Eastdil Secured to Go Private in Management Buyout

Roy March, CEO of Eastdil Secured

Eastdil Secured is returning to private ownership in a management-led buyout of the real estate investment banking firm. In a deal announced Tuesday, Wells Fargo will sell its majority stake to a partnership of Eastdil Secured’s management; Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based investment firm; institutional clients advised by Guggenheim Investments. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019. 

Eastdil will retain its current leadership team, which includes Chairman Benjamin Lambert, CEO Roy March and President Michael Van Konynenburg. The company’s management committee is also staying on board. Wells Fargo will retain a minority stake, and Eastdil Secured’s public market bankers will join Wells Fargo’s Corporate & Investment Banking division. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

The return to private ownership represents a major new chapter for Eastdil Secured, which in 2018 advised on 827 deals valued at $243.5 billion. Founded by Lambert in 1967 under the name Eastdil Realty, the company has been part of Wells Fargo since 2006, when the financial services company merged Eastdil with Secured Capital Corp. to form the current firm. In 2007, Eastdil Secured represented Blackstone Group in its landmark $39 billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust, now known as EQ Office. 

Among recent high-profile deals Eastdil advised are Blackstone’s purchase of a $18.7 billion U.S. industrial portfolio from three GLP funds, in a record deal announced earlier this month; Unico Investment Group’s sale of a $710 million office portfolio to a Goldman Sachs affiliate in January; the Sobrato Organization’s sale of a Silicon Valley office campus to Gemini Rosemont for $171 million in May.

The new ownership structure will look to further grow its presence in Europe and Asia, according to the company.