Brookfield Asset Management expands insurer client base
Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management plans to expand its insurer client base via its $200bn (£159bn) credit arm.
Brookfield Reinsurance, which is a separate publicly traded entity within the same group, is soon to complete its acquisition of American Equity Investment Life Holding, which will double its insurance assets to about $100bn.
“What we’ve decided to do is bring all of our credit activities under one umbrella, allowing for increased focus and more growth,” Brookfield Asset Management chief executive Craig Noble told Bloomberg.
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“One of our growth areas is to manage larger portions of balance sheets for insurance companies and other institutions,” he said. This is something the firm has already been doing for Brookfield Reinsurance but now intends to expand for third-party insurance companies.
The unit will supply “insurance solutions” such as investment-grade debt, structured finance and asset-backed financing, according to Noble. However, private credit and direct lending remain the bulk of the business, contributing 80 per cent of fee-revenue last year.
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Brookfield expects its credit business to more than triple in size over the next five years, making it its fastest growing unit.
Credit – including the insurance platform – will play a key role in Brookfield’s goal to reach $1tn of fee-bearing assets by 2028, up from $457bn at the end of last year.
The credit unit oversees $200bn in total, including Brookfield’s infrastructure and real estate lending funds, as well as partnerships with Oaktree Capital Management, European credit manager LCM Partners, Primary Wave and 17Capital.
Brookfield is currently one of the largest alternative asset managers in the world, with more than $900bn of assets under management across renewable power and transition, infrastructure, private equity, real estate, and credit.
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