SAN FRANCISCO—Throughout its 100-year history, Bentall Kennedy has succeeded by evolving, COO Amy Price tells GlobeSt.com. The firm's acquisition by Toronto-based Sun Life Financial, announced Monday afternoon, represents another step in that evolution.

“Over the past 10 or 15 years, we have evolved from a much more narrowly focused investment manager, aligned with our old ownership structure, into a fully diversified multi-client business,” says Price. Most recently, both Bentall Kennedy's management team and its institutional owners—a partnership of the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and the California Public Employees' Retirement System—decided that “a more conventional ownership structure, aligned with a strong, stable financial services firm, would best serve our business and our clients.”

Although Bentall Kennedy's management had discussions with “a very small and select group of potential owners,” Sun Life rose to the top of the shortlist on the basis of “similar values, a compatible culture and a shared vision for Bentall Kennedy,” Price says. Sun Life has been a Bentall Kennedy client for the past 11 years, and therefore “they know us well; they understand our culture; they understand who we are and how we differentiate ourselves in the market.”

Moreover, Sun Life's strategic priority of growing its investment management business, and specifically its alternative investments platform, conformed neatly to what Bentall Kennedy could bring to the union. “A real estate investment management business fits very well with what Sun Life is looking to accomplish, and it was important to us to know that it's a priority for them as well,” says Price.

After the $454-million acquisition is finalized, Bentall Kennedy will retain its brand name, operating as Sun Life's exclusive real estate investment management platform as part of Sun Life Investment Management. “From our perspective, it does not change the way we serve our clients and run our business,” Price says. “We'll have the same people sitting in the same offices and reporting to the same people, and the same investment strategy.”

Sun Life's 90-person real estate team will become part of that platform, and with that the integration will come the new parent company's US$15-billion mortgage and direct real estate portfolio. “Ten billion dollars of that $15 billion is mortgages,” says Price. Up until now, Bentall Kennedy hasn't had a mortgage business per se, while Sun Life has one. “So that will fold into our platform, and then going forward, I think we'll have more of an emphasis on mortgage- and debt-oriented strategies than we've had in the past.”

Another complementary area of Sun Life's existing business is its strong presence in the defined contribution arena. While Bentall Kennedy has offered its Canadian Real Estate Plus fund to members of defined contribution pension and savings plans provided by Sun Life since the fall of 2013, “we also see opportunities for new client channels into our existing fund products or, potentially, new products.”