UK merchant bank Kleinwort Benson is teaming up with Chicago-based LaSalle Partners and taking a 20% stake in the real estate advisory group.
The deal involves KB paying £6.8m to buy out its partners in Alex Brown Kleinwort Benson Realty Advisors Corporation, a US property advisory joint venture, and transferring the business to LaSalle. KB is also paying £13.3m for LaSalle equity.
The new group will become the third-largest real estate advisory firm in the US, with opportunities to exploit the transatlantic links. LaSalle has had a London office since 1990 and already has a £100m joint-venture investment fund with Grosvenor Estate. Now, the link with KB will enable the company to build business on both sides of the Atlantic.
“This transaction has significant benefits for our European operations,” says Van Stults, head of the London office.
“It further enhances LaSalle’s ability to advise European investors in the US, both with direct property investment and through REITs, and gives us expanded capabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Asia,” he adds.
