CBRE Investment Management Buys Tenet Equity From Cerberus for $1.6B

CBRE Investment Management is acquiring Tenet Equity, the net-lease finance platform Cerberus Capital Management built to fund sale-leasebacks for middle-market companies, for $1.6 billion, according to the companies’ joint release. The deal hands a marquee private-equity exit to a public buyer at a moment when developers weighing their own leaseback options are watching whether that capital is still there.

Why it matters

Cerberus launched Tenet in 2021 with Executive Partners Nicholas Eggert and Andrew Gallagher running it, and the firm grew the platform into a market-leading source of triple-net-lease financing rather than flipping it fast. A five-year build ending in a $1.6 billion sale to one of the largest institutional real estate investment managers in the country is a real-time read on demand for net-lease paper. For any owner-operator sizing up a sale-leaseback to free up capital for new construction, that is the clearest signal available that the buyer side of that trade has not thinned out.

The numbers

The portfolio changing hands spans more than 200 properties totaling roughly 12 million square feet across 39 states, leased to more than 65 tenants across 26 industries, per the release. Evercore advised Cerberus as exclusive financial advisor, with Kirkland & Ellis serving as legal counsel. Tom Wagner, Cerberus’s head of North American real estate, said in the release that “Tenet has grown significantly under our leadership and delivered significant value for both our investors and its customers.”

What’s next

CBRE Investment Management is buying Tenet on behalf of several of its investment strategies, folding a scaled net-lease book directly into its existing platform rather than building one from scratch. For national developers and owners, the transaction is worth tracking less for the price tag than for what it confirms: institutional capital is still willing to underwrite sale-leaseback structures at size, which keeps that financing tool live for anyone weighing whether to monetize real estate to fund the next project instead of selling it outright.