Brookfield sees ‘tremendous opportunities’ as AUM nears $1tn

Canary Wharf owner Brookfield Asset Management has grown its assets under management to almost $1tn (£790bn) in the three months ended 30 June. Real estate AUM totalled $268bn over the period. Fee revenue from its funds nudged up in Q2 to $238m, from $230m in Q2 2023. The Toronto-based firm, which invests in renewables, infrastructure, private equity and credit as well as real estate, said it had raised $68bn of capital in Q2 2024, with $1.1bn of that raised within its real estate business, including capital for its fifth opportunistic real estate fund. That fund now has around $9bn of equity, with additional closes expected before the year end. The investor also deployed around $20bn of capital over the period, some $1.5bn of which went into real estate, including $500m into a US multifamily portfolio. In a letter to shareholders, Brookfield president Connor Teskey and chief executive Bruce Flatt said the real estate markets were showing signs of improvement, with tightening credit spreads and the return of liquidity to high-quality assets in the sector. Brookfield’s latest figures show that it has $12bn of uncalled fund commitments in its real estate business, ready to be deployed into “attractive, risk-adjusted opportunities”. “The opportunities for well-capitalised investors to acquire premium assets at attractive prices are significant, particularly where owners are either undercapitalised or have inappropriate capital structures in place,” said the pair. In a conference call with analysts, Flatt added: “High-quality, best-in-class assets continue to attract very robust bids and significant demand, and we will continue to play into that as we have in recent quarters. But I would say that monetisation activity in real estate will be more asset-specific than broad-based. “That’s quite representative of the opportunity we see on the investment side, where we are seeing tremendous opportunities to put capital to work on the real estate side and where there is still some caution in the sector.” Photo © Evgeny Klimenchenko/Unsplash