GREENSBORO, NC - Sun Life announced it intends to fully acquire Bell Partners, a leading U.S. multifamily real estate investment manager and vertically integrated property management business. Bell Partners will become the U.S. multifamily operating platform for Sun Life, operating under BGO.
Bell Partners has approximately US$10 billion of Gross Asset Value Under Management as of March 1, 2026. With nine offices across the United States, Bell Partners has close to 1,800 employees and manages approximately 70,000 apartment homes in 12 regions across the United States.
Founded in 1976, Bell Partners offers an extensive full-service vertically integrated national platform of expertise in investment and property management, acquisitions, and construction. Bell Partners has invested throughout all phases of the real estate cycle and has completed approximately US$11.9 billion of realized apartment transactions since 2002, including more than US$1.3 billion in acquisitions in 2025.
The acquisition strengthens BGO to deliver greater value to Clients, enhance its capabilities, and achieve deeper integration across its product offering. Bell Partners brings broader strategic benefits to the BGO platform by enhancing its value-add and core plus product offerings, broadening its investor base, and enabling further expansion in multifamily and multifamily-adjacent strategies in the future.
Sun Life will acquire a 100% interest in Bell Partners for a purchase price of US$350 million, with at least 75% payable in Sun Life common shares. All share repurchases for cancellation under Sun Life's current Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) have been completed. Any dilution resulting from the issuance of Sun Life common shares in the transaction is expected to be offset by share repurchases under a renewed Sun Life NCIB subject to regulatory and stock exchange approvals. The transaction is expected to be accretive to underlying earnings per share in 2026 on an annualized basis.
"The U.S. multifamily market is a tremendous opportunity of targeted growth for BGO," said Sonny Kalsi, President and CEO of SLC Management. "The acquisition of Bell Partners broadens BGO's strategic benefits and gives us vertically integrated property management capabilities, positioning our company as one of the leading U.S. multifamily investment managers."
Housing remains a priority for governments at all levels across the United States, and these efforts underscore the essential role that experienced, long-term investors and operators can play in providing high-quality, multi-family rental communities.
Kalsi added, "We're excited to welcome Bell Partners to BGO and SLC Management. Their team's deep expertise in the multifamily real estate and market cycles will strengthen our organization, while the acquisition supports expanding our array of investment solutions available to our Clients."
Upon closing, Bell Partners will continue to operate under its current leadership and will retain its distinct property-level branding, office locations, investment vehicles and client focus.