Lowe Enterprises and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America Form Strategic Partnership to Drive Significant Investment in Real Estate

Lowe Enterprises Investors Jointly Owned by Lowe, Guardian and Senior Management

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) and Lowe Enterprises, Inc. (Lowe), a leading national real estate investment, development and management firm, today announced that they have completed the transaction to form a strategic partnership whereby Guardian has acquired a substantial, non-controlling interest in Lowe Enterprises Investors, Lowe’s investment management subsidiary. In addition, Guardian has allocated more than $200 million to expand Lowe’s investment activities by investing alongside Lowe’s clients and partners.

The new partnership will allow Lowe Enterprises Investors to better serve its clients by improving the firm’s capital base and positions the firm to take advantage of the investment opportunities presented by the recovering real estate market. Lowe Enterprises Investors will continue to be managed on a day-to-day basis by Brad Howe and Bleecker Seaman as co-CEOs and the firm’s existing personnel and organizational structure will remain in place.

About Lowe Enterprises Investors

Lowe Enterprises Investors provides real estate investment management services on behalf of a select list of institutional and high net worth clients and partners through both individually managed and commingled fund relationships. The firm has been responsible for $6 billion in real estate assets, including commercial, hospitality and debt investments, since inception in the late 1980s. Lowe Enterprises Investors has been a leading value-added investor through multiple cycles, employing equity and structured debt in its investment strategies.

About Lowe Enterprises

Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises is a leading national real estate investment, development and management firm. Over the past 38 years, it has developed, acquired or managed more than $16 billion of real estate assets nationwide. Lowe is currently responsible for more than $5 billion of commercial, hospitality and residential assets. In addition to its Los Angeles headquarters, Lowe Enterprises maintains offices in Southern California, Northern California, Denver and Washington, D.C. For further information on Lowe’s activities, please visit: www.LoweEnterprises.com.

About Guardian

A mutual insurer founded in 1860, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries are committed to protecting individuals, business owners and their employees with life, long-term care, disability income, group medical and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), annuities and other financial products. Guardian operates one of the largest dental networks in the United States, and protects more than six million employees and their families at 120,000 companies. The company has more than 5,400 employees in the United States and a network of over 3,000 financial representatives in more than 80 agencies nationwide. For more information about Guardian, please visit: www.GuardianLife.com.