Brookfield Asset Management Raises $25B Thanks to Infrastructure Investment – Commercial Observer
Thanks to demand for infrastructure projects, investment behemoth Brookfield Asset Management is on its way to breaching its fundraising record this year, having hauled $25 billion in funding in the third quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to $123 billion.
Over the past year, the firm, which holds over $1 trillion in assets under management, has raised or received commitments of approximately $50 billion for its infrastructure funds and another $8 billion for its debt fund.
The New York-based firm attributed some of its success to remaining a reliant and responsible investor with decades of experience in an otherwise risky and volatile sector driven by speculative data center projects to satisfy demands from artificial intelligence.
“Brookfield has been doing large-scale infrastructure for decades. … We don’t take a different approach to AI infrastructure that we take to any other infrastructure asset class,” Connor Teskey, CEO of Brookfield Asset Management, said on a Friday third-quarter earnings call. “We look to de-risk the development, only putting capital in the ground once we’ve secured offtake, equipment supply, and permits. We only build in places where we have long-term community support.”
The executive dismissed worries about the broad stock market selloff following the midterm elections earlier this week that saw a slew of anti-AI Democrats elected, saying: “We really don’t see ourselves changing our business model. It’s incredibly robust, incredibly resilient, and still seeing significant demand.”
Brookfield Asset Management’s revenue shot up to $2.1 billion in the third quarter, up by 72 percent from the same time last year. Net income grew to just under $3 billion in the third quarter and $5.4 billion over the past year, up from nearly $700 million and $2.5 billion, respectively, from the same periods last year.
Fee-related earnings recorded $864 million during the quarter and $3.3 billion in the last 12 months — up 15 and 18 percent, respectively, compared to the same periods the prior year. Fee-related earnings rose 15 percent to $864 million during the quarter.
The company deployed $18 billion in the third quarter, down from $21 billion the prior quarter, while monetizing or agreeing to sell $12 billion in investments, up from $11 billion in the previous quarter.
It completed the acquisition of Oaktree, buying the remaining 26 percent interest of the credit business for $3 billion. In July, Brookfield partnered with chip giant Nvidia and South Korean internet company Naver on a $9 billion investment in AI computing infrastructure.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
