NEW YORK CITY—HFF has acquired Hentschel & Co. a boutique investment banking advisory firm here focused on advising public and private REITs, non-traded REITs, real estate investment funds and other private owners of real estate and real estate debt on M&A, initial public offerings, capital raises and other strategic alternatives.

HFF has appointed Steve Hentschel, who founded Hentschel & Co. in May 2013, as the leader of HFF's M&A and corporate advisory services provided by HFF's registered broker-dealer subsidiary, HFF Securities L.P. The acquisition of Hentschel & Co. establishes HFFS' second US location.

Hentschel has 27 years of experience in the industry and throughout his career has completed more than $78 billion of transactions. Prior to starting Hentschel & Co., he founded the real estate investment banking group at Gleacher & Co. in 2009 and built it into a practice that was the No. 1 ranked REIT M&A advisor by transaction value in Bloomberg's US league tables for 2012.

Earlier, Hentschel was a managing director and spent ten years in the global real estate Group at Lehman Brothers and was subsequently the head of the real estate investment banking office here of Wachovia Securities.

“The acquisition of Hentschel & Co. will allow HFF to expand its M&A and corporate advisory services which have been increasingly requested by our clients,” says Mark Gibson, CEO and executive managing director of HFF.

“The Hentschel and Co. team is comprised of best in class professionals with significant experience in all facets of the investment banking business which will allow HFF to continue to provide exceptional service and advice to our clients across both the public and private domains of the commercial real estate industry,” he continues. “We are extremely excited to have the Hentschel and Co. professionals join the HFF team.”

“We have been approached over the years by many firms about a strategic combination but we were only interested in becoming partners with a team that shared our values and brought compelling strategic to our clients,” adds Hentschel.

“We are truly excited to be joining HFF and see significant growth opportunities for our business,” Ted Flagg, a Hentschel & Co. senior managing director, asserts. “The combined platform elevates our strategic advisory capabilities by adding real time property level perspective and dramatically enhancing our ability to raise capital.”

Hentschel & Company's senior banking team includes Ted Flagg, Christopher Shea, Chris Allen, and Sher Hafeez.

Flagg joined Hentschel & Co. from Gleacher & Co., and before that was a senior banker in the real estate group of Lazard Frères during his eight years at the firm. He has been affiliated with Urban Land Institute, U. Penn Zell-Lurie Center and the alumni board of Trinity School here.

Shea joined Hentschel & Co. from Gleacher and has more than 15 years of experience in investment banking and fixed-income capital markets. Earlier, he was a member of Citigroup's real estate & lodging investment banking group.

Allen has more than 16 years of experience in real estate investment banking and finance with substantial M&A, capital raising and capital markets expertise. He has held senior positions at Chambers Street Properties, Banc of America Securities and Merrill Lynch.

Hafeez has more than ten years of experience in real estate investment banking and private equity industries. Prior to Hentschel, he worked in J.P Morgan's real estate investment banking group and Morgan Stanley's real estate group.

Hentschel & Company's senior banking team includes Ted Flagg, Christopher Shea, Chris Allen, and Sher Hafeez.

Instant Insights /

HFF Picks Up Boutique I-Banking Advisory

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