Bentall Kennedy and GreenOak Real Estate (GreenOak) have announced an agreement to merge the two firms into a global real estate investment platform called Bentall GreenOak.

According to a press release, the real estate investment firm will be majority-owned by Sun Life Financial and 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.

GreenOak co-founders, John Carrafiell and Sonny Kalsi, existing GreenOak senior management and GreenOak’s strategic partner Tetragon Financial Group Limited 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.

Senior management 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 UK/European business.

“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 Gary Whitelaw, CEO, Bentall Kennedy. “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.”

Bentall GreenOak will have 14 offices in North America and seven internationally. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2019.