Brookfield Asset Management touts big first-quarter fundraising

As private equity giants jockey for assets, Brookfield Asset Management staked its claim with a powerful first-quarter performance.

The firm reported a 26% year-over-year increase in fee-related earnings, reaching a record $698 million for the quarter. Distributable earnings also saw a significant jump, growing by 20% to $654 million.

Headquartered in New York with over $1 trillion of assets under management, Brookfield is competing with the likes of KKR and Apollo Global Management for worldwide assets and market dominance. All three also either own or rely on life insurance companies to contribute sizable capital.

Brookfield closed its acquisition of American Equity Investment Life one year ago. The insurer wrote $8.3 billion worth of annuities in 2024, finished 16^th in LIMRA rankings. In one of the only references to annuities during Tuesday’s conference call with Wall Street analysts, Brookstone President Connor Teskey noted how those sales fuel BAM’s investment machine.

“We're also constantly writing new annuities and bringing new cash in that typically goes into liquid before being redeployed into a private strategy,” he said in response to a question about capital deployment. “So, it’s a bit of a treadmill there. But the commitments are certainly higher and growing, and that's being pushed through the system.”

Brookfield Reinsurance acquired American National, headquartered in Galveston, Texas, in a $5.1 billion deal that officially closed in May 2024. Operating in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, American National affiliates underwrites and issues life, health, and property and casualty insurance and annuities. BAM manages American Equity assets.

Like many of the private equity giants, Teskey nodded to the ongoing volatility in international markets, much of it stoked by President Donald Trump’s commitment to harsh tariffs. And Brookstone has plenty of capital waiting to be unleashed to take advantage of good deals, Teskey said.

“Our business is built for this environment, and we are very active,” he said. “Recent macro uncertainty has underscored the growing appeal of private assets, especially those focused on essential infrastructure that deliver stable, long-duration and inflation-protected revenues that perform across market cycles.

“With nearly $120 billion of capital available to deploy, we are well-positioned to invest through this cycle and deliver compelling long-term value for our clients.”

In Other News:

Angel Oak. BAM executives touted the recent deal to acquire a majority stake in Angel Oak Companies, a mortgage lender and investor that managers more than $18 billion in assets. The move gives BAM access to Angel Oak’s residential mortgage credit business.

Angel Oak, founded in 2008, will continue to do business independently under co-CEOs Sreeni Prabhu and Mike Fierman, BAM has said.

Angel Oak, “fits perfectly into the type of credit that we focus on, and is actually well positioned to benefit, especially our clients associated with insurance,” said Hadley Peer Marshall, chief financial officer for BAM. “The non-qualified side of the mortgage space is quite attractive, and we are excited to have them.”

Quarterly Snapshot:

• In renewable power and transition, deployed $3.5 billion of capital, completing the privatization of Neoen, a leading, global renewable development business.
• Signed an agreement to acquire the midstream asset portfolio of Colonial Enterprises for $3.4 billion of equity capital. The portfolio includes the Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined products pipeline in the U.S. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2025.
• In private equity, deployed $1.1 billion of capital, including the acquisition of Chemelex, a manufacturer of electric heat trace systems. Also committed over $800 million toward the acquisition of Antylia Scientific, a manufacturer and distributor of specialty consumable products and testing equipment used in quality control and research applications. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025.
• In infrastructure, monetized over $1 billion of equity capital, including from the sale of two Mexican regulated natural gas transmission pipelines. Also signed an agreement to sell its remaining 25% interest in Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America’s U.S. natural gas pipeline for $400 million.
• Increased ownership interest in Oaktree by 1.5%, bringing BAM’s total stake to 74%.

Management Perspective:

“Our ecosystem gives us real-time access to data, insights, and operating feedback from across our global portfolio, which allows us to see through the noise, identify value, and move decisively. This is especially important in a market where volatility is pressuring public valuations, creating entry points that are only accessible to those with true on-the-ground visibility.”

President Connor Teskey

By The Numbers:

• Total Revenues: $1.1 billion ($884 million in Q1 2024)
• Net Income: $507 million ($373 in Q1 2024)
• Earnings Per Share: 36 cents per share (28 cents in Q1 2024)
• Dividend Declared: $0.4375 per share
• Stock Price Movement: Shares rose nearly 2% by midday Wednesday to $56

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