I challenged Strutt & Parker senior partner Andy Martin yesterday over whether the £80m a year outfit would be sold – and he gave me six reasons why it won’t.

The first week of January had been enlivened by gossip that Strutts was in talks with CBRE – only for Property Week to be given a subtle steer away from the idea.

So today I visited the urbane Martin on the Strutt & Parker MIPIM yacht to clarify exactly why it wouldn’t want to be engulfed by the world’s biggest agency firm.

Here were his reasons:

• Strutt & Parker has a five year business plan to almost double its turnover to £150m a year – through growth in London residential development and letting, City investment and agency and a similar strategy in the West End.

• Key to this is a plan to leverage off existing residential and family business clients: Strutts is often able to persuade its wealthy residential and overseas clients to dabble in commercial real estate.

•The firm re-structured its partnership two years ago, and is in no mood for further upheaval now

• Anyone seriously considering a corporate sale would have appointed an adviser by now: this time last year King Sturge was being assisted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. No one is retained by Strutt & Parker for corporate or strategic advice.

• Why should Strutt & Parker sell at the bottom of the market? King Sturge partners sold last summer at a time when everyone thought UK property was back on the up – now the storm clouds are circling again.

“Our focus now is to knit all the different parts of Strutt & Parker into a synergized business,” he said. “We will also be ensuring we treat London as it deserves to be treated – as one of the most important capital cities of the world.”

“We have got a strong independent business”, was his parting shot.

So there you have it – MIPIM’s hottest rumour killed stone dead. Martin appeared relaxed enough, and you can never say never with merger speculation – but for now Strutt & Parker looks certain to remain an independent firm.

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