Brookfield weighs up blockbuster listing for asset management business
Toronto-based investment giant Brookfield Asset Management is looking to spin-off its asset management business in a blockbuster listing that could value the new firm at $75bn.
The move would streamline Brookfield’s structure and separate its $364bn division, which manages assets on behalf of institutional investors, from the $50bn of its directly-owned net assets, The Financial Times reported.
The potential spin-off was revealed in a letter to investors attached to the firm’s results on Thursday morning, with the firm writing “as we consider these options (including possibly doing nothing), we will report in the quarters/years ahead — and will be pleased to hear any views that you have.”
Brookfield boss Bruce Flatt said there was appetite among investors for the move.
“The financial markets have evolved. What people like are asset-light models,” he said. “It appears that there is an enormous amount of shareholder value to be unlocked,” he told the FT.
The firm’s directly owned assets include a portfolio of real estate which counts London’s Canary Wharf, two of New York’s largest office developments and more than 100 US shopping malls among its most valuable properties.
Robert Lee, an analyst at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, recently valued Brookfield’s asset management business at more than $75bn, the FT reported.
The move to spin off the firm would see it fall in line with investment giant Blackstone which holds no assets on its balance sheet.