Brookfield Asset Management said it plans to take advantage of the recent volatility in global markets by deploying some of its $119 billion of uncalled capital to pick up high-quality assets.
“We are well-positioned and fully intend to capitalize opportunistically on market dislocations,” Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt and President Connor Teskey said in a letter to investors May 6, when Brookfield reported first-quarter results.
The recent market pullback is also creating opportunities in credit, “where private market strategies are playing an even more meaningful role and generating opportunities to provide liquidity when there is less available,” they said.
In February, Brookfield completed the final close for its opportunistic credit flagship fund, raising a total of $16 billion through its Oaktree Capital Management franchise.
Distributable earnings for the first quarter rose 20% from a year earlier to $654 million, or 40 cents a share, matching the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Fee-bearing capital climbed 20% to $549 billion.
Brookfield, which manages more than $1 trillion, raised $25 billion during the quarter, including $14 billion through its credit funds. The firm’s flagship real estate fund amassed $5.9 billion, bringing its total to about $16 billion.
Since the asset manager was spun from its Toronto-based parent, Brookfield Corp., it has invested more than $1.4 billion in three new partnerships and increased its ownership of Oaktree to 74%, according to the letter.
Looking ahead, the firm sees a “compelling opportunity” to increase its ownership in these managers, which could add more than $250 million to fee-related earnings over the next five years, Flatt and Teskey said.
Last month, Brookfield said it agreed to buy a majority stake in Angel Oak, a mortgage lender and investor that manages more than $18 billion. And last year, the asset manager struck a partnership with Castlelake, giving it a majority share of the private debt firm’s fee-related earnings.
