suffered from a saturated development market causing many of its developers to face financial difficulties.