Bentall Kennedy and GreenOak Real Estate have merged together. The combined entity will be named Bentall GreenOak.
GreenOak co-founders, John Carrafiell and Sonny Kalsi, existing GreenOak senior management and GreenOak’s strategic partner Tetragon Financial Group will all continue to hold significant ownership stakes in Bentall GreenOak. Bentall Kennedy’s senior management team will also acquire a meaningful ownership position in the combined firm.
Bentall GreenOak will be majority-owned by Sun Life Financial and will operate under Sun Life Investment Management, the alternative asset management arm of Sun Life. Sun Life has committed significant co-investment capital to support the growth of Bentall GreenOak and to enhance the firm’s alignment with its clients.
Senior management of the combined firm will include leaders from both Bentall Kennedy and GreenOak, and will be led globally by Gary Whitelaw, as CEO, and Sonny Kalsi, as president. John Carrafiell will be senior managing partner of the Bentall GreenOak U.K./European business.
Bentall GreenOak will provide its clients with a broad range of complementary real estate investment strategies that include core, core-plus and value-add/opportunistic equity, as well as senior and tactical real estate debt strategies. With investment professionals in 14 offices in North America, and seven offices internationally, Bentall GreenOak will have deep local knowledge and strong, long-standing investment track records across the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.
“This combination brings together two successful real estate platforms to create a world-class investment manager, supported by the significant resources and long-term stability of Sun Life Investment Management. GreenOak and Bentall Kennedy are two highly complementary firms with virtually no overlap in investment strategies or offices,” said Whitelaw. “As members of the combined leadership team have worked together before, and given our extensive discussions over many months, we believe we share very similar investment practices, underwriting discipline, and client-centric cultures,” continued Whitelaw.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.
