Starwood Capital Group and Tunstall Real Estate Asset Management are buying Pinnacle Group in a bid to target large-scale urban regeneration projects in the UK.

Starwood, a global private-equity investor, and Tunstall, a recently formed pan-European investment manager, have formed a 50-50 joint venture to acquire the housing and regeneration specialist.

Pinnacle, sold by Chinese property investor Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, is focused on UK housing-led regeneration projects in partnership with the public sector, and has around 2,300 staff.

Tunstall was formed in November 2016 by former Stifel investment banker Roger Clarke, and is affiliated with European property investment manager M7 Real Estate. Richard Croft, chief executive of M7, is chairman of Tunstall’s investment committee.

Tunstall and Starwood said they had identified “a significant opportunity to leverage the existing Pinnacle platform by providing substantial capital resources that will allow the company to invest in and deliver large-scale regeneration projects”.

Pinnacle’s senior management team will remain in place after the takeover. 

Adam Shah, managing director at Starwood Capital, said: “This acquisition allows our firm – via Pinnacle’s strong track record of leading public-private partnership-led housing regeneration projects – to invest through an emerging and exciting model to provide housing across all price points and tenures in the UK.”

Clarke, Tunstall’s chief executive, said that buying Pinnacle — along with its existing management team and Tunstall’s planned investment into Pinnacle’s pipeline of current and future projects — was a compelling opportunity for his firm.

“In partnership with the public sector, we look forward to providing much-needed new homes, as well as the regeneration of communities across London,” he said.