Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. has raised $12 billion for its largest ever private equity fund, boosting its financial firepower after a period of heavy spending.
The Canadian investment firm has committed $3.5 billion of its own money to the BCP VI vehicle, according to a statement on Tuesday, with the remainder coming from investors including pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and family offices.
Brookfield has been one of the world’s most active investment firms this year, even as many of its peers have remained on the sidelines in a quiet spell for mergers and acquisitions. It’s outspent a host of other big-name private equity firms on its way to multibillion-dollar deals for companies including US annuity provider American Equity Investment Life Holding Co. and Middle Eastern payments processor Network International Holdings Plc.
Toronto-based Brookfield, which has already spent about $4 billion from its new fund, sees more opportunity to do deals in sectors including technology and health care, according to Cyrus Madon, chief executive officer of its private equity group.
“Over the last three years, a lot of investments in technology and health care were made at high valuations and many of those companies are not doing as well now, compared to what investors had hoped,” Madon said in an interview. “We are now finding interesting opportunities in these sectors as valuations become more reasonable.”
Brookfield secured commitments for BCP VI in a tricky market for fundraising. Having enjoyed almost unfettered access to capital for the best part of a decade, private equity firms are now finding investors are pickier about where they allocate their money. Even established firms like EQT AB and Cinven have given themselves more time to raise new funds this year.
“In a challenging environment for fundraising, we are closing our largest-ever private equity fund,” Madon said. “Our aim for the private equity business is to grow it to the same scale as Brookfield’s other flagship businesses.”
Brookfield manages $850 billion across a range of strategies that also include renewables, infrastructure, real estate and credit.
“Our global deal pipeline remains robust during this current period of market dislocation, which is creating significant large-scale opportunities,” Anuj Ranjan, president of Brookfield’s private equity group, said in Tuesday’s statement.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.