Macquarie to Reduce Stake in Advisory Firm

He tells GlobeSt.com that the move is the result of the unexpected quick success of the two firms at penetrating the global market, especially in Asia. Suter says the 11-person partnership of MCP, created originally in Chicago as a spin-off of Security Capital Markets Group, partnered with Macquarie in 2000 to access the Asian financial market.

Since forming the partnership, MCP assisted Macquarie Real Estate in growing from nothing to real estate assets under management, with real estate operating partners, comprising 79.5 million sf of gross leaseable area across 380 properties in 33 US states and Mexico. MCP was the exclusive financial advisor to either Macquarie Real Estate or its joint venture partners in such as Regency Centers, ProLogis, Developers Diversified Realty Corp., Brandywine Realty Trust, Equity Office Properties Trust and Maguire Property Group. Properties owned by Macquarie Office Trust, a division of Macquarie Real Estate, is the one-million-sf 30 South Wacker office tower, in a joint venture with EOP.

"The partnership worked better than we ever dreamed," Suter tells GlobeSt.com. "We put together more than $11 billion in deals. But now the bank is going to reduce its investment, we're basically buying them out." He said he can't provide a cash figure for the buyout.

He says the firms realized that the joint investment group, both independently operating on a global scale, realized that they may someday soon come against each other in opposition on properties or companies. "Clients trust us to give them good advice. We realized that the companies may start running into each other, we didn't want clients to have in the back of their mind that Macquarie Bank might have an angle on one of our transactions."