Bentall Kennedy announced a merger with GreenOak, establishing a $47 billion-worth global real estate investment platform. In order to complete the merger, Sun Life Financial is to merge its property management business with GreenOak. This is to enable the firm to become Bentall GreenOak, according to Real Assets.

Sun Life's other management arm, Sun Life Investment Management, is managing the GreenOak share purchase. It will pay $146 million to acquire a 56% stake in Bentall GreenOak. This will give GreenOak co-founders John Carrafiell and Sonny Kalsi as well as partner Tetragon Financial Group ownership of the remaining stake in the business as well.

The deal also has a provision where Sun Life will be able to buy off any remaining interest left in Bentall GreenOak by 2026. The deal is expected to close by the first half of 2019.

The purpose for the merger, as explained by Sun Life Financial president and CEO Dean Connor, was to broaden Sun Life's asset management pillar. It was also to expand Sun Life Investment Management's capabilities to become an effective source of solutions. By merging GreenOak and Bentall Kennedy, they created a source of the core, core plus, and value-add real estate 1 investment solutions.

AP News added that Sun Life is also entitled to a portion of the GreenOak shareholders' share in the merger. Sun Life, in exchange, will pay a series of fixed amounts through quarterly installments. This will enable Sun Life Financial to theoretically rightfully have 90% of Bentall GreenOak's profits before the company exercises options regarding the right to own more of its shares.

Those involved in the deal-namely Gary Whitelaw, John Carrafiell, and Sonny Kalsi-have expressed optimism for the deals. Whitelaw said that there is no chance that GreenOak and Bentall Kennedy will overlap each other. Carrafiell and Kalsi, meanwhile, said that the leadership team is uniquely able to manage the investment programs and assets effectively while remaining focused on value creation and risk management.

The merger of Bentall GreenOak creates an opportunity to make collaborations between these companies official. At the time when they were separate entities, both companies have worked with each other before. This enabled them to discover practices where they share similar ideas like underwriting discipline, investments, and cultures that have been client-centric.